Recent disasters and climate-related issues have highlighted the vulnerabilities facing the Philippines, a country blessed with rich biodiversity but threatened by rapid environmental degradation. The situation is made worse by systemic corruption, which undermines efforts to build climate resilience. How should stakeholders resolve this conundrum?
In mid-April, haze shrouded the sky in northern Metro Manila after a fire broke out at a closed landfill. on a recovered land in Manila Bay. This disaster reflects the country’s serious environmental crisis. A Manila Bay reclamation project has turned out to be a waste disposal site that has become a danger to marine habitats. This is not an isolated case as the reclamation plan covers a large part of the coasts of Metro Manila and neighboring provinces. Megaprojects ranging from airports to casino centers have been rolled out amid outcry over their potentially harmful impact on the environment.
Climate change could flood low-lying areas of the country’s largest urban center, and land reclamation could make the flooding problem worse. In 2023, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr suspended the reclamation of Manila Bay after various sectors expressed serious concerns about it. Reclamation has since resumed, but the government has yet to release its study into whether the project will have a negative impact on the environment.
But reclamation is not just the cause of recurring deadly floods across the country. Extreme weather disruptions have severely eroded local capacity, and the situation is exacerbated by large-scale logging, mining, quarrying and dredging operations. Situated in the Pacific Ring of Fire, the Philippines is prone to disasters, but that has not stopped authorities from expanding permits for the extractive industry.
The massive anti-corruption movement that emerged last year was sparked by public outrage over substandard, flawed, or even nonexistent flood control projects. Before the scandal, corrupt politicians had supported numerous flood control projects, intended to protect communities from the harmful effects of storm surges and flooding resulting from destructive typhoons. They usurped the language of climate change to rally public support for infrastructure projects worth billions of pesos, but these were later revealed to be mere cover for the systematic theft of public funds.
Protests against corruption have become less frequent this year, but demand for accountability remains strong, as does public skepticism of projects implemented in communities and proposed by local politicians. This is unfortunate since climate-related interventions are necessarily planned and carried out at the local level. This could undermine support for innovative approaches that seek to prioritize early action and funding to benefit climate first responders and frontline actors.
For example, Senator Loren Legards’ “conditional early action” proposal, which aims to disburse funds based on forecasts instead of waiting for a post-calamity assessment to allow communities to stock up and prepare for evacuation, would certainly face questions about the dangers of corruption and cronyism. The concept of “advance climate finance” could empower communities by ensuring resources are prepositioned to respond to disasters, but it could also be distorted by a bureaucracy that has recently gained notoriety for allowing corrupt politicians to acquire ill-gotten wealth through bribes and anomalous budget insertions.
In other words, the search for bold climate solutions cannot be separated from the clamor to end impunity by holding corrupt officials and their private sector cronies accountable. This is crucial for restoring the credibility of governance and mobilizing political support for sustainable community actions. It highlights that adaptation and mitigation measures are directly linked to the principle of promoting transparency and accountability at all levels of governance.
The recent landfill disaster that caused an air pollution crisis in Metro Manila could be a foretaste of the calamities that could wreak even greater havoc this year. A severe drought is expected to affect rural areas over the next two to three months. The start of the typhoon season could further reveal the extent of the controversy over flood control. Now is the best time to step up the fight against corruption while initiating partnerships within communities to explore new ways to address the devastation caused by climate injustice.