Photo: Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David of Kalookan. SAN ROQUE CATHEDRAL – DIOCESE OF KALOOKAN
MANILA (September 2) — Filipinos should stop treating recurring floods, unsafe infrastructure and preventable deaths as inevitable consequences of living in a disaster-prone country and instead demand answers from those responsible for protecting the public, Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David of Kalookan said.
David urged Filipinos to move beyond the country’s celebrated culture of resilience and toward what he called collective “defiance” against suffering that could have been prevented through proper planning, competent governance and infrastructure maintenance.
“I think it is time to go beyond resiliency—to defiance,” David said in a social media post Monday.
“Not defiance of nature. Not defiance of the law. But the collective defiance of citizens who refuse to accept as normal what should never have been allowed to become normal.”
David said resilience becomes dangerous when it encourages people to repeatedly endure the consequences of failures without demanding accountability.
“Let us refuse to normalize preventable suffering. Let us demand answers. Let us demand accountability. And where the law allows it, let us act together as citizens to hold accountable those who fail in their duty to protect the public,” he said.
‘How can a pedestrian protect himself?’
David cited the death of 25-year-old Reiner Novero, who disappeared into an open drainage canal concealed beneath floodwaters while walking along a flooded sidewalk in Angeles City.
“How can a pedestrian possibly protect himself from a death trap he cannot even see?” David asked.
For David, the incident highlights the distinction between a natural hazard and a danger worsened—or potentially created—by failures in public infrastructure.
Floodwaters may be difficult to prevent.
But an uncovered drainage canal, inadequate warning systems or poorly maintained infrastructure raises questions about whether the resulting danger could have been avoided.
David also recalled being trapped for nearly five hours in flooding near San Simon along the North Luzon Expressway on Sunday, questioning why motorists continue to face similar hazards whenever heavy rains hit.
His argument was not that government can prevent every flood or landslide.
Rather, he said, predictable hazards should not repeatedly become deadly because basic safeguards fail.
Climate change cannot be an excuse
David acknowledged that climate change is intensifying rainfall and making extreme weather events more difficult to manage.
But he warned against using climate change as a blanket explanation for every disaster.
“Climate change cannot become the convenient new version of ‘act of God,’” he said.
Flooded highways, clogged drainage systems, unsafe manholes and flood-control projects that fail to adequately protect communities, he said, deserve scrutiny.
Climate change can increase the intensity of rainfall.
It does not, however, determine whether drainage systems are maintained, waterways are cleared, infrastructure is properly designed or public projects are implemented as intended.
Those are questions of planning, public spending and governance.
Beyond simply surviving
The Philippines has long celebrated resilience as a defining characteristic of its people.
After typhoons, floods, earthquakes and landslides, communities rebuild, families recover and survivors move forward.
But David’s message challenges the idea that repeatedly surviving disasters should be considered sufficient.
If communities are forced to rebuild again and again, who is responsible for reducing the risks that make rebuilding necessary in the first place?
If billions of pesos are allocated for flood control and disaster-risk reduction, are these projects working?
If infrastructure fails, who inspected it, who maintained it and who approved it?
And when preventable deaths occur, who is held accountable?
These questions are becoming increasingly urgent as extreme weather events impose mounting human and economic costs.
More than 30 people died in floods and landslides in August, while billions of pesos in agricultural and infrastructure losses were reported nationwide.
The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said recent bad weather had affected about 8.4 million people, or 2.4 million families, across the country.
Behind those figures are communities that lost homes, livelihoods and, in some cases, family members.
Citizens have a role
David urged Filipinos to go beyond preparing for disasters and to scrutinize the systems supposedly designed to protect them.
He called on citizens to seek disclosure of flood-control projects and their budgets, file complaints before appropriate regulatory bodies and pursue legal remedies when negligence causes harm.
The message puts disaster preparedness in a broader context.
Residents can prepare emergency kits, monitor weather advisories and evacuate when authorities issue warnings.
But ordinary citizens cannot individually repair drainage systems, redesign highways, inspect flood-control structures or determine whether public funds were properly spent.
Those responsibilities belong to public institutions.
“Resilience should never mean passive acceptance of incompetence, corruption or neglect,” David said.
“This time, let us also be defiant.”
David’s call effectively reframes resilience—from the ability to endlessly endure disasters to the determination to prevent avoidable suffering and demand accountability when public systems fail.
The challenge now is whether that defiance can move beyond social-media outrage and translate into public scrutiny, investigations, complaints and legal action.
Because surviving the next disaster may demonstrate resilience.
Preventing the next preventable death is a test of governance.
