This paper focuses on the potential of community-based disaster preparedness (CBDP) initiatives to alleviate vulnerability in the context of climate change, and their limitations. It presents evidence from the Philippines that, in the limited forms in which they are currently employed, CBDP initiatives have the potential both to empower and disempower, and warns against treating CBDP as a panacea to disaster management problems. The findings conclude that there is a risk that CBDP would increase the burden of responsibility of the local people without increasing their capacity to form an initiative, and importantly points out that different groups contribute different understandings, values and expectations regarding CBDP.