Residents wait for small bancas to get to the other side after the rising Marikina River swept away a makeshift bridge connecting Barangay Bagong Silangan in Quezon City to San Mateo, Rizal on June 5, 2024. Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News

MANILA — It took several minutes of pause and a deep breath before Rodne Galicha could utter a response to an inquiry of whether or not the loss and damage fund (LDF) and other policies on climate change adaptation and mitigation would actually take shape had extreme weather events like Ondoy and Yolanda not happened. 

“That’s actually difficult to answer,” he said. 

Galicha, national convenor of Aksyon Klima Pilipinas, acknowledges that these typhoons and other slow onset climate events like El Niño and La Niña that actually made the country stand up and push to establish a mechanism to recover from climate-induced destruction. 

“Yolanda changed the whole climate negotiations. The Philippines was put on the spotlight as far as the issue of loss and damage is concerned,” he said.

40M Filipinos do not have access to clean and potable water: DENR  

Barely a year since countries pledged funds during the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference or Conference of Parties (COP28) in the United Arab Emirates, the Philippines was selected to be host of the board — an opportunity which, according to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, would allow it “to contribute to the fast and seamless operationalization of the LDF, particularly by ensuring that the meetings of the Board are successfully held and supported.” 

“The Loss and Damage Fund is a long-fought struggle to directly assist those who bear the greatest impact of climate-induced losses and damage to recover and build. We take on this responsibility in solidarity with all countries vulnerable to the impacts of climate change,” said Environment Secretary Ma. Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga in a statement. 

While extreme weather events primarily impact infrastructure and livelihood, Galicha says they also cause unavoidable and irreversible damage to other aspects of human lives. 

“The losses and damages are beyond structures. They also destroy the intangible like culture and heritage, even psychological and mental health. There needs to be modalities and mechanisms to address that that loss of these things don’t happen,” he explained in Filipino. 

DENR to digitize, shorten permit process for mining 

Like the DENR, Galicha says they welcome the country’s selection as host of the board mainly because it is part of the discourse of climate change at a time when communities live through and will continue to experience the impacts of climate change caused largely by more developed countries. 

“We regard loss and damage as accountability. We aren’t the reason behind what we’re experiencing now but rather countries who emit so much greenhouse gasses especially carbon dioxide. And we hope the funds increase because we cannot adapt forever.”

The Philippines, represented by Finance Undersecretary Mark Dennis Joven, is one of the 26 members of the LDF Board. Pledges made by rich countries to the loss and damage fund have so far amounted to $700 million. 

But if there’s one thing the Philippines should bring to the table, Galicha says it’s the collective Filipino experience in dealing with a rapidly changing climate. 

“No one should be left behind. Whenever they speck in the board, they speak in behalf of those who died, those who are still suffering and those who are still to receive what is due them.”