2025 Recap: The numbers that staggered a nation

MANILA, Philippines—The floods came first. In Bulacan, Pampanga, and parts of Metro Manila, residents waded through chest-deep water, salvaging what they could from submerged homes. In other provinces, swollen rivers tore through farmland and roads that had supposedly been reinforced years earlier. These scenes were not new, but by 2025, what followed was unprecedented: a