MLBA13: February / March 2010

 

 

 

 

Located on the typhoon belt, the Philippines is no stranger to ferocious storms and heavy downpours caused by 17-20 tropical cyclones visiting the country every year.  But in 2009, the nation faced what was perhaps the worst onslaught of storms in forty years. Typhoons Ondoy (international name: Ketsana)  and Pepeng (Parma) brought unimaginable casualties, particularly to the agriculture sector wherein damages, based on the November 2009 statistics of the National Disaster Coordinating Council, have reached an unprecedented PHP23.6 billion (US$516.29 million). These two storms have unseated the costliest damage combination of typhoons Ruping (Mike) in 1990 and Rosing (Angela) by PHP17.55 billion (US$383.94 million). These devastating storms were followed by its weaker but nonetheless destructive counterparts of Ramil (Lupit) and Santi (Mirinae).

 

Experts say climate change is the root cause of these destructive storms and the Philippines should brace for more devastating typhoons in the future as weather eccentricities will continue to worsen. This also means that the agriculture industry - considered as the country's lifeblood – will certainly bore a devastating brunt if certain measures are not quickly implemented.

 

The rampage of Ondoy and Pepeng is considered the worst weather disturbances to hit the country in four decades with only a week's gap of occurrence: Ondoy entered the country on September 26 while Pepeng on October 1, 2009. Ondoy sank Manila and its nearby provinces, pouring 455 millimetres of rain for 24 hours, already equivalent of a month's average rainfall which caused hundreds of deaths due to flash floods that inundated the Philippines' sprawling metropolis, including the gates of the middle class enclaves which had never been flooded in the past.

 

On one hand, Pepeng ravaged the country's main corn and livestock farms of Northern Luzon. Based on November 2009 statistics of the National Statistical Coordinating Board, these two typhoons ruined 800 hectares of fishpond and more than 100,000 heads of livestock were destroyed, roughly amounting to PHP23.6 billion (US$516 million) in damages respectively. Some 220,000 hectares of corn or roughly translating to one million kilogrammes were also destroyed although Roger Navarro of Phil Maize says this figure itself is not alarming because apparently, the relatively small damage was due to the fact that planting in most of these places are yet to commence in November later that year, thus sparing the crops.