After Typhoon Yolanda, Who Gets to Design the Bay? Lessons from

More than a decade after Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) devastated central Philippines in November 2013, a new Ambio study says the hardest part of recovery in Tacloban City may be deciding whose future gets built. Published 4 October 2026, the paper by Antonio D. Salazar Jr. of the University of the Philippines Tacloban and Giles Jan L. Viojan of the University of the Philippines Cebu focuses on the contested Cancabato Causeway. Using interviews, document analysis, and participant observation near the Paraiso Mangrove Eco-Learning Park, it identifies three competing “policy assemblages”: technocratic, participatory-procedural, and environmentally oriented. The research frames design as ongoing governance that shapes assumptions about water and resilience.