Habagat, Amihan, Ants and Elephants

What do the love story of Habagat & Amihan have to do with ants and elephants? Carmina and Patch discuss the mythology of the Philippines’ monsoons, how early Filipinos dealt with this phenomenon, and current day views about climate change. They talk about how Tropical Cyclone Haiyan (also known as Yolanda) gained global attention through Yeb Saño’s emotional speech at the 19th conference of parties (COP) to the UN in 2013 and his climate justice efforts. They also introduce us to Red Constantino and his impactful essay “How the Ants Move the Elephants in Paris,” which chronicled the developing nations’ collective efforts in 2015 to move developed nations towards a more equitable Paris Agreement. Finally, they attempt to inspire hope, and like the ants in Red’s essay, call all of us to action.   

Learn more: Increased Risk of Diseases Due To Typhoons, Climate Change In Western Pacific, Agri-Losses, NYT: Typhoon in Philippines Casts Long Shadow Over U.N. Talks on Climate Treaty, Yeb Saño’s fast for the climate offers sanity amid the madness of global inaction, Filipino climate envoy comments on typhoon, breaks down during opening of climate meeting, Yeb Saño at COP29, Yeb Saño's Speech at #WeStandWithYou Petition Delivery, Climate advocates demand reparations from World Bank's IFC, RCBC over coal plant financing | ANC , Filipino youth at COP29 demand climate justice, finance , "Not Too Late": Rebecca Solnit & Filipino Activist Red Constantino on Avoiding Climate Despair, Not Too Late, Climate change: Philippines's coastal communities battle rising sea levels,  Disappointment resounds among groups over $300-billion COP29 deal, and The Surprising Role of Philippine Seas in Fighting Climate Change.

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Transcript

Welcome to FilTrip, a podcast where we explore everything fun, weird and in between about the Philippines. 

Hi, Patch.

Hi, Carmina.

Last time, we spoke about summer vacation in the Philippines. Little did we know that we were going to – 

We haven't recorded in a while.
 
 

So that's how I'm justifying it in my head. We took a summer break.

Sounds good to me.

And in that episode, if you recall, we said there were several schools in the Philippines who were adapting to the American school calendar, but some of them are going back to the Filipino calendar because of - 

The impact of climate change and all of that. And even just the history of how we adapt to the monsoon season and all of that greatly impacts the school calendar.

Yeah. I mean, it wasn't planned, but here we are. I just realized that there was a through line with the episodes accidentally. But Patch, even when we were going to school, we felt the impact of the monsoon season in the Philippines. I do remember many times with my socks wet trying to get to school because it did rain a lot, especially during that first part of the school year.

I couldn't remember too much about the monsoon season and what they were. So I had to research it a little bit. So do you remember that there's the Habagat and the Amihan?

Oh, now that you're mentioning these, yes.

So there's basically two types in the Philippines. There's the Southwest monsoon, which is the Habagat, which typically occurs from June to October. It's characterized by heavy and frequent rainfall and humid winds from the Southwest.

And usually the impact is particularly affecting the Western parts of Luzon and Visayas. So, that's the Habagat. And then there is the Amihan, which happens during the months of November to February, but sometimes it can happen as early as October.

It's characterized by cooler, drier air from Siberia and China, resulting in lower humidity and milder temperatures, especially in Eastern Philippines. Interestingly enough, Amihan and Habagat, I think we talked about them a little bit when we talked about Philippine mythology in pre-colonial times, they would address weather and seasonal changes with mythology or legends, right? You remember the love story of Amihan and Habagat?

Let's tell our listeners about this steamy love story.

In the Philippines, there existed these two powerful beings, Amihan and Habagat. Amihan was a goddess who personified calm. She was very known for her gentle touch, which swept over the land, the pleasant breeze, the cool breeze and more calm.

On the other hand, there's Habagat, who was a powerful deity who embodied the stormy winds. And he was known for his intensity and unpredictability. So as time passed, Amihan and Habagat grew to admire and respect each other.

Their connection was immediate and deep. Amihan, with her calm demeanor and cool winds, was drawn to the wild and untamable energy of Habagat.

Wow, it really sounds like a Mills and Boone novel. By the way, do people still know the reference about Mills and Boone? It might just be us and our mothers. Anyway.But continue.

Their relationship was not without struggle, of course, because they're opposites. So sometimes they would be apart because they're different deities, but they always would return to each other. Every time that they were together, there was always both peace and turbulence. And that's how they explain the difference between these strong winds and these calm winds.

Like any good love story, there needs to be a period where they miss each other.

That's true. There's always going to be conflict and harmony, I guess. I was curious because obviously we said climate change.

