Just days after severe tropical depression Tino (known internationally as Kalmaegi) tore through the Philippines’ Visayas region – killing hundreds and inundating Cebu with floodwaters – super typhoon Uwan (international name Fung-wong) made landfall in northeast Luzon, forcing over one million Filipinos to flee their homes.
The two cyclones hit exactly 12 years to the day since super typhoon Yolanda (international name Haiyan) – the country’s deadliest ever storm – ravaged the Visayas in November 2013. The storms follow last year’s onslaught of six consecutive typhoons from late October to November.
The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) reported that Kalmaegi left at least 224 people dead, another 100 missing and displaced at least 379,484 people from their homes across eight regions in Luzon and the Visayas. Less than a week later, Fung-wong intensified into a super typhoon before battering northern provinces with torrential rains and violent winds, triggering the country’s highest wind signals and severe coastal warnings.
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COP30 is a chance for Filipinos to obtain justice, and the window is closing fast. We deserve a future where safety and security is a way of life – not one where a wave of casualties and destruction is just another Monday morning.
Virginia Benosa-Llorin, campaigner, Greenpeace Philippines
Across Cebu and other parts of Central Visayas, entire communities were submerged in chest-deep water despite billions of pesos allocated for flood control. At least 150 were recorded dead in the province alone.
“Cebu received P26.7 billion (US$452 million) in flood-control funding within the past three years. Yet, when the storm came, many communities remained unprotected, vulnerable, and abandoned in the face of disaster,” said the Kabataang Sandigan ng mga Mag-aaral tungo sa Kinabukasan (KASAMA-Ka) youth group in a statement. “Resilience should never be used to mask failure, neglect, or possible misuse of public funds.”
In September, Greenpeace warned that as much as P1.089 trillion (US$19.1 billion) in government climate funds may have been lost to corruption and substandard flood control projects since 2023 – a misuse of resources critics say has left communities exposed to worsening climate disasters.
In Cebu City, flooding in the Guadalupe area has been linked to Monterrazas de Cebu – a mountainside development by celebrity architect Slater Young adjacent to the community. A 2023 Eco-Business report warned that the 200-hectare residential project – despite being marketed as sustainable – could heighten the risk of landslides and flooding, according to urban planners. Both the Cebu City government and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources have since opened separate investigations into the Monterrazas de Cebu project
In Iloilo City, which was also in the path of typhoon Kalmaegi, widespread flooding was largely prevented by a major flood control project completed in 2011 in cooperation with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). A 2024 Eco-Business multimedia report documented the natural growth of a mangrove forest at the mouth of the floodway, underscoring its potential as a carbon sink and natural buffer against storm surges.
Oxfam Pilipinas reports that super typhoon Fung-Wong’s devastation displaced 1.4 million people from their homes. Image: Jilson Tiu / Greenpeace
‘A wave of casualties and destruction’
As the world convenes at the COP30 climate summit in Belém, Brazil this week, environmental groups have seized on the tragedy to demand accountability from both the government and the world’s biggest polluters.
“COP30 is a chance for Filipinos to obtain justice, and the window is closing fast,” said Virginia Benosa-Llorin, campaigner for Greenpeace Philippines. “We deserve a future where safety and security is a way of life – not one where a wave of casualties and destruction is just another Monday morning.”
Llorin warned that without decisive action to make fossil fuel companies pay for the climate damages they helped cause, more storms like Kalmaegi and Fung-wong will follow. “The science is clear: fossil fuel companies are raking in billions while supercharging storms that dig Filipinos into their graves.”
Greenpeace reiterated its call for rich nations to fill the Loss and Damage Fund – launched under the United Nations climate process in Egypt during COP27 – with grant-based finance, and for the Philippine government to pass the long-pending Climate Accountability, or CLIMA Bill to “make the biggest polluters pay.”
The proposed CLIMA Act seeks to establish a legal framework in the Philippines for holding corporations, including fossil fuel companies, accountable for climate-related losses, damages, and human rights harms.
‘Where’s justice?’
For survivors in Eastern Visayas, memories of super typhoon Haiyan’s devastation in 2013 remain raw. “Twelve years have passed, but nothing has changed. We were not prepared then, and we are still not prepared now,” said Leyte-based Farah Gamalo of the Freedom from Debt Coalition–Eastern Visayas.
“At least 6,300 died because of [Haiyan]. More than a hundred because of [Kalmaegi]. Where is the justice for the victims?” she continued in Tagalog.
Gamalo called for an end to coal dependence and destructive mining, which she said exacerbate both climate impacts and public health risks.
Aerial view reveals widespread crop devastation from super typhoon Fung-Wong’s floods in Libon, Albay, in eastern Luzon’s Bicol region. Image: Mark Alvic Esplana / Greenpeace
Floods of corruption and reclamation
The farmers’ group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) said the devastation across Cebu and neighbouring islands was worsened by years of unregulated quarrying and reclamation.
“The destruction that we see in Cebu is not only because of the typhoon,” said KMP chairperson Danilo Ramos in a statement.
“When mountains and coastlines are turned into businesses and mangrove forests are cleared for reclamation, the very communities they are meant to protect are also being destroyed,” he added in Tagalog.
Cebu and Lapu-Lapu cities host at least a dozen reclamation projects covering over 1,000 hectares – many of them replacing mangrove belts that once shielded coasts from storm surges. “Mangroves and shorelines are natural defences against strong waves and storms,” said KMP secretary general Ronnie Manalo in Tagalog. “Now, concrete and infrastructure block the flow of water. When a typhoon hits, the damage goes straight to the communities.”
The group urged the administration of Ferdinand Marcos, Jr to impose a moratorium on reclamation and quarrying in high-risk coastal zones and hold large developers accountable for the destruction of natural barriers.
‘Polluters must pay’
Over the weekend, President Marcos declared the start of a one-year state of national calamity following the destruction caused by typhoon Kalmaegin and super typhoon Fung-Wong, under the recommendation of the NDRRMC.
The one-year state of national calamity will accelerate relief, recovery and rehabilitation efforts and grant national and local governments the use of calamity and quick response funds, including for international humanitarian assistance.
Lamenting that the Filipino people are “tired of losing”, Aksyon Klima Pilipinas denounced the declaration of a year-long state of national calamity as “another reflection of the failure of the [Marcos] administration to sufficiently address the root causes of the climate vulnerabilities” that magnify losses every time a storm hits.
“While millions of Filipinos are forced to once more leave their homes, lose their livelihoods, or endure the losses of loved ones, the trillions of pesos lost to flood control anomalies and other acts of corruption remain lost,” the group said. “Polluters must pay. The corrupt must be punished. There is no climate justice without good governance.”
A man walks back into his still partially submerged home after super typhoon Uwan (international name Fung-Wong) ravaged the Philippines’ Northern Luzon region. Image: Jilson Tiu / Greenpeace
‘The real test is in implementation’
In the midst of widespread grief, the recent passage of the Imminent Disaster Bill has offered a glimmer of hope. The law creates a national framework for “anticipatory action” – enabling government agencies to pre-position supplies, evacuate communities, and release aid before disasters strike.
“This is a turning point for the Philippines: from reacting after disaster to protecting people before it strikes,” said Reiza Dejito, country director of the humanitarian organisation CARE Philippines. “The real test is in implementation.”
Civil society groups hailed the law as a milestone in centering community voices in disaster planning. “For the longest time, our communities have been on the frontlines of climate change, waiting for the next storm to take everything from them,” said Esteban Masagca of the People’s Disaster Risk Reduction Network. “This law gives us hope and a fighting chance.”
