The Philippines, known for its abaca production, faces severe challenges as frequent typhoons, intensified by climate change, devastate communities.
With 21 storms in 2025 alone, the nation suffers significant economic losses, highlighting the urgent need for international support.
The impact on livelihoods, particularly in Catanduanes, underscores the necessity for robust recovery resources and climate action.
The Philippines has been hit by two typhoons in a week in November and a total of 21 storms in 2025. Much of the rapid intensification and intensity of recent storms, including Typhoon Kalmaegi (Typhoon Tino in the Philippines) and Typhoon Fung-wong (Typhoon Uwan in the Philippines), have been fuelled by warmer-than-normal sea surface temperatures, a consequence of global warming that is already around 1.3°C above the pre-industrial (1850-1900) levels.
But the communities that need to recover from the devastation of the twin typhoons and resultant storm surges, flash flooding, landslides and damage from winds haven’t been responsible for most of the warming. The communities will need financial, technological and capacity building resources for their recovery now and in the years to come. The Philippines faces losses of 1.2 per cent of its gross domestic product each year from the impacts of typhoons, according to the World Bank.
“According to computation based on IMF figures, this would have translated to about $5.64 billion in 2024 from damage to infrastructure and loss of income due to lower labour productivity and agricultural production, as well as changes to consumption patterns,” writes Gustavo Gonzalez, the former United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in the Philippines.
The question of the possible sources for these resources and the responsibility of delivering them to these communities needs to be answered by the international community, specifically the rich countries responsible for emitting most of the greenhouse gases that are responsible for the current warming.
The start-up phase of the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD) known as the Barbados Implementation Modalities (BIM), for which the call for proposals was launched at UNFCCC COP30 in Belem on November 10, 2025, could be one of the sources of funds for the impacted communities of the Philippines, especially in Catanduanes.
But currently the BIM has a scope of funding of $250 million, with each project getting only $5-20 million. This is not even a drop in the ocean. The FRLD needs to be filled with at least $400 billion annually to be of use to the affected communities and countries.
Super Typhoon Fung-wong made landfall during the night of November 9, 2025 over the Aurora province of Luzon Island, with sustained wind speeds of 185 kilometres per hour and wind gusts of up to 230 km / hr.
The typhoon was the fourth strongest to make landfall in the west Pacific Ocean in 2025. It left a trail of devastation with strong winds, storm surges along the coast, heavy rainfall, flash flooding and landslides even before it made landfall.
Twenty seven people have lost their lives due to the impacts as of November 11. The losses to infrastructure and livelihoods of people remains to be seen.
Down To Earth (DTE) had a conversation with 22-year-old John Emmanuel Tayo, chief campaigner of People and Habitat that works with communities affected by natural disasters in Catanduanes province.
He wrote to DTE via Facebook Messenger about the immediate impact of Typhoon Fung-wong and the long-term impacts of frequent typhoons on the communities in the region. Catanduanes was one of the most affected regions in the Philippines and was also struck by typhoon Man-yi (typhoon Pepito in the Philippines) in November 2024.
Akshit Sangomla (AS): What was the impact of Typhoon Fung-Wong in your region in terms of the number of communities affected? Did you get affected yourself and how?
John Emmanuel Tayo (JET): In the province of Catanduanes alone, more than 300,000 individuals are directly impacted whenever a Category 4 typhoon along with deadly winds, storm surges, flooding directly hits the island province.
As someone who lives in the coastal area, I have seen how storm surge reached two-storey houses. There were nearly one foot high stone and sand pile ups on our streets and houses in the aftermath.
The impact is much more in the communities who have yet to have their seawalls and dikes to protect them. Even rice fields are flooded with stones, which farm workers have to work hard to remove. They have to wait for six months before they can plant new crops.
Also, since our clean potable water is pumped from the underground, it tastes like seawater. Last year, when Super Typhoon Pepito (Man-yi) battered us, our house was among almost 300 totally damaged, leaving most of our things destroyed and soaked from both the storm surge and rain and floods.
AS: What kind of impacts did people face?
JET: People are traumatised already because of risks we have to face. Our province is an island and we are enclosed by the Pacific Ocean. We are provided with water from the rivers, waterfalls and streams enriching our agricultural fields.
But because of climate change and extreme weather events associated with it, these rivers, streams and waterfalls are more often a source of disaster than a blessing, as we have to deal consecutively to risks of massive floods, storm surges, landslides and strong winds.
Our town in Gigmoto, Catanduanes being one of the farthest to reach by land, we are frequently isolated because of massive landslides as the national roads are built just beneath steep hills. Normally, it takes almost a month before relief response reaches our municipality unless airlifted by choppers.
AS: What are the main sources of livelihood in the region and how did these get affected by the typhoon?
JET: Residents of Catanduanes rely mainly on fishing, abaca and rice farming and poultry production. Hundreds of fishing vessels are damaged by high storm surges and strong winds even when kept at higher places.
Depending on the damage, they have to wait for six months, a year or more before they can repair or have another motor bangka (boat in Philippino).
Fisherfolk have to find another source of living, but commonly they go fishing with other fisherfolk whose motor bangka was not damaged until they have enough saving to buy one again.
On the one hand, during typhoon, as abaca (a species of banana native to the Philippines known for its natural fibre) has just soft tissue, almost all of the standing plant were torn down. Farmers have to wait for 3-4 years before they can harvest abaca from its new bloom.
However, because typhoons are now becoming more frequent, farmers are losing hope already as the province has been devastated by another typhoon after a year.
Since Typhoon Rolly (Goni) in 2020, only less than 5 per cent were able to harvest their abaca for the five-year span. While we are known as the 'abaca capital of the Philippines', we cannot produce much of abaca because of the series of typhoons. This is a great economic loss.
AS: How frequent are typhoon-related impacts in the region and how do local communities recover and rebuild after such events?
JET: In the Philippines, around 20 typhoons enter the country every year, and in every four years starting from 2016, there have been a pattern that a super typhoon makes landfall in the Catanduanes province. However, this is the first time that in two consecutive years, we were devastated by a super typhoon’s eyewall and inner rain bands that accumulate strong winds. And because the climate is now exacerbated by fossil fuel industries' relentless pollution of our planet, we expect it to be a yearly experience and getting worse.