The factory of disaster capitalism
Whenever private entities step in after a catastrophe, we Filipinos rejoice. Shame on the government! Thank God for the selfless businessman! We feel relieved that someone with power and money finally, actually cares about the welfare of the people. With the rich and powerful at center stage again, and impacted communities forced to be their audience, the “Billionaire Savior” is nothing more than a coping mechanism.
Corrupt public officials are not the only ones who steal from the people. Government and Big Business work in tandem to make public service delivery profitable. President Marcos recently revealed that a significant portion of flood control projects under his administration were awarded to just 15 contractors. Big Business depends on the government to enable its practices for maximum profit, often at the cost of quality, effectiveness, and the environment.
This is not just incompetence or nature– it’s orchestrated. Journalist Naomi Klein calls it the “disaster capitalism complex”: the intimate relationship between climate disaster, government corruption, and private sector exploitation. In this model, disasters aren’t just unfortunate events, they are opportunities. Private players partner with the State to turn disaster reconstruction into a lucrative market, often profiting from the very crises they helped create.
The result is an unnatural, intentionally designed factory that generates catastrophes that produce the most money for the already rich and powerful. Infrastructure projects that extract and destroy natural resources leave the rest of the population vulnerable to a relentless cycle of destruction and reconstruction. Every time a government project has to be rebuilt or “upgraded”, another contract goes up for bidding. Another payday.
Because of our dynastic politics, it’s easy for private interests to plant themselves directly inside the government. Political deals are insidious because they have become normal business practice; just as we are made to believe that catastrophic disasters are simply the price of being Filipino. Private corporations rely on constant growth to sustain their wealth, and that constant growth too often comes hand in hand with constant destruction.
In the face of such large-scale machinery, what can ordinary people do? Infrastructure projects are constantly imposed on communities without drawing from their knowledge or experience. We must see ourselves as more than passive beneficiaries and instead as active decision-makers and experts of the communities we live in.
Promises made by business tycoons such as Ramon Ang – focused on quick action without adequate information– risk doing more harm than good. Without working with those most affected, without asking what they know and what they need, begs the question: Who are these projects really for?
Community consultations, if they happen at all, tend to be performative. Yet barangays know better than anyone else what the problems are. Flood control projects are not only low quality but are maladaptive precisely because they fail to identify the real issues. More than just knowledge, people living at the frontlines of calamity bring skills and vigilance that can save lives.
In Kenya, the government works with communities to diagnose problems and decide where to invest climate funds. The state and donors alike have supported initiatives like the Munje Tunusuru Women’s Group where Kenyan women have built livelihoods rehabilitating mangrove forests, weaving conservation and development together. Participatory interventions like these equip communities to adapt, build resilience, and ultimately thrive.
In Bangladesh, the national flood warning network depends on constant contact between citizens and scientists. NPR reported the story of Nazma Akter, a housewife in the country’s north, armed with only a Nokia phone, who checks a yardstick-like river gauge several times a day and texts her readings to the warning center. Community-reliant systems like this have drastically reduced deaths because no one understands the landscape, the vulnerabilities, and the rhythms of change better than those who live with the floods.
It’s time we demand stronger community roles in climate interventions because we deserve far more than political theater. The government and private sector should empower local-led initiatives and stop grandstanding with infrastructure projects that are more cash cows than solutions. In the end, it is communities that bear the worst consequences of decisions that were never ours to begin with. As South African writer Hein Marais puts it: “Shelve the abiding fiction that disasters do not discriminate – that they flatten everything in their path with ‘democratic’ disregard. Plagues zero in on the dispossessed, on those forced to build their lives in the path of danger.”
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Eugenie R. Huibonhoa is a researcher and political communicator whose work focuses on post-colonial and community-led solutions for social justice.
