Abstract
Modern societies rely on large-scale infrastructures, both physical and digital, to protect the public from harm. However, these systems often fail not because of a lack of technology, but due to weaknesses in governance. This thesis portfolio examines how protective infrastructures can be undermined by institutional failures through two distinct cases: flood mitigation systems in the Philippines and the United States’ Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Robocall Mitigation Database (RMD). Both cases represent efforts to reduce public risk, in the form of flood waters in one context and illegal robocalls in the other, yet both are hindered by gaps between formal compliance and actual effectiveness. Between 2015 and 2025, the Philippine government invested billions of pesos into flood-control infrastructure, yet audit reports revealed persistent issues such as incomplete projects, procurement irregularities, and misallocated funds. Similarly, analysis of the RMD identified approximately 3,000 potentially noncompliant voice service provider filings, highlighting inconsistencies and limited validation in the public sector’s regulatory data systems. These failures demonstrate that protective systems depend not only on technological implementation, but also on the integrity of the sociotechnical networks that frame them.
The STS research paper investigates how governance practices in Philippine flood mitigation have produced and redistributed environmental risk, particularly for vulnerable communities. Framed through theories of political ecology and Actor–Network Theory, the research argues that flood-control infrastructure failures are not merely technical shortcomings, but the result of misaligned incentives among government agencies, contractors, public perceptions, and oversight amongst institutions. Drawing on evidence from government reports provided primarily by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), Commission on Audit (COA) findings, procurement records and budget allocations, and an examination of urban development patterns, the study identifies recurring patterns of incomplete or substandard infrastructure, repeated funding for similar projects to contractors, and discrepancies between reported and actual outcomes. These failures disproportionately impact low-income and informal-settlement communities, who remain most exposed to flooding despite large-scale investments. The paper concludes that corruption and weak accountability mechanisms transform infrastructure intended for protection into systems that unevenly distribute risk, reinforcing existing social inequalities rather than alleviating them.
The technical component of this portfolio presents the design and implementation of a full-stack administrative application developed during an internship with the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau. The project aimed to improve regulatory oversight of the Robocall Mitigation Database by addressing challenges in data accessibility and application validation within the public sector. The system was built using a function-based backend and a role-restricted frontend dashboard, enabling analysts to query, filter, and classify filings using predefined compliance heuristics. Methods included structuring database queries, designing an interactive user interface, and implementing automated categorization of filings based on aforementioned compliance heuristics. The results demonstrated that the tool could effectively surface inconsistencies and patterns of potential noncompliance, identifying approximately 3,000 suspect filings within the database. This project improved the efficiency of reporting and auditing compliance for FCC personnel, supporting more efficient investigative workflows, and highlighting the limitations of the existing regulatory processes. The project concludes that enhancing data infrastructure and analytical tools can significantly strengthen enforcement capabilities within the public sector, though future improvements—such as machine learning-based risk scoring and real-time data integration—could further increase effectiveness.
Together, these projects demonstrate that the effectiveness of protective systems—whether physical infrastructure or digital regulatory platforms—depends on the strength of the governance structures that sustain them. Both cases reveal a pattern of performative compliance, in which systems appear functional on paper but fail in practice due to inadequate oversight and data reliability. By combining technical intervention with sociotechnical analysis, this portfolio highlights the importance of integrating robust data systems with accountable governance to ensure that infrastructures of protection achieve their intended outcomes.
