Mayor Joy Belmonte expressed satisfaction with the Quezon City local government's disaster response efforts during the recent onslaught of Typhoons Dante and Emong, and the southwest monsoon (habagat).

"I am very satisfied with the response, especially if you compare the response now with our response in the Carina incidents, talagang dami ng calls for rescue,” Mayor Belmonte said during a disaster response briefing on Friday, July 25.

“For me, that is a very important indicator if you're doing well or not. Kasi 'yung 800 calls na ‘yan, means that our efforts to evacuate the people, hindi tayo naging masyadong matagumpay. At marami pa rin nabaha, to the point na kinailangan na silang puntahan ng search and rescue teams natin. And of course, when they don't evacuate, we put the lives of our rescuers at risk (For me, that is a very important indicator if you're doing well or not. Because the 800 calls mean that our efforts to evacuate the people were not very successful. And there is still a lot of flooding, to the point that our search and rescue teams had to go there. And of course, when they don't evacuate, we put the lives of our rescuers at risk),” she added.

This year, Quezon City recorded only 158 rescue calls, a significant drop from the 864 calls during Typhoon Carina, which city officials attributed to successful preemptive evacuations.

“So that means that most of the population have already been evacuated. And they are the 37,000 that we have in our evacuation centers...The more people that we have inside our evacuation centers, means the less rescue operations, less risk to our people, less risk of casualties,” QC Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (DRRMO) head Bianca Perez said. 

Over 37,000 individuals were evacuated ahead of the peak of the rains, avoiding potentially dangerous rescues and minimizing casualties.

“Despite the challenge that we have in response, operations, and evacuation, we would really rather have that than the high request for rescue tools at the time of peak of rain,” Perez added.

The storms caused significant infrastructure damage across Quezon City, with losses estimated at over P125 million.

In total, around 72,000 cubic meters of floodwater were recorded, prompting large-scale clearing and drainage efforts.

Mayor Belmonte assured residents that the city will continue to improve its disaster response strategies. She reiterated the importance of community cooperation in times of calamity.

“We are learning from every storm. The goal is always to save lives and minimize damage — and this time, I believe Quezon City has taken a big step forward,” she said.