More than a decade has passed since Typhoon Yolanda, internationally known as Haiyan, but the Philippines still faces an unrelenting cycle of intensifying storms. Increasingly, citizens are pushing for the government to take a stronger lead and ensure that polluters are accountable for any climate inaction.
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“The recent typhoons that devastated the Philippines in the past few weeks are proof that we are vulnerable in this climate crisis,” said Dario Magason, council member of Burubligay han Gudti nga Mangirisda ha Sinirangan Bisayas (BUGSAY), a coalition of fisherfolks in Leyte. “We have already witnessed this 11 years ago when Yolanda struck our province, but we have yet to fully heed its lessons.”
In early November of 2013, Typhoon Yolanda destroyed some 1.1 million homes, displaced at least 4.1 million people and left a death toll of more than 6,300 in its wake. The provinces of Leyte and Samar along the Philippines’ eastern coast bore the worst of the super typhoon.
“Year by year, the circumstances of us fisherfolk continue to be dire,” said Magason. “We rely on fishing for our life and livelihoods. Yet it has increasingly become more dangerous to sail out to sea due to stronger and more frequent typhoons.”
“During extended dry spells, we can barely reap enough catch to sustain our families,” he added.
A recent analysis by the World Weather Attribution agency found that record sea surface temperatures brought on by global warming have increased the likelihood of super typhoon formation in the Pacific Ocean basin by up to 30 per cent and made tropical cyclones 7 per cent more intense when it comes to maximum wind speed.
The series of tropical cyclones has wrought upwards of P7 billion (US$119 million) in livelihood losses to the agriculture and fishing sectors in the Philippines this November alone.
“Environmentally destructive activities, including [the production of] fossil fuels, still pollute our oceans, contributing to intensifying climate disasters. We do not want another Yolanda – we must act now to protect our communities and oceans from further destruction,” Magason said.
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Each nation must take steps in ensuring the biggest polluters pay. Either they act to stop fossil fuel companies from destroying the climate now, or have the world resign to a near future where life-and-death climate impacts become the new normal.
Naderev Saño, executive director, Greenpeace Southeast Asia
‘Trapped in a cycle’
The Philippine archipelago has faced a barrage of six consecutive severe tropical storms since Typhoon Kristine (internationally known as Trami) made landfall in Northern Luzon in late October. The last in the string of cyclones – Super Typhoon Pepito (internationally known as Man-yi) – exited the Philippines on 18 November.
The spate of typhoons impacted over 13 million Filipinos across 17 of the country’s island regions, with some communities hit by cyclone landfall for at least three consecutive times in the span of three weeks.
Local communities were commemorating the 11th anniversary of Typhoon Yolanda as Typhoon Marce (internationally known as Yinxing) battered the country’s Northern Ilocos region.
The map shows the overlapping paths of the six consecutive tropical cyclones that battered the Philippines’ Northern Luzon Island in the span of a few weeks in late October and November. Image: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council reported that the storms have left some 255,466 homes severely damaged. As of end of November, some 79,123 people still live in evacuation centres and about 45,000 reside in precarious informal settlements or damaged homes, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA).
The Department of Public Works and Highways estimates that damage to infrastructure has reached P10.6 billion (US$179 million) in the last month alone.
“The past month in the Philippines has felt like a relentless, terrifying ordeal – with each storm hitting harder than the last,” said country director Reiza Dejito of humanitarian organisation CARE Philippines. “As one typhoon passes, another wave of destruction hits. [Filipinos] are trapped in a cycle of disaster and fragile recovery.”
“This isn’t just a spell of bad weather, it’s climate injustice at its worst.”
At least 77 per cent of Filipinos reported financial and material losses due to natural disasters in 2024 – with nearly a quarter claiming they have yet to fully recover from these damages.
Reparation from climate polluters
During a recent protest led by survivors of Typhoon Yolanda outside the Securities and Exchange Commission headquarters in Makati, activists called on the regulatory body to implement mandatory sustainability reporting and climate-related financial disclosures for publicly listed Philippine companies.
Greenpeace Southeast Asia executive director Naderev Saño noted that the series of typhoons is a direct consequence of decades of inaction by large extractive fossil fuel firms and the governments supporting them.
“Each nation must take steps in ensuring the biggest polluters pay,” Saño said. “Either they act to stop fossil fuel companies from destroying the climate now, or have the world resign to a near future where life-and-death climate impacts become the new normal.”
Greenpeace Philippines flags that current sustainability reporting and climate disclosure guidelines follow a “comply or explain” framework which weakens accountability for corporate greenhouse gas emissions. Companies that fail to comply or meet disclosure requirements may justify their non-compliance by citing a lack of available data, the organisation said.
“The Philippine government must lead urgent calls for accountability and reparations from climate polluters. What is happening to storm-battered communities is unjust. It is high time for those most responsible to pay up for escalating loss and damage,” added Greenpeace campaigner Khevin Yu.
Civic groups are calling on the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr to prioritise the passage of House Bill 9609, or the Climate Accountability (CLIMA) Bill, a legislation that seeks to institutionalise a loss and damage facility that could empower communities to seek climate justice and access funds for the environmental and societal harms they suffer due to extreme weather and natural disasters.
“CLIMA was conceived as a way to gather resources to protect our citizens,” said Congresswoman Anna Victoria Veloso-Tuazon, representative of the Third District of Leyte and one of the act’s co-authors. “We hope to do this through the setting up of a resource fund that will help restore and help compensate [those affected by climate-related disasters].”
Among the proposed measures of the CLIMA Bill is the institutionalisation of a Climate Change Reparation Fund which allows victims and survivors of climate change to seek redress or compensation for the loss and damage they may have sustained from extreme weather events.
“There are provisions in the bill for climate justice,” Veloso-Tuazon added. “There is accountability in the sense [that] we can ask businesses to report and show how they conduct due diligence to make sure they don’t add to global warming, [as well as report] how they reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.”
The Philippines’ Commission on Human Rights has expressed support for the proposed legislation noting that it paves the way for the establishment of mechanisms for reparations and could potentially hold corporations accountable for climate responsibilities.
Nearly half of Filipinos expect climate change to have a significant impact on their household and livelihood in the next five years, according to a recent nationwide survey by the Harvard Humanitarian Insititute (HHI) Programme on Resilient Communities.
The same survey also showed that only one in five Filipinos is satisfied with the Philippine government’s efforts to address climate change.
“Our government offers no accountability and no urgency in stopping climate change,” said Krishna Ariola, convenor of the civic group Youth for Climate Hope.
“We demand leadership that delivers an urgent energy transition, real disaster plans, and accountability. Resilience is not a solution – it’s a burden we should not be forced to bear,” she concluded.
