Survivors of Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) demanded stronger corporate climate accountability, urging the government to mandate stricter sustainability reporting.
On Nov. 5, a delegation from Salcedo, Eastern Samar—including farmers, fishermen, youth, and elderly—submitted a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), pressing it to require all publicly listed companies to issue Sustainability Reporting and Climate-Related Financial Disclosures. The push for transparency aims to hold corporations accountable for their climate impact.
“Even after 11 years, the people of Salcedo have not fully recovered from Super Typhoon Yolanda. Many are still displaced, could not return back to their homes, many are still buried in debt. They are paying, but none of this was their fault,” said Virginia Benosa-Llorin, a Greenpeace Campaigner who accompanied the group.
The group criticized the current “comply or explain” model, which allows companies to justify non-compliance with disclosure standards, arguing that such lax enforcement limits accountability, especially in carbon-intensive sectors.
“To this day many communities are suffering because of extreme weather. It has only been days since Severe Tropical Storm Kristine and Super Typhoon Leon wrought destruction in 17 provinces and killed hundreds,” Benosa-Llorin added. “The government must concretize the responsibility of businesses in the context of the climate crisis… making sustainability reporting guidelines mandatory is a crucial step towards this.”
Addressed to SEC Chairperson Emilio Benito Aquino, the Salcedo residents’ letter highlighted Eastern Samar’s vulnerability, where Yolanda alone claimed 29 lives and injured over 846 people. Lawyer Ryan Roset, Senior Legal Fellow of the Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center (LRC), emphasized the SEC’s duty to safeguard communities.
“The SEC is mandated to establish a socially conscious free market… and ensure businesses are accountable not only to their shareholders but to the broader public as well,” Roset stated. “In the context of the climate crisis, this duty includes ensuring that corporations, especially those in environmentally critical or carbon-intensive industries, comply with stringent requirements on climate-related financial disclosures.”
Lorena Ivy Ogania, a mother in the delegation, expressed her hopes for future generations: “As a parent, I am participating in this campaign because I want the ongoing deterioration of the climate to stop, and for my child to no longer experience the problems caused by climate change… I am fighting against the system not for myself, but for my child and for future generations.”
In a symbolic tribute, the delegation brought 11 storm-damaged items, including a torn fishing net, a crucifix, and parts of a mosquito net that Ogania, then pregnant, used for shelter during the typhoon.
Super Typhoon Yolanda, which struck on November 8, 2013, claimed approximately 10,000 lives and affected nearly 11 million people, underscoring the Philippines’ vulnerability and prompting global calls for loss and damage mechanisms as a pillar of climate action.
