President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said on Wednesday that the Philippines is "better prepared" for disasters ten years after Super Typhoon Yolanda's onslaught as the country has developed more tools to avoid and respond to catastrophes.

In a speech at the 2023 Handa Pilipinas Visayas Leg in Tacloban, Marcos said Yolanda uncovered the need for a catastrophe risk reduction in the country.

Marcos said that the Department of Science and Technology has made disaster risk prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery technologies to enhance search and rescue operations.

The government and corporate sector must collaborate to commercialize the instruments, he added.

"(We will) make sure that such devastation will be mitigated or somehow prevented because we are now better prepared, and we are now better adapted to the vagaries of very severe weather events," Marcos said.

"But putting our experience at the heart of this event reminds us of the calamity that brought unimaginable destruction to the Visayas, to the Philippines. It serves as a poignant reminder of the power of nature and our vulnerability to that power," Marcos added.

Meanwhile, Marcos said during the 10th Year Yolanda Commemoration at the Convention Center in Tacloban City that integrating climate change into formulating national policies and strengthening the country's disaster preparedness is essential.

Marcos acknowledged that Super Typhoon Yolanda was the "onset of the worst effects of climate change," saying that the country's experience with the disaster has taught the rest of the world about the destructive effects of climate change.

"It is crucial to be reminded that climate change will keep exacerbating the impact of natural disasters," Marcos said.

"We must make climate change a vital component of our national policies and make sure that we apply our knowledge on climate change to every plan, to every decision and every initiative so that we can build stronger and more resilient communities," Marcos added.