By Joel Guinto

Copyright bbc

Life under the difficulties caused by extreme weather and poor urban planning continues meanwhile.

Rhens Rafael Galang has even made a thriving business out of it. He sells overalls with rain boots sewed in to them on TikTok. His regular job is as a researcher in the government.

“I’m angry and dismayed because money allocated for flood control projects in our province went to waste, to people who used it for their personal gain,” he says.

The 28-year-old, who lives in Calumpit town in one of the worst-hit provinces, always leaves the house in shorts. He then walks through flooded streets before changing into another set of clothes on dry land. Videos of his challenges have gone viral. One, which shows him wading deeper as he walked down an inundated street, got three million views.

He is at the mercy of such routines until his area gets proper storm drains and levees. “But I am hopeful that, in time, a long-term flood control project will be built in our area, that funds will be used honestly,” he says.

Filipinos are no strangers to allegations of corruption – they’ve ousted two presidents over it.

More than a decade ago – in 2013 – lawmakers were accused of pocketing billions from their discretionary budgets for ghost projects.

Congresswoman Leila de Lima, then the secretary of justice, investigated the allegations. Now, as she finds herself confronting another huge corruption scandal, she is worried the scale has magnified, from tens of billions to hundreds of billions, she told the podcast Facts First recently.

“I don’t know how to feel any more. This is such a mess.”