Manila: Death toll in the two typhoons that devastated the entire country has reached 800 and could rise to 900 or 1,000, disaster officials said, adding that fears rose among rescuers, relief volunteers and flood victims as a low pressure area, seen 200 kilometres off central Philippines, brought heavy rains in the Visayas region and mud-covered Bicol region in lower southern Luzon on Wednesday.
“No storm has landed in the Bicol Region yet and the low pressure area has already veered towards Palawan in southwestern Philippines late Wednesday, but many areas in Albay have been flooded due to two days of continuous rains,” Bernardo Rafaelito Alejandro, head of the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) in Bicol, said in a radio interview.
“Half of 700 families in villages in Guinobatan town were evacuated. Local governemnt officials were afraid that rain-fed landslides might inundate towns in the low lying areas of the Mayon Volcano,” said Alejandro, adding that parts of several provinces in the Bicol region were flooded due to “storm surge” or effect of the two recent typhoons that devastated the entire country.
Meanwhile, tropical storm Ketsana (Ondoy) which struck Metro Manila and nearby upper southern Luzon and lower northern Luzon on September 26 and tropical cyclone Parma (Pepeng) which stayed in northern Luzon from October 2 to 12, killed 800, 424 of whom died due to landslides and drowning in the north alone, said Glenn Rabonza, administrator of the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC).
The north’s Cordillera Administrative Region (composed of Benguet, Kalinga, Abra, Ifugao and Mountain Province) had 287 fatalities while 75 died in Pangasinan, and several others in central Luzon and southern Luzon, which remained flooded up to now, Rabonza said.
More bodies were unearthed as heavy equipment and people’s brigade clear landslide areas. Figures of fatalities were predicted to reach 900 or 1,000, with the number of relatives reporting more missing people, local government leaders said.
The two typhoons displaced a total of 1.3 million families or 6.1 million people nationwide. Parma devastated 4.472 villages in 256 towns and 35 cities in 27 provinces while Ketsana destroyed parts of 12 of the country’s 13 regions, Rabonza said.
Parma and Ketsana’s damage reached a total of P18 billion (Dh 1.5 billion), compared to P 12 billion (Dh 1 billion) on Tuesday, Rabonza said, adding that 85 percent of the damage affected agricultural products.
As a result, prizes of vegetables rose 100 to 300 times in Metro Manila. A kilo of ginger rose from P 100 to P2 00 (Dh 8.3 to 16.3). Five pieces of string beans amounted to P 250.00 (Dh 20.8), a consumer group said.
President Gloria Arroyo’s declaration of nationwide calamity could not prevent government officials from preventing sellers to increase the prices of their products at market level, the consumer group complained.
At least 3,132 houses were totally destroyed while 23,043 were partially damaged by Parma. In comparison, 4,270 houses were totally damaged and 5,933 were partially destroyed by Ketsana. Refurbishment of all the houses, to the shouldered privately by residents would cost P 1 billion (Dh 83 million), Engineer Othello Villaraza said.
The department of health intensified and fast-tracked the sending of medicine to a total of 600 evacuation centres nationwide, to avert the outbreak of leptospirosis, respiratory ailments, and skin diseases.
The social welfare department has invited more volunteers to fast track the sending of relief products nationwide, including to areas that were isolated due to damaged roads and bridges.
More aid is needed in the Philippines, said United Nations Undersecretary General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes.
The UN committed $ 19 million after typhoon Ketsana damaged Metro Manila and nearby provinces. The amount is now $ 55 million short because of what happened in northern Luzon after the arrival of typhoon Parma, said Holmes.
Foreign and local non government organizations have been raising funds for the typhoon affected regions.
