Days before Kristine (international name: Trami) developed into a severe tropical storm, the Philippine Sea was warmer than usual. Under the warming climate, the typhoon-prone Bicol Region is more vulnerable with decimated forests. Both Camarines Sur and Albay saw a net loss of tree cover from 2000 to 2020, according to Global Forest Watch.
By MAVIC CONDE
Bulatlat.com
LEGAZPI CITY, Albay — A day after severe tropical storm Kristine flooded the Bicol Region with record-breaking rainfall, councilor Leonido Moratalla took pictures of submerged rice fields in Barangay Calzada, Oas town, for documentation.
Moratalla said that more than 10 hectares of rice fields have been affected, resulting in losses of approximately P1.5 million (USD 25,710). “There may be retrieved yields, but they are already stale or of low quality.”
This is nothing new for farmers like him during the typhoon season, he said, especially since Oas town in the northern province is located in the flood-prone Bicol River Basin, where the region’s main river system flows to San Miguel Bay in Camarines Sur (CamSur).
However, what happened in downtown Oas, where mud flooded the neighborhoods for the first time, and in Naga, CamSur’s city capital, where boats became a mode of transportation post-Kristine, showed its extreme nature, forcing the Bicol Region to confront its flooding vulnerabilities on a long-term basis.
What made Kristine rainy
Media interviews with local government officials showed that Kristine’s massive rainfall of 679 millimeters in Naga City was seven times more than its monthly average, while the 500 millimeters in Legazpi City exceeded the 1969 record-high of 484.6 millimeters.
Days before Kristine (international name: Trami) developed into a severe tropical storm, the Philippine Sea was warmer than usual.
Gerry Bagtasa, an atmospheric physicist and professor at the University of the Philippines, told Bulatlat that data from Japan Meteorological Agency showed that the surface temperature of the ocean surrounding the Philippines was 1°C above average — a deviation that made Kristine mostly rainy because warmer seas fueled extreme weather events.
However, Bagtasa said that it was not really that intense because of wind shearing, the same reason that brought rainfall to Bicol though Kristine was still over 300 kilometers away.
“The wind shear, or the opposing wind speed and direction between surface and upper-level winds, pushed most of Kristine’s rain clouds to [its] southwest, where Bicol is located,” Bagtasa said, adding that shearing occurs naturally in the Pacific as part of large-scale weather systems and is only one factor that may influence tropical storm intensity.
According to him, the warming climate contributed to Kristine’s heavy rain, but determining how much of it was caused by climate change will be difficult for now.
Interconnected risks
Kristine’s onslaught overwhelmed the Bicol River Basin, after it spared none of the high-risk areas of central CamSur and its closest Albay neighbors including Oas and Libon from the life-threatening flooding and landslides.
In Oas, the Cabilogan River not only overflowed but also destroyed several sections of the dike, which the town mayor blamed on the “silted” Bato Lake in CamSur, from which the former drains. The Cabilogan River and other small rivers that flow into Bato Lake, as well as agricultural runoff, can deposit soil particles and organic materials, reducing water depth and increasing flood risk.
Despite the risks, Moratalla said that tenant-farmers like him cannot skip planting during typhoon season because they rent the land and would have to pay their regular dues, which they do every harvest season. In cases like this, the owner bears the loss as well.
Their location at the end of the irrigation system made them more vulnerable, Leo Miranda, Moratalla’s fellow tenant-farmer, said, adding, “They can only wish to be able to plant earlier so that they can harvest earlier.” He refused to return to his submerged rice field because “it was disheartening to see.”
Albay incurred about P403 million ($ 6.9 million) agricultural damage, second to CamSur with P1.027 billion ($ 17.6 million), according to the Department of Agriculture Bicol. In addition, Kristine’s disastrous impact on infrastructure and irrigation significantly increased the total damage to almost P9 billion ($ 154.26 million).
According to the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) Bicol, Kristine disrupted the lives of 742,395 families, forcing thousands to evacuate and isolating others due to landslides.
Niel Javier, a resident of Camaligan town in CamSur, told Bulatlat that the unprecedented flooding forced neighbors without second-floor houses to sleep in makeshift tents along the high elevation road.
The subsequent power outages and poor internet signal heightened their anxieties, as they were unable to contact relatives who were trapped in their flooded homes and could not be rescued. Patients who needed emergency care were left unattended because of impassable roads.
Sixty people died from this disaster, according to OCD Bicol.
Decimated forests as vulnerability
In a Zoom interview, UP Los Baños forestry professor Rogelio Andrada II said that Kristine’s abnormal rainfall would catch any region off-guard. But since most of the Philippine forests have been decimated (hence the government’s regreening program), he said that “these areas are vulnerable to the impact of rainfall, especially when [excessive].”
According to Global Forest Watch (GFW) satellite data, both CamSur and Albay provinces experienced a net loss of tree cover between 2000 to 2020. The GFW defined tree cover loss [as] “dry and non-tropical primary forests, secondary forests, and plantations, as well as humid primary forest loss.” It detected tree cover loss within 30-meter resolution pixels
Over the said period, “Albay experienced a net change of -1.50 kilohectare (kha) in tree cover,” while “Camarines Sur experienced a net change of -4.53 kha in tree cover.”
CamSur and Albay used to have natural forests that covered more than half of their land area in 2010, at 67 percent and 69 percent, respectively. In 2023, CamSur lost 156 hectares of natural forest, while Albay lost 29 hectares, according to GFW.
Andrada suggested that CamSur and Albay would benefit the most from forest regreening due to the Bicol River Basin’s relatively flat plains, as engineering measures such as matting are best suited to sloped areas.
