��������

MANILA: Torrential rains brought the Philippine capital Manila to a standstill on Tuesday, as heavy flooding displaced tens of thousands of people across the country.

Monsoon downpours that began last week and intensified due to Typhoon Wipha have killed at least six people, displaced over 82,000, and affected more than 1.2 million others.

Government offices and schools are suspended until at least Wednesday, as the heavy rain submerged around 500 areas in the Philippine capital region alone. 

“The flooding varies in depth — from gutter-level to much deeper waters,” Don Artes, chairman of Metro Manila Development Authority, said at a briefing on Tuesday. 

The severe floods in Manila were partly triggered by the city’s old drainage system. 

“Our drainage system is also outdated — more than 50 years old — and too small for today’s rainfall volume,” Artes said. 

Around 17,000 people remain in evacuation centers, as President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered state agencies to focus on disaster relief operations.

“The OCD (Office of Civil Defense) is now on red alert … The most heavily affected areas are Metro Manila, as well as the provinces of Bulacan, Pampanga, Cavite, Batangas, and Rizal,” OCD Assistant Secretary Raffy Alejandro IV said. 

Philippine authorities are bracing for more heavy rain, with the southwest monsoon expected to “bring moderate to intense rains of up to 200mm within the next few days,” the Interior Ministry said in a statement, adding that preemptive evacuation has started in some areas. 

The national weather bureau, PAGASA, said it expects “widespread incidents of severe flooding” with landslides until at least Wednesday in the Manila capital region, as well as the provinces of Zambales, Bataan, Cavite and Batangas. 

The Philippines is one of the most vulnerable countries to extreme weather events, with an average of 20 tropical storms passing through the country every year. 

“Flooding, especially during the southwest monsoon season, is getting frustrating and tiring,” Ryan Reyes Soriano, a 47-year-old resident of Malabon city, told Arab News. 

“Formerly floods during the 80s up to the 90s were a cause for concern if they go up waist level. Now floods often go as high as a story if storms are bad, and that is a difference of 10 to 15 feet (3 to 4.5 meters).”

Malabon, a coastal city located north of Manila, was one of the most severely affected areas in the capital region. Almost all of its 21 districts were submerged in floods, with some regions still inundated as of Tuesday afternoon.

“In some cases it’s deep enough for a person to drown. Lucky if it’s only knee-deep,” Soriano said. “I went outside earlier, the water is still above my waist.”

WASHINGTON: The United States announced Tuesday it will again pull out of the UN’s educational, scientific and cultural agency because it believes that its involvement is not in the country’s national interest, and that the agency promotes anti-Israel speech.

This decision comes only two years after the United States rejoined UNESCO after leaving in 2018, during US President Donald Trump’s first administration.

State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said the withdrawal was linked to UNESCO’s perceived agenda to “advance divisive social and cultural causes.”

She added in a statement that UNESCO’s decision “to admit the ‘State of Palestine’ as a Member State is highly problematic, contrary to US policy, and contributed to the proliferation of anti-Israel rhetoric within the organization.”

The decision, first reported by the New York Post, will take effect at the end of December 2026.

This will be the third time that the United States has left UNESCO, which is based in Paris, and the second time during a Trump administration. It last rejoined the agency in 2023, under the Biden administration.

UNESCO’s Director General Audrey Azoulay said she “deeply” regrets the US decision but insisted that it was expected, and that the agency “has prepared for it.” She also denied accusations of anti-Israel bias.

“These claims ... contradict the reality of UNESCO’s efforts, particularly in the field of Holocaust education and the fight against antisemitism,” she said.

The Trump administration in 2017 announced that the US would withdraw from UNESCO, citing anti-Israel bias. That decision took effect a year later. The US and Israel stopped financing UNESCO after it voted to include Palestine as a member state in 2011.

“The reasons put forward by the United States of America are the same as seven years ago, even though the situation has changed profoundly, political tensions have receded, and UNESCO today constitutes a rare forum for consensus on concrete and action-oriented multilateralism,” Azoulay added.

The decision came as no surprise to UNESCO officials, who had anticipated such a move following the specific review ordered by the Trump administration earlier this year. They also expected that Trump would pull out again since the return of the US in 2023 had been promoted by a political rival, former President Joe Biden.

The USwithdrawal is likely to affect UNESCO because the US provides a notable share of the agency’s budget. But the organization should be able to cope. UNESCO has diversified its funding sources in recent years and the US contribution has decreased, representing only 8 percent of the agency’s total budget.

Azoulay pledged that UNESCO will carry out its missions despite “inevitably reduced resources.” The agency is not considering any staff layoffs at this stage.

“UNESCO’s purpose is to welcome all the nations of the world, and the United States of America is and always will be welcome,” she said. “We will continue to work hand in hand with all our American partners in the private sector, academia and non-profit organizations, and will pursue our political dialogue with the US administration and Congress.”

The United States previously pulled out of UNESCO under the Reagan administration in 1984 because it viewed the agency as mismanaged, corrupt and used to advance the interests of the Soviet Union. It rejoined in 2003 during George W. Bush’s presidency.