The Philippine government’s estimate for the destruction caused by Typhoon Haiyan stands at approximately 2,500 dead, although non-official estimates have placed the death toll nearer 10,000. The lack of food and clean water in the hardest-hit areas are another serious problem.
Looting was observed on the day after the typhoon hit, and although there is some truth in suspicions that this theft was due to opportunism, the need for food and water supplies was also a major factor.
Disaster victims interviewed stressed the immediacy of their need for relief. The past few days have seen the public security situation on the streets of disaster areas very much in flux, with intermittent flare-ups of gunbattles between police and civilians.
INTERNATIONAL AID
International aid continues to arrive in the Philippines; Taiwan has dispatched several C-130 Hercules tactical airlift planes and the Japan Self Defense Force has sent a 1,000-strong relief team to help in post-disaster efforts, along with Ise-class ships carrying US Air Force MV-22 Osprey helicopters to help in the relief operation.
The USS George Washington, cutting short its stay there, has led a fleet of vessels out of Hong Kong Harbor bound for the Philippines and laden with relief supplies.
The UK and Australia have also sent disaster relief.
The Philippines is an archipelagic nation. The north and the south of the country differ greatly. The north is predominantly Catholic, heavily influenced by its Spanish colonial past.
The south is predominantly Muslim, and consists of scattered islands and islets with forested areas, and uneven economic development.
INSURGENCY
For many years there has been an insurgency in the south seeking independence from the national government in Manila.
After much effort and help from Japan, in August 2011, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front laid down their arms and signed a peace agreement with Manila in Tokyo, which allowed for the establishment of a “state-within-a-state” highly autonomous zone.
However, the government is still fighting the Maoist New People’s Army (NPA), the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, and the NPA has been ambushing government convoys transporting relief supplies for typhoon victims.
The ability of the Philippine government to handle the situation is a source of concern. Even disregarding the endemic corruption, it does not have sufficient resources to guarantee the safe transport of disaster relief into the hands of those who need it.
UPRISING?
If the situation drags on, there is a danger that the frustration and desperation of the disaster victims will erupt into an uprising.
If this does happen, all political progress made after many years of hard work may well be lost, and it will be back to the drawing board.
A fragmented Philippines in the east of the South China sea will not be in the interests of its regional neighbors.
Given this, and despite the previous tensions between Taiwan and the Philippines over the fatal shooting of a Taiwanese fisherman by Philippine Coast Guard personnel, it is important that Taiwan helps the Philippines, and that the government sends emergency relief to the victims of this latest disaster, if not for humanitarian reasons, then for our mutual strategic interests.
HoonTing is a commentator in Taipei.
Translated by Paul Cooper
We are used to hearing that whenever something happens, it means Taiwan is about to fall to China. Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) cannot change the color of his socks without China experts claiming it means an invasion is imminent. So, it is no surprise that what happened in Venezuela over the weekend triggered the knee-jerk reaction of saying that Taiwan is next. That is not an opinion on whether US President Donald Trump was right to remove Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro the way he did or if it is good for Venezuela and the world. There are other, more qualified
This should be the year in which the democracies, especially those in East Asia, lose their fear of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China principle” plus its nuclear “Cognitive Warfare” coercion strategies, all designed to achieve hegemony without fighting. For 2025, stoking regional and global fear was a major goal for the CCP and its People’s Liberation Army (PLA), following on Mao Zedong’s (毛澤東) Little Red Book admonition, “We must be ruthless to our enemies; we must overpower and annihilate them.” But on Dec. 17, 2025, the Trump Administration demonstrated direct defiance of CCP terror with its record US$11.1 billion arms
The immediate response in Taiwan to the extraction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro by the US over the weekend was to say that it was an example of violence by a major power against a smaller nation and that, as such, it gave Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) carte blanche to invade Taiwan. That assessment is vastly oversimplistic and, on more sober reflection, likely incorrect. Generally speaking, there are three basic interpretations from commentators in Taiwan. The first is that the US is no longer interested in what is happening beyond its own backyard, and no longer preoccupied with regions in other
As technological change sweeps across the world, the focus of education has undergone an inevitable shift toward artificial intelligence (AI) and digital learning. However, the HundrED Global Collection 2026 report has a message that Taiwanese society and education policymakers would do well to reflect on. In the age of AI, the scarcest resource in education is not advanced computing power, but people; and the most urgent global educational crisis is not technological backwardness, but teacher well-being and retention. Covering 52 countries, the report from HundrED, a Finnish nonprofit that reviews and compiles innovative solutions in education from around the world, highlights a
RSS