We're very much aware of it now. But how about in earlier times for the Philippines? How did they deal with the monsoon?

So a lot of it really, you and I are already familiar with. So for example, there's the Ifugao Rice Terraces.

Right. They used that time to collect the water. The terraces were constructed in a way to do that.

Exactly. Which is really fascinating to me. 

Right.

So the terraces function as some kind of system. Like what you said, it collects the water, it stores and distributes it. So they had this system that really maximized the seasons. And also, I didn't think about this, but even the Bahay Kubo, which we're all very familiar with, actually was very adaptive to the weather. First of all, the construction of bamboo, nipa and other materials used as protection against the weather. But even the windows allowed for the breeze to pass through to cool them down. The thatched roof allowed to resist the rainwater going through the hut.

And even the way people settled, people who lived in the coastal parts of the country, there's a reason why their dwellings were constructed the way they were. It was because they needed to be mobile.

Right.

So that when the typhoons and storms came in, they could easily leave and flee to safety. Also, this isn't the only reason, right? But this concept of Bayanihan, which is about community and helping each other, was really important in the pre-colonial times because without the community's help, you could not rebuild after natural disasters.

So Patch, here in the United States, we have hurricanes. And often I asked myself what the difference was between hurricanes and typhoons, and it actually really is the same phenomenon. And it just had different names because of the geographical location.

So hurricanes happen in the North Atlantic Ocean and Northeast Pacific Ocean, while typhoons happen in the Northwest Pacific Ocean.

So Carmina, I remember coming across, but I don't remember the exact difference, between a typhoon and a monsoon.

A typhoon in the simplest is a storm.

Right.

And the monsoon is the seasonal wind system. The Southwest monsoon is the wet season, and that is Habagat. And the Northeast monsoon is Amihan, which is the cool dry season. The winds shift direction seasonally. And that's how probably in your mythology, right? They have to be separate, but then there is a time, there is a cross-current between them.

Right. Happy times for Amihan and Habagat.

And also for us. And then also there is this terminology called the tropical cyclone, characterized by a rotating, organized system of clouds and thunderstorms. And it originates over warm tropical oceans, which is why we also experience it.

And it's characterized by strong winds and heavy rain. So, you know, that description, right, is very familiar to us, too, here in the United States, because that's how the hurricanes are also described. But in the Philippines, there's an average of 20 tropical cyclones that appear in the Philippines area of responsibility.

And about eight or nine of them make landfall. Can you imagine that? About half.

Right.

We mentioned earlier that the typhoon season is typically July through October. But do you remember Patch Tropical Cyclone Haiyan, which is called Yolanda in the Philippines? That occurred between November 3 to 11 in 2013.

And every year, the typhoon season just seems to get longer and longer. So I mentioned Typhoon Haiyan because it was the strongest to make landfall and recorded history. And it was the first time that the world learned about the devastating effects of these weather conditions.

And I feel like there was even a sense of solidarity with the Philippines at that time all over the world. Even J. Crew participated in fundraising by selling special t-shirts.

That's how bad it was. Aside from the Philippines, there were also other Southeast Asian countries that experienced devastation. China, Vietnam, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Palau, and Micronesia.

The storm surge was about 24.6 feet high. And so just to compare that to everyday objects, that's about a two-story building. 

Wow.

The winds gusted up to 230 miles per hour. And with these wind gusts, building foundations can be damaged, cars can be thrown. And even the American hurricane category, which only goes as high as category five, this would be categorized as a hypothetical category seven.

It was technically categorized as five, but if seven was available, that basically would be, wow.

It affected more than 14 million Filipinos. An estimated 7,000 to 8,000 were killed in the Philippines alone. That 7,000 to 8,000 number, there were many contributing factors.

So the locations that were hardest hit were the lowest lying areas, which is only a few meters above sea level. So, that was very vulnerable. And if you recall earlier, we said, right, like the dwellings were constructed in a way so that people could leave right away.

But because we are now so densely populated, there's really not much to flee to anymore for these people. Because they did have an early warning for people to evacuate, but where would they evacuate to? And even if they stayed or when they stayed, because of the poor infrastructure and flimsy materials used for their housing, that made them doubly vulnerable.

And even if there was a warning, there were also challenges with that. So was it early enough? We don't know.

Maybe it wasn't. Maybe it was too late. And the evacuation efforts, the assistance offered to the people, were also lacking.

And even communication, right? Communicating to evacuate, where to evacuate to, I'm assuming it was chaotic.

Now, around the same time, there were UN talks on a global climate treaty in Warsaw. The Climate Change Conference also called the COP. And it also gained global attention because the Philippines chief representative at that time made a speech that went viral.

