Partner with Taiwan: A path for the Philippines to break the cycle of climate disaster loss

THIS YEAR ALONE, the Philippines has endured a relentless procession of storms. Wipha (Crising) in July submerged entire communities in Northern Luzon. Ragasa (Nando) and Bualoi (Opong) arrived back-to-back in late September and brought heavy flooding, forcing thousands into evacuation centers across Eastern Visayas.

- By Wallace Minn-Gan Chow

And just last week, Kalmaegi (Tino) triggered landslides and flooded swaths of the central Philippines, which reportedly killed hundreds of people, with hundreds of thousands displaced. Homes were swept away, rice fields nearing harvest were drowned, and local governments once again scrambled to source relief, rebuild roads, and restore electricity, among others. (This piece was submitted before Typhoon Fung-wong, known locally as Uwan, hit northern Luzon this past weekend. — Ed.)

This story in the Philippines repeats so often that it risks becoming background noise. Yet the cost is staggering, not only in monetary terms or disrupted livelihoods, but also in the exhaustion of constant rebuilding. The 2025 World Risk Index Report has named the Philippines the most disaster-prone country in the world, and its adaptation capacity is struggling to keep pace with the speed of global warming.

Across the Bashi Channel, Taiwan experiences these same typhoons, floods, and landslides, but Taiwan has systematically built a more robust resilience that it can share with the Philippines.

TAIWAN IS A RELIABLE DISASTER RESILIENCE PARTNER