President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. starts his third State of the Nation Address (Sona) at the Batasan plenary hall on Monday, July 22m, 2024. —Screenshot from an RTVM livestream
**MANILA, Philippines** — The Philippines, due to its location, is twice as vulnerable as neighboring countries to the effects of climate change, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said in his third State of the Nation Address (Sona) on Monday.
“As we can see in all the world, weather events are — as have been predicted — getting more extreme such as torrential rains that instantly shift to scorching heat waves or vice versa,” Marcos said.
He said this is the reason the Philippines has become a “proactive advocate for heightened climate responsibility and justice on the global stage.”
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“To this end, we have secured a seat on the Board of the Loss and Damage Fund (LDF), and further, the Philippines has been selected as the host country for that fund,” Marcos said.
“This will require an enabling law from Congress to confer the legal personality and capacity to the board. This welcome development shall complement all our climate adaptation and mitigation measures and give us a voice to access the needed financial assistance for climate change initiatives and impacts,” he said.
The LDF Board is a financing facility created by the United Nations to help vulnerable countries cope with the increasingly costly and damaging impact of climate disasters.
Marcos also announced that the Philippines had been elected to host the LDF Board, beating out seven other contenders. Other countries considered to lead the LDF Board were Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Barbados, the Bahamas, Togo, Kenya, and Eswatini.
In May, rising temperatures forced the government to shut down tens of thousands of schools, while increased demand stressed the country’s already strained power supply.
The widespread El Niño drought that began early this year ruined at least P5.9 billion worth of farm produce.