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Crissa Tolentino has long been accustomed to floods as a constant part of existence.

This teacher takes a small vessel through flooded streets almost daily. It's the only way to commute from where she lives in the residential area to the center of a low-lying town near Manila.

The boat brings her to school, and to the clinic where she is undergoing therapy for cancer. She notes she encounters dry streets for a brief period in the year.

However currently she is deeply frustrated.

An unusually fierce weather pattern has derailed daily life more than ever in this island country, and ignited anger and allegations about graft in flood control projects.

The rains have trapped countless people while traveling, submerged automobiles in roads that have become rivers and led to outbreaks of leptospirosis, a liver ailment that propagates through the waste of rodents.

"It’s a betrayal," she says. "I labor diligently, I am frugal and deductions are taken from my salary every month. Then I learn that billions in government money are used personally by corrupt politicians."

Such claims that is resonating throughout the country, where citizens are questioning why the government cannot manage the inundation with the significant funding of public money it invests in infrastructure like streets, viaducts and flood barriers.

Their anger is palpable on social media, Facebook and Twitter, where they are expressing about officials and business magnates who they allege win contracts for ghost projects that fail to appear.

Head of state Ferdinand Bongbong Marcos publicly recognized this as a persistent problem on a trip to inspect a flood control dam that he then discovered did not exist. A top official later said fraud had taken a significant portion of government money allotted for water management.

The House Speaker, who has been associated, has left office, although he rejects any misconduct. And the leader of the legislative body has been ousted after it was revealed that a business who won a government bid was discovered to have given money to his 2022 campaign, which is prohibited.

Angry Filipinos have been creating AI videos of lawmakers as symbols of greed, a metaphor of self-interest. Plenty of the anger is also focused on children of privilege, the descendants of wealthy politicians or contractors, whose opulent lives are prominent on social media.

Scrolling through her feeds, she says she identifies with a piece of music from 2009 which has become the soundtrack to the collective outrage.

Upuan, by recording artist Gloc-9, challenges why leaders are unable to empathise with ordinary people. The title means chair in the local language, and it captures the resentment at those with parliamentary seats who seem distant from the lives of ordinary Filipinos.

"That song is exactly what we face," the resident says. "There are no better words."

An extensive integrity protest is already set for a September date—the mark of the day in 1972 when the former president Ferdinand Marcos imposed authoritarian control.

Ferdinand Marcos Jr, who is now leading the country—Ferdinand Marcos Jr—is acutely mindful of how far popular outrage can go. In fact, public demonstrations that drove his father from power in that year, ending a decades-long dictatorship that misappropriated billions from the state.

Lately, anti-corruption protests forced governmental adjustments in Indonesia and, only days ago, toppled the government in Nepal. Accordingly on Monday, as Filipinos demanded an explanation, he announced an probe that would "expose the swindlers and find out how much they stole."

"Without this role, I might be demonstrating with them," he told reporters.

"Ensure they understand how much they wronged you, how they took from you. Tell them, make your voice heard, rally—just make it peaceful."

It echoed earlier comments when he promised relief from the floods while appearing to pin the blame elsewhere. He faulted corrupt politicians and constructions firms for the severe lack of infrastructure: "This is disgraceful," he said.

Subsequently in a press conference he said he had uncovered a "disturbing" fact: the government department had engaged only a small number of companies to build water management initiatives worth 545bn pesos ($9bn).

Each of these firms are now under review and the central bank has restricted their accounts, but the most attention has gone to a single firm. It is owned by a couple, who were raised in poor families but are now a affluent, successful couple visible on social media. Prior to the scandal, Ms Discaya was best known for her unsuccessful bid to become mayor of her hometown.

Late last year the couple were profiled on well-known platforms, where they shared their upward mobility story. One interviewer described it as "motivating". But following the disastrous flooding, those videos have resurfaced as targets of frustration.

The footage reveals the couple flaunting their numerous luxury cars, including a premium automobile, a Lincoln Navigator and a sports utility vehicle. They bought some models in contrasting hues, black and white.

The backlash was swift. The couple were called by the legislative bodies for hearings, and authorities barred their firm, while activists smeared the gates to their office with mud and marked the word "thief".

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