Are We Ready?
As an archipelago of over 7,641 islands at the junction of several tectonic plate boundaries, the Philippines is especially susceptible to natural disasters. It ranked 3rd in the 2018 World Risk Index of most disaster-prone countries, while the World Bank estimates that we lose US$3.5 billion in assets each year due to typhoons and earthquakes. Ominously, the 2019 Global Peace Index ranked the Philippines as having the world’s highest vulnerability to natural hazards brought about by the effects of climate change.
The events of 2020 have put some of those vulnerabilities into sharp relief—with Taal Volcano (Batangas province) violently stirring to activity on 12 January, and the international public health emergency that is COVID-19 (Novel Coronavirus), which is still unfolding.
Taal’s eruption resulted in days of travel disruptions and the loss of