He said that before issuing permits to cut trees, authorities should keep in mind that vegetation takes time to establish an effective protective soil cover, and costly engineering measures should be used as backup. He stressed how infrastructure could be easily overwhelmed by poor quality.
He urged government leaders to use data with historical context and current events for inter-local applications, as physical environments are not bound by political boundaries.
Demanding accountability
Mining and quarrying are two of the region’s main causes of deforestation. Under the climate crisis, these drivers of environmental degradation put Bicol to greater dangers given its environmental features and its location in the Western Pacific typhoon corridor.
In addition, Bicol is one of the five regions with the lowest wages, making it even worse for informal workers in agriculture (its biggest economy), fisheries, handicraft and mining, since they do not have the safety net to withstand the effects of typhoons.
The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Bicol reported in 2023 that mitigating vulnerabilities “extend[s] beyond mere income levels” for “many families may exceed the poverty threshold but still struggle with necessities,” as “rising costs for [redacted] food, housing and healthcare further strain their budgets.”
The people’s organization Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP)-Bicol in multiple Facebook posts demanded accountability from “the Marcos-allied Villafuertes”. “The late Goa Mayor Marcel Pan implicated his predecessor, former Goa Mayor Antero Lim, as well as specific political figures and task forces, in shielding certain quarry operators from penalties. He also accused the Villafuertes of accepting protection money from unauthorized quarry operations,” according to KMP-Bicol’s statement. “[Pan] further revealed that despite extensive earthfill extraction for high-profile infrastructure projects, municipal revenues remained negligible, while riverbanks and hillsides in towns like Siruma, Pecuria, and San Fernando suffered significant unaddressed damage.”
KMP-Bicol stressed that the President’s call for a “safer, inclusive, adaptive, and disaster-resilient future” at the Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, which the country hosted a few days before Kristine, must result in holding concerned government officials accountable.
Together with environmental groups, it claimed that “LGUs and DENR permits contribute to environmental degradation, which intensifies the impacts of storms, [causing] preventable losses of life and livelihood.”
Certain social media users echoed the call through memes, sharing, “Pagod na kami maging Resilient! Ang kailangan namin ay Accountability!”
Lahar as additional hazard
In Albay, volcanic debris from previous eruptions of the active Mayon Volcano exacerbated flooding hazards.
In 2023, there were 149 quarry sites for small-scale operations across the province for 136 operators: 40 companies and the rest individuals. Forty-eight of the permits will expire between 2024 and 2028.
Only two companies obtained four permits. The Hi-Tone Const. & Dev’t. Corporation was issued permits in areas highly-prone to lahar, such as Fidel Surtida in Sto. Domingo, Maninila in Guinobatan and Lidong in Sto. Domingo (project based). The fourth permit was for Buyoan in Legazpi (project based). The other two will expire in 2028.
Sunwest Const. & Dev’t Corporation obtained three permits in lahar-prone areas: Budiao in Daraga (expiring this December), Mabinit in Legazpi City (expiring in 2028) and Tumpa in Camalig (project-based). The last one was in Cagbulacao, Bacacay (project-based).
BCO Aggregates, Concrete Solutions Inc., Jormand Construction & Supply, MAKAPA Corporation, Ramarplus Inc. and individuals Emilito Pascual and Jose Garcia all got two permits for two quarry sites.
Fifty-two permits were issued in lahar-prone areas within six and seven-kilometer danger zones, including Muladbucad Grande in Guinobatan, Padang in Legazpi, Budiao and Busay in Daraga and Anoling in Camalig. Some of the operators included 3 Diamonds Construction & Supply, ADS Construction & Supply Mr. Arnold C. De Los Santos, and AGSICON Construction Aggregates, to name a few.
In terms of large-scale operations in the province, Rapu-Rapu’s total of 4,539 hectares for four mining sites made up 30 percent of its land area. Camalig’s 674 hectares accounted for 5.14 percent, Legazpi’s 276 hectares 1.71 percent, and Sto. Domingo’s eight hectares 0.16 percent.
Albay-based volcanologist Chris Newhall said that there are two points of interest in the province: the quarries themselves (mostly located in pre-existing river channels) and stockpiling areas, “which doesn’t add to the hectare count of land without tree cover.”
According to him, the general rule is that quarrying of materials from river channels is good as it will deepen them. However, he warned that excessive extraction could increase bank collapse, which should be prohibited particularly in the lower sections to mitigate the increased chances of overflow.
He added that “placing any obstacles in a channel will increase the chances of overflow, and this can include sabo dams and highway crossings if using culverts rather than bridges.”
Farmers as most vulnerable
Even if Moratalla has been a farmer for 34 years, he received P5,000 in cash aid only once in 2023. If they do receive aid in kind like seeds, they are unable to replant because hybrid seeds do not produce the same yield, leaving them reliant on handouts. “We frequently receive treated seeds and fertilizer from the Department of Agriculture. There are other high-yield seeds available in stores, but we must buy them.”
He said that farmers are forced to sell salvaged harvests at lower prices because buyers would insist that they had been flooded.
Another farmer, who identifies as Arthur, said that he was going to harvest in two weeks. However, both of his rice fields with a combined size of 1.3 hectares were submerged in floodwaters.
They might take out loans to cover their losses for the following planting season, as they did in previous years.
Meanwhile, farmers who are members of Damayan nin Paraoma (DAMPA) in Camarines Sur told KMP-Bicol that “from the beginning of his presidency, he did not prioritize the interests of the farmers.” (JJE, RTS, DAA)
