At least 17 people died and two are still missing due to heavy rains, severe flooding and landslides that have affected several regions of the eastern and southern Philippines since last Monday, the national agency for natural disasters reported on Friday. The storm, which dumped a large amount of water since last Monday on the archipelago, will still leave heavy rain in the affected regions of the south and east of the country during the next 24 hours, as indicated this Friday by the state meteorological agency (PAGASA).
The region with the most victims is Bicol, southeast of Luzon, where 5 people died, registering the rest of the victims in Eastern Visayas (4), Northern Mindanao (4), Zamboanga (3) and Davao (1), according to the latest update of the National Council for Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (NDRRMC).
In addition, some 71,442 people remain displaced from their homes in different evacuation centers due to the storm, of which more than 523,000 who were affected for the storm.
Hit by between 15 and 20 cyclones each year, the Philippines is ranked among the nations most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Experts from international agencies point to shantytowns as the main factor in the large number of deaths caused by natural disasters in the country and which show the poor state of the infrastructure.