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Crissa Tolentino has grown resigned to flooding as a constant part of existence.

The teacher takes a paddle boat through inundated streets on a regular basis. It's the sole method to travel from her home in the residential area to the center of Apalit near the nation’s capital.

Her transportation transports her to work, and to the clinic where she is being treated for cancer. She notes she only sees dry streets for just a short time each year.

But this year she is extremely upset.

An extreme rainy season has disrupted daily life like never before in the Philippines, and ignited frustration and claims about misconduct in flood control projects.

Downpours have stranded countless people while traveling, caused vehicles to drift in streets that have transformed into rivers and caused outbreaks of a bacterial infection, an illness affecting the liver that propagates through the excrement of pests.

"I feel let down," she says. "I put in effort, I am frugal and taxes are withheld from my salary each pay period. I find out that billions in public funds are taken advantage of by dishonest officials."

It's a charge that is resonating across the Philippines, where citizens are questioning why the authorities cannot control the high water with the large sums of currency it allocates to public works like roads, overpasses and levees.

Frustration is palpable on online platforms, social networks and X, where they are venting toward officials and business magnates who they allege win contracts for fictitious projects that fail to appear.

The leader Ferdinand Marcos Jr publicly recognized this as a ongoing issue on a trip to review a barrier that he then found did not exist. The minister later said graft had taken a significant portion of taxpayer resources earmarked for flood control.

The legislative leader, who has been linked, has stepped down, although he denies any impropriety. Meanwhile the head of the upper house has been removed after it was found that a business who won a public contract was revealed to have contributed money to his 2022 campaign, which is illegal.

Outraged Filipinos have been creating AI videos of officials as symbols of greed, a symbol of greed. Plenty of the anger is also focused on children of privilege, the offspring of affluent politicians or contractors, whose lavish lives are featured across social media.

Looking through her feeds, the teacher says she relates most to a rap song from years back which has become the theme to the public fury.

The track, by Filipino musician Gloc-9, challenges why leaders are unable to connect with everyday citizens. The song's title means chair in Tagalog, and it captures the resentment at those with elected roles who seem distant from the lives of regular Filipinos.

"It is the truth," the resident says. "It explains everything."

An extensive graft-focused protest is already scheduled for this weekend—the anniversary of the day in the past when the former president Ferdinand Marcos imposed emergency rule.

His son, who is now leading the country—the younger Marcos—is acutely mindful of how far civil frustration can go. It was, anti-corruption protests that pushed his father from power in that year, ending a decades-long dictatorship that embezzled billions from the state.

Lately, activism forced governmental adjustments in Indonesia and, just last week, brought down the government in Nepal. And so on Monday, as Filipinos called for an explanation, the leader announced an probe that would "reveal the fraudsters and find out how much they stole."

"Were I not in office, I might be joining the protests with them," he told reporters.

"Make it clear how much they wronged you, how they took from you. Let them know, shout at them, rally—just make it peaceful."

He repeated prior remarks when he promised improved conditions while giving the impression of pin the responsibility elsewhere. He faulted unethical leaders and building companies for the significant shortage of infrastructure: "You should be ashamed," he said.

Later in a media briefing he said he had uncovered a "concerning" fact: the infrastructure agency had contracted only few contractors to build flood control projects worth 545bn pesos ($a huge amount).

The firms are now under review and the central bank has blocked their accounts, but the primary scrutiny has gone to one family-owned business. The proprietors are business owners, who were raised in poor families but are now a prosperous, prominent couple active on social media. Before the floods controversy, she was best known for her failed attempt to become public official of a urban area.

In the past year the couple were featured on popular YouTube channels, where they shared their upward mobility story. One interviewer described it as "inspiring". But following the catastrophic inundation, those videos have gained renewed attention as targets of frustration.

The footage reveals the couple flaunting their multiple luxury cars, including a Mercedes Benz Maybach, a Lincoln Navigator and a expensive model. They purchased some models in different shades, black and white.

The backlash was immediate. The couple were ordered by the Senate and the House of Representatives for hearings, and authorities barred their firm, while protesters smeared the gates to their office with dirt and spray-painted the word "criminal".

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