Cardinal Urges Filipinos to Shift from 'Resiliency' to 'Defiance' for Accountability

MANILA — Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David of Kalookan is urging Filipinos to move beyond their celebrated resilience and demand accountability for disasters and suffering that could have been prevented. In a social media post Monday, David warned that resilience becomes dangerous when it teaches people to accept recurring floods, failing infrastructure and preventable deaths as normal. “I think it is time to go beyond resiliency—to defiance. Not defiance of nature. Not defiance of the law. But the collective defiance of citizens who refuse to accept as normal what should never have been allowed to become normal,” David said. “Let us refuse to normalize preventable suffering. Let us demand answers. Let us demand accountability. And where the law allows it, let us act together as citizens to hold accountable those who fail in their duty to protect the public,” he said. He called for citizens to reject conditions that should never have been allowed to become normal and demand action from those responsible. David cited the death of 25-year-old Reiner Novero, who disappeared into an open drainage canal hidden beneath floodwaters while walking along a flooded sidewalk in Angeles City. “How can a pedestrian possibly protect himself from a death trap he cannot even see?” David asked, pointing to dangers created by poorly maintained or concealed infrastructure. He also recalled being trapped for nearly five hours in flooding near San Simon along the North Luzon Expressway on Sunday, questioning why motorists repeatedly face the same hazards. David, former president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, acknowledged that climate change is intensifying rainfall but warned it should not become an excuse for failures in planning, maintenance and flood control. “Climate change cannot become the convenient new version of ‘act of God,’” he said, citing flooded highways, clogged drainage systems, unsafe manholes and failed flood-control projects. More than 30 people died in floods and landslides in August, while billions of pesos in infrastructure and agricultural losses were reported nationwide. The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said that recent bad weather had affected 8.4 million people, or 2.4 million families, across the country. David urged citizens to demand disclosure of flood-control projects and budgets, file complaints with regulators and pursue legal remedies when negligence causes harm. “Resilience should never mean passive acceptance of incompetence, corruption or neglect,” David said. “This time, let us also be defiant.”