As the floods recede, let’s make accountability rise

By Oxfam Pilipinas

As Disaster Resilience Month comes to an end, the habagat or southwest monsoon and tropical cyclones Luis, Maymay, and Neneng have flooded communities in 11 regions in Luzon and Mindanao, affecting 8.8 million Filipinos, displacing 164,475 individuals, claiming 32 lives, and racking up damage to infrastructure and agriculture worth PHP 8.4 billion, according to the Department of Social Welfare and Development and Office of Civil Defense.

The climate crisis is making rainfall more intense and weather patterns more unpredictable. Yet climate hazards become humanitarian disasters when people are left exposed and vulnerable for too long.

What makes heavy rains a tragedy is the combination of systemic inequality, widespread corruption, and failures in public service that leave Filipinos to their own devices to survive. Recovery is another matter.

We have been told that disaster preparedness and climate adaptation are among the government’s priorities, and billions of pesos have been poured into infrastructure. Yet we see how communities in cities and provinces continue to be inundated, evacuate, rebuild, and suffer all over again.

So when money goes into the hands of the corrupt, as the flood control scandal has shown, and public officials resist public scrutiny and accountability checks, Filipinos have the right to be angry and demand genuine accountability.

Every peso lost to corruption is shameless plunder. It robs Filipinos of a lifeline to rise from poverty and shatter inequalities that persist: from a flooded classroom and canceled classes that could have equipped them with a degree and skills, to destroyed houses and lost livelihoods that often force families into a cycle of debilitating debt. It is also a life that may have been saved, if not for subpar infrastructure that puts people’s lives at risk.

This makes corruption a life-and-death issue, not just a governance issue.

It is not a coincidence that those who suffer most are those with the least resources. Households with the lowest income live in the most hazard-prone areas, have the fewest resources to recover, and bear the heaviest burden when food prices rise, wages stagnate, crops fail, or disasters strike again before they have recovered from the last one.

Despite all these, ordinary Filipinos continue to act with admirable courage. Humanitarian workers, government employees, and volunteers monitor the floods and wade in chest-deep or higher water to rescue humans and animals alike. Groups and restaurants organize to provide hot meals. Teachers and guardians improvise learning at home despite the repeated disruptions.

These are the heroes we honor on National Heroes’ Day. But heroism should not be a substitute for government accountability.

The country has proven the need for evidence-based solutions for disaster preparedness and social accountability. Oxfam Pilipinas has been championing anticipatory action, which helps communities prepare before disasters strike and has been proven more cost-effective and empowering than waiting for a catastrophe before responding. Our initiatives with local governments and state agencies like the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration, partner organizations, academe, and scientific experts have shown that anticipatory action reduces adverse impacts of disasters, from the Mayon ashfall to drought, flooding, and typhoons.

We need stronger, transparent public investment to ensure tragedies like this do not happen again. But for that to happen, the wealth and political power must not be in the hands of a few. Oxfam’s global research, Resisting the Rule of the Rich, has shown that extreme wealth concentration distorts policymaking and widens inequality at the expense of the majority. When a small elite exercises disproportionate political influence, public investments risk serving private interests rather than public safety. Especially if some public leaders seem unattuned to the realities of their constituents.

Major polluters who contribute to the growing climate crisis must be made accountable, too. A 2025 survey commissioned by Greenpeace International and Oxfam International revealed that “84% of Filipinos want financial burdens levied on said companies, as these contribute to ‘wildfires, floods, droughts’ and other health impacts to the public”.

Climate-related disasters will keep on coming, and we can expect them to hit us successively. But when the waters recede, we know that Filipinos deserve more than promises and praise for being resilient. What we deserve is a country where public funds go into services that serve the public and protect lives, and resilience is measured not by how much suffering we endure, but by how much suffering we prevent.

Sources:

DSWD DROMIC report no. 58, as of 31 August 2026, 6 AM. https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1388643886747583&set=pcb.1388646223414016

Office of Civil Defense post, 31 August 2026, 7:30 AM. https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1GZSBbtKYz/