Residents wade through thigh- to waist-deep floodwaters along Sto. Domingo Street in San Simon, Pampanga, Friday, Sept. 4, 2026, amid intermittent rains. The community has remained inundated for nearly a month, impacting their daily activities and mobility according to locals. Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News
MANILA — The Philippines is using its ASEAN chairmanship to push a regional shift toward prevention, anticipation, and accountability in dealing with disasters.
The call came during the opening of the two-day ASEAN Ministerial Conference on Disaster Resilience (AMCDR), where disaster management officials and experts from all 11 ASEAN member states gathered to strengthen regional cooperation and accelerate measures to protect communities, critical infrastructure, and economies from disasters.
Office of Civil Defense (OCD) Administrator and National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) Executive Director Harold Cabreros said the conference was placing greater emphasis on measuring whether disaster resilience measures actually reduce risks, while stressing that ASEAN's approach must move beyond responding after disasters strike.
“This conference will emphasize accountability on our actions. And of course, one of the focus now is more on prevention and mitigation. So we are shifting from mere response to prevention and mitigation. And we have to give more emphasis on risk-informed approach on all our disaster resilience actions," Cabreros said, responding to a question from ABS-CBN News.
Asked specifically about concerns surrounding alleged corruption in flood control projects, Cabreros declined to elaborate on corruption issues but said disaster resilience efforts should ultimately be judged by their effectiveness in preventing or reducing disaster risks.
“I cannot deal so much about corruption, but giving emphasis on our actions should be measurable in terms of what have we done to prevent any occurrence of these disasters. So, I think that would be the focus," he added.
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FROM RESPONSE TO PREDICTION
As ASEAN chair, the Philippines is pushing member states to accelerate implementation of the ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response (AADMER) Work Programme as the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction approaches its final stage.
Cabreros said the Philippines is also promoting anticipatory action, which allows governments and communities to act before a disaster occurs based on forecasts and risk information.
“The concept of anticipatory action and that's one of our trust in coming up with our predictive rather than reactive actions in all these risks that we are confronting. So as mentioned also by our president that we have already gone through the reactive mode to proactive and now we are going through predictive mode," Cabreros explained.
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The Philippines is also sharing its experience in anticipatory action through Republic Act No. 12287, or the Declaration of State of Imminent Disaster Act, which allows local governments to take measures ahead of an impending disaster.
Cabreros said the law is among the country's practices that other ASEAN states may study as they strengthen their own disaster resilience frameworks.
MAKING ASEAN MATTER TO ORDINARY PEOPLE
For ordinary Filipinos, however, the significance of a high-level regional meeting may be difficult to see beyond diplomatic discussions.
Cabreros said the AMCDR seeks to address this gap by emphasizing localization, bringing disaster risk reduction efforts closer to communities and empowering individuals and sectors to manage risks themselves.
“This high-level conference really is to come up with solutions to the common problems that we encounter. And one of the topics being discussed now is about localization, wherein, we have to empower our communities to face any challenges with regards to this risk that we are encountering," he said.
He said localization also means making disaster planning more inclusive, including the needs of persons with disabilities and other vulnerable groups.
“In localization, we have to empower our communities and each and every individual, and even our sectors, different sectors. And we also include the gender and inclusivity of the other sectors of the government or of the society rather," he added.
The approach is intended to make regional cooperation more tangible at the community level, where disaster preparedness ultimately determines whether families can remain safe and recover their livelihoods.
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ASEAN COOPERATION AHEAD OF DISASTERS
The conference is also intended to deepen cooperation among ASEAN countries through the sharing of technology, expertise, training and resources.
Cabreros said the regional mechanism should allow member states to assist one another even before disasters occur, rather than limiting cooperation to post-disaster response.
Through the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on Disaster Management (AHA Centre), regional emergency stockpiles and warehouses are also being established in the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
For the Philippines, regional support remains particularly important given its high exposure to disasters.
"With this cooperation, we are ensured of their support. Especially for us, the Philippines, our country is still the number one in world risk index. And they've been very supportive to us. They've been providing us assistance. Not only during response, as I've said, but also by providing some skills training, particularly with our neighboring country like Singapore, and even Indonesia and Malaysia," Cabreros shared.
He said the Philippines, in turn, is contributing its own disaster management experience and practices to the region.
The Philippines expects the ministerial meeting to culminate in a Manila Declaration setting out commitments to accelerate ASEAN's disaster management programs, particularly on prevention and mitigation.
The declaration is set to turn the AMCDR’s discussions into concrete regional commitments under the AADMER Work Programme, putting the region’s shift from reacting to disasters toward preventing and anticipating them into action.
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