Habagat 2025, 2026…

I made this artwork last year during the habagat (southwest monsoon) floods of 2025. We were living in Pangasinan then, and flooding was affecting people in our area.

Today nothing much has changed. We now live in Manila and are seeing floods or baha surrounding us again. Thankfully, like last year our home wasn’t directly affected. But the fact that many people lose so much, and go through it again year after year, still hits me like it does. And it should.

Yesterday I learned from Kathleen Zambas-Senga from the Philippine Red Cross that the term “natural disaster” is a misnomer. Habagat, typhoons, earthquakes… these are actually natural hazards. 

A disaster occurs when people are left vulnerable to these hazards. Due to things like lack of flood control, accountability, and destruction of natural defenses, we are left with disaster year after year. 

From Nepal to Manila and beyond. These unnatural disasters are a global phenomenon.

Watch Kathleen’s talk on Conservation and Disaster Risk Reduction at the Haribon Foundation page here: https://web.facebook.com/GoHaribon/videos/28620835174201860