Text, photos and video by Vincent Go, VERA Files
AFTER being pounded by intense rain for the past several days, the southwest monsoon eased up slightly Wednesday morning to reveal the garbage hiding in Metro Manila's underbelly.
All sorts of debris, tons of garbage and mud filled homes and establishments. Trailer trucks, stranded and submerged, leaked fuel into the already polluted floodwaters.
Some residents started to pick up the pieces, cleaning what was left of their homes and trying to salvage whatever they could, only to have the cycle start over again as the intense downpour returned late in the afternoon, quickly raising the water level to waist high in a couple of hours.
The corner of G. Araneta and E. Rodrigues in Tatalon, Quezon City is notorious for flash floods during heavy downpours, and residents in the area are already used to flooding. But not to the likes of "Ondoy" and the recent deluge caused by the monsoon, they said.
The riverbanks of the polluted San Juan River, which runs through the area, also serves as residence to many informal settlers who are at risk of losing their properties or even their lives in the rampaging water during the monsoon season. This is also one major factor contributing to the deposits of silt and pollution that clogs the river, which serves as a basin for several creeks up north and connects them to the Pasig River.
The weather bureau PAGASA forecasts that the weather will improve by Friday.
(VERA Files is put out by veteran journalists taking a deeper look at current issues. Vera is Latin for "true.")