His name was Naderev Saño, also known as Yeb Saño. We're linking his very emotional speech in the show notes, but basically he pleaded for a meaningful outcome for these talks. And at the end of his speech, to show how serious and how devastated he was for his countrymen, he announced that he was going on a hunger strike.

And about 600,000 people, Patch, joined him. And we're also going to link a New York Times article. And it's so striking that the article echoes the same debates that exist today.

One thing that Yeb said was that the Philippines refuses to accept that super typhoons now is a regular fixture. But you know, he is still delivering the same message. So, in COP29, in November 2024, he talked about a boy who was lost in Haiyan and who has never been found.

I'm sure there are many more.

We have a lot of links in our show notes and some of them will show the same people reporting on the same issue from then to now.

To add to that, it's over a decade. Thousands of survivors are still waiting if they're kind of in limbo right now as far as where they would really permanently relocate. The housing units that were promised to them are still unlivable, basically. Primarily, there's no water connection and many survivors continue to live in transitional housing, even to this date. I feel like they're being victimized twice by Yolanda and the inefficiency and mismanagement that has happened.

So it's really surprising that that's still happening, Patch, especially since the Paris Agreement happened in 2016. So the Paris Agreement is this landmark international treaty on climate change adopted by 196 countries at the UN COP 21. In Paris on December 12th, 2015, two years after Yeb's emotional speech, it entered into force in November 4th of 2016.

I just found a really interesting component of that agreement. This number 1.5 degrees Celsius.

What's so significant about that number?

There was such a debate about that number when the Paris Agreement was being negotiated because 1.5 degrees Celsius represents what science says as the maximum allowable rise in average global temperature relative to pre-industrial temperature levels. So I think the original number that was being floated during the Paris Agreement was 2 degrees, but the developing nations really opposed it because if that's what the scientists think, is that 1.5 is the number, 2 degrees would be devastation.

It's disturbing to think that a lot of people still don't believe in the impact of climate change where in fact, we are seeing that impact. In the Philippines specifically, for example, in Manila, Manila sea level is rising, rising more than the global average, I believe. Do you see social media, the inundation of all this flooding that's happening?

Very sad.

So Patch, the other reason why the Paris agreement is very controversial is because it did establish that the developing nations are the least responsible for emissions that is linked to climate change, right? The carbon dioxide emissions, and yet they are the ones who are suffering.

Right.

The developed countries committed to mobilizing $100 billion per year to help the developing countries. I watched such an impassioned speech from many delegates, the Philippines among them, but there were also delegates from India and Africa who were so disappointed at the developed nations' commitments because they really felt that number and the way it's been deployed over the years has just again been very disadvantageous to the developing nations. And then of course, there are countries who initially pledged to adopt it.

An example is the US. So originally, it joined the Paris Agreement in 2016. It withdrew in 2017.

And it rejoined again in 2021. However, it again announced its intent to withdraw in January of 2025. And this withdrawal is scheduled to take effect in January 2026, one year after formal notification was given to the UN Secretary General.

So focusing specifically on the Philippines, the reason why it's been really critical of developed nations' contributions to the agreement, it's because it's considered one of the highest vulnerable to the devastating impacts of climate change, while establishing that it contributes only a very small percentage of the global greenhouse gas emissions. And it relies very heavily on this international financial and technological support from developed nations. The Philippines' nationally determined contribution to this agreement is a significant portion at 72% that is conditioned on this support.

So without that aid, we can't really do much. Even if the Philippines wants to commit fully to the Paris Agreement and it's actively working to meet its own targets, the Philippines has voiced concerns about the level of support that would allow them to do this.

Did you come across what has happened to Yeb Saño now?

So in 2013, he was the Commissioner of the Philippines Climate Change Commission. He eventually became Greenpeace Executive Director in 2016 and had only recently stepped down basically in January of 2025. He previously served as Commissioner of the Philippines Climate Change Commission, which was the country's leading policymaking body on climate change.

And he was the Philippines Chief Negotiator in the COP. He's widely known as a Champion for Climate Justice and a voice for developing countries in the UN. And he's also an active member of an organization called Philippine Movement for Climate Justice.

So I came across this term climate justice over and over again. And it's early days, right, since his retirement from Greenpeace. So who knows where he will be, but I'm sure he'll still be a strong advocate.

Just wanted to mention briefly that throughout all of this, that sounds very much a bit doom and gloom. I'm glad to hear about advocacies of other organizations. The barangays are very active and they play a crucial role in emergency management.

They often act as the first responders during these disasters. So I'm glad that we have that community. In addition, we have some efforts to revive mangroves around Philippine coastlines, which serve as natural barriers against storms and surges and flooding.

