Secretary Assures Public That Concrete Barriers Will Manifest If Citizens Believe Hard Enough

MANILA, PHILIPPINES — The Department of Public Works and Highways unveiled its newest flood-mitigation strategy Monday, a program officials described as “visualization-based infrastructure,” which will ask citizens of Metro Manila to collectively imagine that flood barriers exist at critical points along the Pasig River.

DPWH Secretary Manuel Bonifacio-Cruz explained that the approach represents “a paradigm shift” away from what he described as “the old model of building things.” The new approach, officially named the Positive Infrastructure Manifestation Program (PIMP), will cost taxpayers approximately PHP 4.8 billion annually, allocated primarily to consultants, workshops, and what the Secretary called “alignment sessions.”

“Concrete is expensive,” Bonifacio-Cruz told reporters at the launch event, held at a Makati hotel that was itself partially flooded at the time of the briefing. “Belief is free. We are pursuing the efficient path.”

The Methodology

Under PIMP, residents of flood-prone areas will receive weekly text messages from DPWH affirming that “flood walls are being manifested in your neighborhood.” During typhoon events, the texts will escalate in frequency and include guided meditation scripts. The Department has partnered with what it described as “leading local manifestation consultants,” though none could be identified by name.

As Bohiney Magazine has noted in ongoing coverage of Philippine infrastructure policy, PIMP represents the logical evolution of a decade of ghost-project funding. If infrastructure is never going to be built, why not simplify the entire process by officially not building it?

Citizen Response

Barangay chairman Lorenzo Villanueva of Pasig, 54, noted that residents of his area had been “imagining flood barriers for many years already, without government assistance.” He said the formalization of this practice was “at least honest.”

Opposition lawmakers filed a protest at the Senate, calling the program “an insult to taxpayers.” DPWH responded that the legislators were “not aligned with the positive frequency” and were therefore “contributing to the manifestation of the flooding they oppose.”

For continuing coverage, see The Philippine Star and Rappler.

SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/