‘Habagat’ rains, storms’ death toll reaches 16

MANILA, Philippines — The number of deaths due to the combined effects of the southwest monsoon or “habagat” and tropical cyclones Luis and Maymay (international name: Kujira) has risen to 16 from nine as of Monday morning.

The list of the Philippine National Police (PNP), however, recorded 15 deaths as PNP public information chief, Col. Allen Rae Co, said they did not include Police Master Sgt. Fernando Marfa Jr., 40, who died while trying to rescue two rescue volunteers from a river in Cadiz City, Negros Occidental, on Aug. 7. He did not elaborate.

In a press briefing at Camp Crame, Co said that as of 6 a.m. of Aug. 10, their police regional offices had confirmed the following 15 fatalities:

• Two as reported by the Ilocos regional police—a 35-year-old male who was electrocuted in La Union and a 54-year-old man who drowned in Alaminos City, Pangasinan.
• Seven as reported by the Calabarzon police consisting of a 22-year-old woman and 20-year-old male who died in a rockfall and landslide in Rodriguez, Rizal; a 45-year-old man who drowned in Batangas City; a 28-year-old man who was electrocuted and another man killed in a landslide, both in Batangas province; a man who was killed by a fallen tree in Antipolo City, Rizal; and a man who drowned in Binangonan, Rizal.
• Six as reported by the Cordillera police, all caused by landslides: two men aged 31 and 66 in La Trinidad, Benguet, and three men and a woman in Baguio City.

Final vlog

It was not immediately clear if the fatalities recorded by the PNP in Baguio City included a mother and her young daughter who were recording a vlog when a landslide buried three houses at Purok 2, Riverside in Barangay Guisad Surong around 7 p.m. on Sunday.

READ: Baguio landslide deaths rise to 8; 2 remain missing

Mary Ann Soriano told reporters her cousin, Alinor, and her daughter looked “really happy in the live ” which captured their final moments before tons of soil and debris loosened by torrential rains in the past days came crashing down, burying them alive.

“It still hasn’t sunk in for us. It feels like a dream. We really can’t accept it yet. It’s still so heavy, so painful, especially because we were close,” Soriano said.

Five others were killed in the landslide: a 17-year-old female student, two 9-year-old children, a 56-year-old man and an adult woman. Three others survived while three more remain unaccounted for as search, rescue and retrieval operations continue.

Injured, missing

The landslide was among at least 23 soil erosion incidents and collapsed retaining structures recorded across Baguio following torrential rains in the past days.

The PNP also recorded 11 people who were injured in the Cordillera and two others in Calabarzon, in addition to six that were reported missing, five of them in the Cordillera and one in Calabarzon.

“Of course, this is still to be validated and officially announced by the Office of Civil Defense (OCD), but this is what we got from the ground,” Co told reporters.

In a separate briefing held at Malacañang also on Monday, the OCD said that based on its monitoring, there were 12 deaths and eight missing.

Asked about the discrepancy, Co said the PNP’s figures were “based on real-time reports submitted by our units on the ground nationwide.”

“First, some cases may still be undergoing validation and confirmation on their end. Second, there may be differences in the criteria being used. Certain deaths that meet our conditions for inclusion in our statistics may not yet be classified by OCD as directly related to the typhoon or the southwest monsoon,” he added.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), on the other hand, reported at least eight deaths as of 6 a.m. on Monday.

It said the combined effects of habagat and the tropical cyclones had affected 752,000 people in the Ilocos, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Mimaropa, Bicol, Western Visayas, Zamboanga Peninsula and the Cordillera regions.

The NDRRMC also monitored around 34,400 people taking shelter in 412 evacuation centers in the affected regions.

Initial crop damage

The Department of Agriculture (DA), meanwhile, said in a statement on Monday that based on its initial estimate, the weather disturbances have caused P135.3 million worth of agricultural damage across Luzon and the Visayas.

About 6,010 farmers and 4,516 hectares of farmland were also affected across Ilocos, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Mimaropa and Western Visayas, it added.

According to the DA, rice, corn, high-value crops and livestock are among the commodities most affected by the tropical cyclones while agricultural infrastructure, machinery and equipment also sustained some damage.

Data from the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration, on the other hand, showed an increase in the water level of several dams as of Monday morning, with Angat, San Roque and Magat Dams recording the biggest increases over the past 24 hours.

As of 8 a.m., the water level at Angat Dam stood at 170.74 meters, up by 8.66 meters from 161.81 meters the previous day.

At San Roque Dam, the water level rose to 254.77 meters from 239.72 meters a day earlier, while at Magat Dam, the water level was up by 3.61 meters, reaching 174.34 meters from 170.72 meters. —WITH REPORTS FROM KURT DELA PEÑA, MAUREEN MATAYEW, KIMBERLIE QUITASOL, KENNETH TABIN, JOANNA ROSE AGLIBOT, GREG REFRACCION, MADONNA VIROLA, AND MOREXETTE MARIE ERRAM

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