An extraordinary disaster year for the Philippines

The year 2020 was an extraordinary disaster year for the country. It began with a volcanic eruption and ended with two magnitude 6 earthquakes, one shaking Luzon on Christmas Day. In between came Typhoon Goni, a super typhoon that was the strongest in the world last year.

And then there were the biological disasters brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, the re-emergence of vaccine-preventable diseases namely polio, measles, and dengue, an outbreak of African swine fever, and crop infestation due to fall armyworm.

Man-made disasters worsened the negative impacts of these natural catastrophes as armed conflict, crime and violence, clan feud, police operations, terrorist activity, extrajudicial killings and other forms of human rights violations, fires, and an oil spill contributed to fatalities and drove people away from their homes and livelihood. Thousands of families were even rendered homeless when demolitions of communities perpetrated by the state forces continued at the height of the pandemic.

A combination of both natural and man-made hazards that resulted in severe flooding, flash floods, and landslides likewise worsened the already dejected plight of the Filipino people.

The unscientific and militarist approach through lengthy and hard lockdowns imposed nationwide by the Duterte government to curb the spread of the COVID-19 virus exposed its incompetence and eventual failure in containing the pandemic’s negative impacts. Its policies exacerbated the continuing crisis and had worse impacts than the pandemic itself. Among Southeast Asians, Filipinos were most disapproving of the government’s response to the pandemic. The country even had the worst outbreak in August 2020 among Southeast Asia, despite the imposition of the longest and strictest lockdown among Southeast Asia and in the world. Ironically, the Duterte administration failed to impose immediate border controls considering that the Philippines is an island country and is geographically isolated from other countries. It was sorely remiss in early rapid detection. Rather than reducing deaths, it contributed to the growing number of fatalities. Thus, the people’s plight is ever miserable – more people are jobless, poorer, hungrier, and more desperate.

See full report here: 2020-CDRC-Philippine-Disaster-Sit
See Infographics here: 2020 Philippine Disaster Highlights Infographics