Manila: Seven people were killed, six injured, and three more went missing in floods due to a low pressure area 300 kilometres southeast of General Santos in southern Philippines on Monday, a senior official said.
Lord Anthony Gallade, 1, died of drowning in Compostela Valley, an area that was devastated when killer Typhoon Bopha entered the northeastern part of the southern Philippines on December 4 last year, killing 2,000 people.
John Michael Unson, 26, died of drowning and his body was found on Tuesday in El Salvador City, Misamis Oriental, said Undersecretary Benito Ramos, head of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC).
The two were among seven who died in the southern area where the low pressure area brought rains and floods in 202 villages, three cities, 31 municipalities in nine provinces in several regions in the southern Philippines and southern Luzon, Ramos said.
Two of the fatalities and three of the missing people were from Oriental Mindoro, in southern Luzon, also affected by the low pressure area, Ramos said.
About 59,304 families or 245,487 people were displaced by the bad weather. 14,174 families, a total of 65,000 people, were placed at 120 evacuation centres. Some 5,097 families, or 17,655 people, decided to stay with relatives in safer areas, Ramos added.
About 20 typhoons visit the Philippines every year, starting in June.