There's something to like, hold on to as far as hope, and even though international support may be lacking.

And you know, Filipinos really do lead in this climate justice space. I came across a book called “Not Too Late, Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility.” I mentioned this book because there was a Filipino contribution to it, an essay called How the Ants Move the Elephants in Paris, written by Renato Redentor Constantino. That family name should be familiar to you, Patch.

Yeah, we read the books.

Yes, so Red, as he's commonly known, is the son of Renato Constantino Sr. He's the renowned Filipino nationalist historian. One of the books that we read of his is this book called “A Past Revisited.” Do you remember that was required reading?

Right.

His brother is also a noted political activist, Renato Constantino Jr., also known as RC, who passed away last year in April 2024. And his daughter is Karmina Constantino.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, with a K though, who's a broadcast journalist with ABS-CBN today.

A very prominent figure in Philippine journalism. Right.

So Red is a climate justice activist. And this title, Patch, was very intentional because the metaphor of ants and elephants, it's often used to illustrate the relationship between small forces, the ants, and large, powerful entities, the elephant. Even though ants are individually small and look weak, when they're united and persistent, they can create significant impact through collective effort.

And the elephants symbolize huge institutions, governments, corporations, powerful decision makers, they're large and slow moving and hard to influence. They might appear dominant, but at the end of the day, they're afraid of ants.

They get swarmed.

They get swarmed, they move.

Oh, I love that.

So it was really such a powerful message. And that essay was really about how the Philippines and all of the other developing nations pushed the agreement, number one, to acknowledge the figure of 1.5 Celsius versus 2 Celsius as a significant threshold in the agreement. And there were many other facets of the agreement that the developing nations just could not agree to because it was not enough to really make the Paris Agreement impactful.

I just found it so brilliant that he found that metaphor to describe what happened in Paris. And you know, Red Constantino was also the executive director of an organization called Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities, and I'm going to describe how they introduced themselves on their website. It's an international non-government group advancing fair climate policy and low carbon climate resilient development.

It's based in the Philippines and it's engaged with a wider international climate and energy policy arena, particularly in Asia. It is recognized for its role and help advance effective global climate action and the Paris Climate Agreement, hence his essay. And then the last thing I just wanted to mention, Patch, is an article that I came across literally two days ago.

The title is “The Surprising Role of Philippine Seas and Fighting Climate Change.” And we're also going to link that in the show notes. So we know that oceans cover two-thirds, right, of the Earth's surface. What I didn't know is that it's actually responsible for 50% of oxygen production. It absorbs 25% of carbon dioxide emissions, and it captures 90% of excess heat from greenhouse gases.

Wow.

So this article goes on to mention that this process is fueled by the phytoplankton through photosynthesis. And there's this concept that they call the biological carbon pump. There was a recent study by Nature Climate Change in March of 2025 that estimates this biological carbon pump captures about 2.8 billion tons of carbon per year, and it locks it away for at least 50 years.

And the Philippines is contributing significantly as one of the most effective natural carbon pump sequestration, around 7% of it happens in marine protected areas. And the Philippines boasts over 2,500 of these marine protected areas.

It's the world's highest number. Which is why we really need to safeguard these marine ecosystems, because it serves both environmental and economic goals. The Philippines is actually advocating for the integration of these ocean-based carbon storage into our national policies.

But as we know, that takes political will. And it alone can't do the job, right? So apart from that, there needs to be a move from coal to clean power, renewables, energy efficiency, and methane production reduction, which we lag behind.

I was hoping to end with that message of hope, but, you know, I don't know if I succeeded.

Listen, you came across these articles, right? So the great thing about it is there is interest and there is research. There are advocates. You've listed them. There obviously is hope. It doesn't have to be doom and gloom.

Yeah. And so even if Red Constantino, for example, is no longer the ICSC executive director, he was succeeded by an economist whose name is Angelo Cairo de la Cruz. And I just found out, Patch, too, that Red succeeded Yeb. So there's definitely a succession going on now, right? And that's my hope is that more and more people take up their advocacy because obviously they can't do these things forever. And a lot of young people in the Philippines definitely are taking up the mantle.

And we as ordinary citizens have a role to play. So these beaches in the Philippines, everybody remember that it's not just for sunbathing and swimming.

If we cannot actively participate or contribute to these organizations, obviously even wherever we are, we can do little things like recycling, et cetera, you know. All of this have an impact. Like the ants, even if we're just little people individually, together, we can make a huge impact.

So that's our episode. We hope you join us on our next trip. 

O siya, siya.

Ingat.

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