The tipping point

VIRTUAL REALITY

- TONY LOPEZ

The P1-trillion flood control scam has reached a level of scale and shame enough to trigger a mass agitation similar to what is happening in Indonesia. The Indonesian violence was sparked on Aug. 25 by congressmen wanting a housing allowance of $3,000 a month, or $100 a day. Thousands spilled into the streets, including in the capital Jakarta, to protest congressional perks amid severe austerity measures that included cuts on education, health and public works; and the dominance of so-called "corrupt elites" in the government whose policies have tended to benefit more the conglomerates and the military than ordinary Indonesians.

"Deep-rooted resentment over a yawning wealth gap set off a wave of anti-government protests that have turned violent," reported the New York Times Sept. 2, 2025. At least eight have died and hundreds injured as protesters burned a government building to the ground, attacked and looted the house of the finance minister, set on fire scores of vehicles. The sprawling capital Jakarta, says the NYT, "is sinking into the Java Sea, its groundwater sucked dry and rivers overrun by millions of its residents."

The Times sounds like it is describing Manila, the capital, and surrounding provinces which are sinking in floods amid unusually heavy rains. The floods brought into stark relief the uselessness of some 9,900 flood control projects launched by the government in the past three years, funded with P1 trillion.

The P1 trillion was stolen, in a pattern of increasingly rising plunder alongside the increasingly rising floodwaters.