The Philippines ranks amongst the countries most affected by disasters triggered by natural phenomena.
During the second half of the 20th century, the country was indeed affected by a quickly increasing number of
disastrous events. The present paper tracks the root causes of disasters in the Philippines by successively testing
the potential weight of natural hazards occurrence, changes in society and people’s vulnerability. It further explores
the structural causes that subtend the vulnerability of the Philippine archipelago in the face of natural hazards.
It concludes that the sharp increase in the number of disasters in the Philippines during the 20th century is not
natural in origin. It rather results from increasing people’s vulnerability in a changing society linked to population
dynamics, fast urbanization and economic development. In facing natural hazards, the population is rendered
particularly unsafe by the complex interaction between the historical and cultural heritages, the political-economy
system and the difficulty to access land and resources.