Several groups and netizens on Wednesday, Nov. 26, slammed the recent floods that hit Bacolod City and are calling for accountability.
Tropical Depression “Verbena” caused 5,318 families, or 15,896 persons, to evacuate in Bacolod City, the Department of Social Services and Development reported on Wednesday, Nov. 26.
“Stop the theatrics, we want real accountability. Where did the P4 billion flood control projects in Bacolod City go?” Bayan Negros said in a statement from its spokesman Noli Rosales on Wednesday.
Bayan Negros said it strongly condemns the latest wave of catastrophic flooding in Bacolod City as Tropical Depression Verbena “exposed the full-scale collapse of the government’s flood control programs”.
“This humanitarian crisis comes despite P4.283 billion in flood-control projects poured into Bacolod City alone since 2017, with annual allocations ballooning from P118.93 million in 2017 to over P1.028 billion in 2023. All that money, yet Bacolod still sank”, it said.
“The numbers reveal what the people already know: the ‘projects’ were never meant to protect us, only to enrich those in power”, Bayan Negros said.
And now as if to mock the survivors, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is set to arrive in Bacolod next week for the launch of Oplan Kontra Baha, a program marketed as a solution.
“The narrative that floods happen simply because ‘garbage blocks the waterways’ is a dangerous and dishonest lie — one used to blame urban poor communities while hiding the real culprit: massive, top-down corruption, “ Bayan said .
“You do not lose P4.283 billion to a few sacks of basura. You lose it to bureaucrat capitalism, to substandard, ghost, or deliberately flawed projects run by politicians who treat public funds as private capital. It also stems the conscious refusal of the state to build genuine climate resilience,” it added.
“As Marcos Jr. prepares to set foot in Negros, he must confront what the people already know: corruption killed our communities long before the floodwaters rose,” Bayan Negros said..
C3 FILING COMPLAINT
The Council of Concerned Citizens (C3), represented by lawyer Cesar Belario Jr., in a Facebook post, said “an initial complaint will be filed this week before the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, the Independent Commission on Infrastructure (ICI), and the Office of the DPWH Secretary”.
It said the flooding Bacolod suffered is a painful reminder of why this must be done.
“These are not just rains—they are the consequences of years of irregularities in our flood-control projects. We take this step not for politics, but for truth, accountability, and the safety of every Bacolodnon.,” C3 Bacolod said.
“Bacolod deserves better and together, we will fight for it,” C3 added.
WORST FLOOD
“The worst flood in the history of Bacolod City should be a wake-up call for us to demand for a public explanation and file charges against those who are responsible”, labor advocate Wennie Sancho said in a Facebook post.
”This kind of moral bankruptcy must end. This is about dignity, justice and the future we want to leave behind,” he added.
During Tropical Depression Verbena, 33 Bacolod barangays were hit by flash floods that rose rapidly in hours after 70mm of rain – a week’s worth – washed over the city, a Bacolod City Communications Office statement said.
City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Officer III Eunice Ciocon said the flooding stemmed from accumulated water draining from upper municipalities Murcia and Don Salvador Benedicto, exacerbated by high tide starting at 5 a.m. in low-lying Bacolod.*