ALYA CUT out the "hello" on the phone and instead sobbed straight into my ear. I could hear more sobbing than words. I finally did make out what she was trying to say:

Our friend Joseph, who lives in San Juan, had to swim out of his house when the water rose up to its second story. Seeing the water rising to his knees, he decided to swim out with his loved one and only housemate?Princess, a dachshund.

They had been swimming away from his house, he doing the backstroke so Princess could perch on his chest, when the current grew stronger. He flipped to swim free style, with Princess still swimming alongside him, but they were being sucked towards the river. Joseph was able to grip a steel pole.

Glancing beside him, he saw Princess already way beyond his reach and being spun into the current towards the river.

That was what Alya was sobbing about?Princess? death and Joseph?s near-death.

Turned out, that tragedy?no matter that we love Joseph and Princess?was not, by any measure, unique last weekend. There were far, far worse.

Metro Manila and the outlying provinces were one big tragedy. A tragedy waiting to happen.

While ?Ondoy? dumped the highest rainfall in decades, still, what happened was a man-made disaster.

The past decades we?ve been building the most beautiful malls, gated subdivisions and high-rises?amid the dirtiest esteros and unkempt neighborhoods. In fact, Metro Manila is at its filthiest.

Cities have been overrun with squatters, many of these settlements in esteros?coddled by city mayors who could use their vote.

The mountains, from the north to the south, have been shaved of trees. Environment advocates have to fight tooth and nail to protect the trees, even right in the urban landscape, like Katipunan Ave. (It is ironic coincidence ?Ondoy? struck as environment and waste recycling activist Odette Alcantara was being laid to rest.)

And the rivers?the Pasig River stinks. Peer down on Manila Bay and you see plastic bags, food wrappers and all kinds of debris floating.

When disaster strikes, as it did this week, you could count the government?s rubber boats with your 10 fingers. People using toy floaters to save people?this tragic sight is in a country where billions of pesos go into the pork barrel of politicians and government officials, and that?s not even counting what?s in the coffers of local officials.

Clearly, the environment and infrastructure have been suffering from sheer neglect.

Indeed, the unimpeded degradation of the environment is matched only by unconscionable corruption and greed of government. It?s bad governance that?s been our real disaster.

The nouveau riche sprucing up the house with opulent furniture and decor, but never bothering to clean up the house and unclog the toilet?that?s our ?disaster lifestyle.?