MANILA, Philippines—The death toll from “Pepeng” (international codename: Parma)—which entered the country as a typhoon and left it after 10 days as a tropical depression—has risen to 311, the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) said Tuesday.
In its 5 a.m. report, the NDCC said 238 of the deaths occurred in the Cordillera Autonomous Region (CAR) and were largely caused by landslides.
The rest of the fatalities were reported as victims of drowning, with 64 in the Ilocos region, four in Central Luzon, one in Calabarzon and four in the Bicol region.
The number of those injured totaled 185—131 in CAR, 47 in the Ilocos, and seven in Cagayan Valley.
The number of missing persons stands at 48, the NDCC said.
The destruction wrought by Pepeng was estimated at P7.1 billion, with damage to agriculture rising to P6.02 billion (from Monday’s P4 billion) and damage to infrastructure at P1.1 billion.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has ordered all government agencies involved in disaster relief to sustain their operations, according to Lt. Col. Ernesto Torres, the NDCC spokesperson.
Torres said that at 10 a.m. Tuesday, a C-130 cargo plane left for Tuguegarao, Cagayan, carrying 500 sacks of rice, 5,000 food packs, 10,000 packs of used clothing, 5,000 blankets, 3,000 plastic mats, 3,000 water jugs, 2,000 towels, and 200 boxes of noodles to be distributed to the devastated areas in the region.
No comments:
Post a Comment