MANILA, Philippines - President Benigno Aquino III said global climate change, which has been linked to the powerful typhoons in recent years, is already an "accepted reality" for Filipinos.
"Global climate change is a reality and that there should be no debate that it is happening," Aquino said in an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour on Tuesday, which was also shown on Philippine television.
"Times when it should be raining suddenly become dry. The dry months suddenly become very, very wet," he said. "Since I've assumed office, practically every year, when we are supposed to be in the Christmas spirit already where we never have typhoons, we have very, very strong, devastating typhoons."
Aquino made the statement in the aftermath of Super Typhoon "Yolanda" (international name Haiyan), which has caused massive destruction in several areas in the Visayas and has killed nearly 2,000 people.
Powerful typhoons like Yolanda is the "new normal" phenomenon as observed in weather disturbances that previously lashed the country, according to Environment Sec. Ramon Paje.
"More than a decade ago, we have been telling you that this will happen," Paje told ANC's Headstart. "Almost every year, it is already a common occurrence. It's now the new normal."
Paje said in just seven years, the country was hit by stronger monsoons and typhoons that have caused massive devastation and hundreds of fatalities.
He said these weather phenomena include Typhoons Ondoy, Pepeng, Sendong, Pablo and the enhanced southwest monsoon or "Habagat" that poured heavy rains and triggered floods in Metro Manila in early 2012 and 2013.
Read: 'Habagat' also pounded Metro Manila with intense rains August last year
The Cabinet official said the country should adapt to these occurrences that may continue in the future.
"The first thing to is to adapt to it in terms of infrastructure, response time, preparedness, the precision in terms of forecasting," said Paje.
Super Typhoon "Yolanda" was the strongest tropical cyclone to enter the country this year and one of the most powerful ever recorded.
The Hawaii-based Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) of the US Department of Defense assessed Yolanda as a Category 5-equivalent super typhoon on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale.
At one point, the JTWC even estimated the Yolanda's one-minute sustained winds to 315 kilometers per hour.
Yolanda has caused massive destruction in Tacloban City and in other areas in Eastern Visayas. The official government death toll is nearing 2,000 but authorities have estimated that the number could go up to 10,000.
Similar to Yolanda, Typhoon Pablo slammed into the country late last year and caused floods and landslides in Compostella Valley, Davao Oriental and other areas in Mindanao. More than 1,000 people were killed while over 800 others remain missing and are feared dead.
Also late 2011, Sendong devastated Cagayan de Oro and Iligan and killed over a thousand people.
In September 2009, Ondoy spawned record flooding in Metro Manila while Pepeng also lashed Luzon. Both tropical cyclones killed nearly 500 people.
Read: Deadliest, most destructive cyclones of the Philippines
Scientists have claimed that global warming has contributed to rising seas and a general increase in strength in the most powerful tropical cyclones. But at the same time, they have also said that it is not possible to attribute single weather events like Yolanda to climate change.
The Associated Press reported a 2008 study which found that in the northwestern Pacific where Yolanda formed, the top one percent of the strongest tropical cyclones over the past 30 years are getting on average about 1 miles per hour stronger each year — a phenomenon some scientists suspect is a consequence of global warming.
"The strongest storms are getting stronger" the Associated Press quoted the study's co-author James Kossin of the National Climatic Data Center. Yolanda "is what potentially could be a good example of the kind of the things we're finding."
"Similarly, the Philippines has seen its sea rise nearly half an inch in the past 20 years — about triple the global increase, according to R. Steven Nerem of the University of Colorado. Higher sea levels can add to storm surge, creating slightly greater flooding," the report added. - with Seth Borenstein, Associated Press