President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. acknowledged on Thursday that the country must begin adjusting to what he called a “new normal” of persistent rains and severe flooding triggered by successive storms and the southwest monsoon.
“This is… I hate to use the overused phrase but this is the new normal. This is really our life now no matter what we do,” Marcos said during a situational briefing with key government officials.
He urged Filipinos to stop treating the worsening weather conditions as an “extraordinary situation,” stressing the importance of adapting to the realities of climate change and revisiting how the public plans daily life. “We just have to change the way we think. Everything was different from what it was in the last 40 years,” he added.
Over the past several days, three consecutive storms—Crising, Dante, and Emong—combined with the southwest monsoon or Habagat, have pounded the country with relentless rainfall, inundating communities and paralyzing public services.
As of Thursday, 40 cities and municipalities across the Philippines have declared a state of calamity. Classes remain suspended in various regions, and government operations in some areas have also been disrupted.
