Five dead, 177,000 people displaced in floods in Philippines

Manila (dpa) - The death toll in massive flooding in two Philippine provinces has risen to five, with thousands others displaced, a government disaster relief agency said Friday.

The Office of Civil Defence said one of the victims drowned in floods in Oriental Mindoro province, 150 kilometres south of Manila, while two more fatalities were confirmed in Quezon province.

Two persons were earlier reported killed in the floods in Quezon, where were brought about by heavy monsoon rains since last weekend.

In Oriental Mindoro, 153 villages in four towns have been swamped since Tuesday when two dykes collapsed because of the rains.

Neri Amparo, operations chief of the Office of Civil Defence, said some 177,000 residents were displaced in the floods in Oriental Mindoro.

She added that about 29,000 of the displaced residents were staying in evacuation centres, while the rest have moved to higher ground in the province on the eastern side of Mindoro Island.

"We have deployed rubber boats to bring food rations and medicines to the affected residents,'' she said. "We hope to be able to dispatch more teams so we can reach more people.''

It was the worst flooding in Oriental Mindoro in several years, officials said. An aerial inspection showed houses and buildings submerged in muddy water there.

Amparo said residents were bracing for more floods after the weather bureau warned that heavy rains were expected to continue until Sunday.

"We don't expect the floods to recede until after Sunday,'' she said.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has already ordered the release of 5 million pesos (93,500 dollars) to fast-track repairs on the collapsed dykes in Naujan town.

In Quezon province, floodwaters were already receding, allowing close to 50,000 residents to return to their homes, Amparo said.

The Civil Defence Office said the floods have damaged at least 28 million pesos worth of crops.

In December last year, more than 700 people were killed and hundreds of thousands left homeless in devastating flashfloods and landslides that swamped several towns of Quezon province. dpa gl jg jh