South Korean, Filipino officials rebuked for poor flood response and misjudgment
In South Korea, President Lee Jae-myung has slammed officials for ‘drinking and dancing’ amid deadly floods that claimed at least 19 lives
As floods devastate communities across South Korea and the Philippines, their presidents have rebuked officials for indulging in merrymaking and political publicity instead of focusing on disaster management.
South Korean President Lee Jae-myung on Tuesday ordered a “strict crackdown on the careless public officials who went about drinking and dancing or acted thoughtlessly” during a recent devastating rainfall, which claimed at least 19 lives nationwide.
Lee said it was important to punish misconduct by civil servants during a cabinet meeting, referring to incidents involving Guri Mayor Baek Kyung-hyeon and North Chungcheong Governor Kim Young-hwan.
Baek had been filmed singing at a restaurant in Hongcheon while neighbouring areas in northern Gyeonggi were battling flood damage.
Kim came under fire for drinking with councillors on the second anniversary of the 2023 Osong underpass flooding in Cheongju, which killed 14.
On the other hand, Lee has praised frontline responders, urging ministries to “identify and promote exemplary cases to serve as models”, according to a report by the Korea JoongAng Daily.
He has also directed agencies to prioritise efforts on search for the missing, designate special disaster zones and swiftly distribute grants to flood-hit communities, including Sancheong county in South Gyeongsang, which reported 10 fatalities.
Separately, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr reprimanded personnel from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), who were seen installing promotional tarpaulins for his coming State of the Nation Address (SONA) while floodwaters from severe tropical storm Wipha submerged large parts of the country.
Marcos Jnr made the comments to reporters following his meeting with US President Donald Trump in Washington on Tuesday. “That is an unfortunate misjudgment on their part,” he told reporters, as quoted by the Philippine Daily Inquirer. “But we’ve corrected it, and I trust it will not happen again.”
The presidential palace immediately suspended all SONA-related activities and ordered government bodies to divert their “full attention and exclusive focus” to disaster response.
According to officials, Wipha has forced almost 50,000 people to seek shelter in evacuation centres across the Philippines. Infrastructure damage has been assessed at more than 4 billion Philippine pesos (US$70 million), with at least six confirmed dead and eight still missing as of Wednesday.
“We have been watching it from the start since we left,” Marcos Jnr said, referring to his US trip, which began on Sunday. “Our teams have been trying to provide relief goods and evacuate as many people as possible.”
Unhandled type: inline-plus-widget {“type”:”inline-plus-widget”}
The president, whose fourth SONA is scheduled for July 28, vowed to resume speech preparations upon his return to Manila on Wednesday but said the natural disaster had rightly delayed the process.
Previous similar controversies in South Korea and the Philippines have also led to public outrage over poor response in the face of national emergencies.
In 2024, an incident in South Korea involving members of the elite Missile Strategy Command raised public alarm when the soldiers were found hosting a late-night vodka party inside their dormitory amid heightened tensions with North Korea. The defence ministry launched a disciplinary committee and pledged to impose “maximum measures” against those involved.
In the Philippines, then Tuguegarao mayor Jefferson Soriano was photographed in 2020 celebrating his birthday in Batangas, while his city was grappling with catastrophic floods caused by Typhoon Vamco. The incident drew widespread criticism from residents and on social media, prompting Soriano to issue a public apology and briefly step away from his official duties.
