BAGUIO CITY, Philippines -- (UPDATE) President Macapagal-Arroyo asked a Pampanga town popular for its coffin industry, on Sunday, to ship at least 100 caskets to the summer capital, in exchange for vegetables from Benguet.

But a Pampanga local official later said Ms Arroyo had to cancel the plan due to the high freight costs.

Ms Arroyo called officials of the town to inquire about available coffins after she learned that local funeral parlors had run out of caskets and embalming chemicals due to the big number of landslide fatalities here and in Benguet during the onslaught of tropical depression "Pepeng."

Based on their latest reports on Sunday, officials of the Regional Disaster Coordinating Council said Pepeng's fatalities had reached 254.

Landslide victims in this city and the Benguet towns of La Trinidad, Mankayan and Itogon already reached 196 on Sunday, according to an RDCC report presented to Ms Arroyo.

Arriving at the Mansion here at 7 a.m. to assess the damage, Ms Arroyo offered the use of two presidential helicopters and available government planes to bring coffins from Sto. Tomas, Pampanga, to this city.

Mayor Reinaldo Bautista Jr. said the helicopters or planes could ferry back vegetables meant for Metro Manila.

"The vegetables [have been stored at the La Trinidad vegetable trading post] since Thursday and they will just rot," Bautista told Ms Arroyo.

The vegetables could be used to feed flood victims staying in evacuation centers in Pampanga and Metro Manila, he said.

But Sto. Tomas Mayor Joselito Naguit said Ms Arroyo's office cancelled the order for 100 coffins later on Sunday when the President realized the high freight costs to be paid.

"The President's staff just called to say she had decided to have the coffins made in Benguet," Naguit said.

Naguit also said the town had to cancel on Sunday a float parade of the town's products, which included coffins, because of the floods.

But RDCC officials, who met with Ms Arroyo, said Malacañang assured them that coffins would still be arriving.

"Since Baguio has the only funeral parlors in the general area, they ran out of coffins and embalming fluids. We have tried to make our own coffins for the meantime," Bautista said.

Eduardo Garcia, branch manager of La Funeraria Paz here, said they had to address the continuing arrival of cadavers, some wrapped in flour sacks. Many were brought in by vegetable trucks.

On Saturday, Garcia said they tried to embalm 40 bodies.

Ms Arroyo told RDCC officials that she was assured by Pampanga Rep. Ana York Bondoc that 300 caskets were available to serve Baguio and Benguet.

"My interest now is moving forward," Ms Arroyo said.

She also gave the RDCC until Tuesday (Oct. 13) to find areas where the landslide survivors could build new houses, and prohibited the return of families to the danger zones.

These zones include the massive slide in the communities of Little Kibungan and Sitio Buyagan in La Trinidad, Benguet, which killed about 100 people; La Trinidad's strawberry fields which are vulnerable to floods; the landslide-prone Sitio Ambabag in the Buguias-Mankayan border; and Barangays (villages of) Luneta and Loakan in Antamok, Itogon, a mining town.

Also requiring massive relocation, Ms Arroyo said, were people living in the flood-prone City Camp Lagoon; the sinking portions of the Pilot Project village; and the eroded portions of Cresencia Village, all in Baguio.

Benguet Gov. Nestor Fongwan had suggested removing the damaged part of the mountain that buried Little Kibungan to spare the remaining houses there.

But Ms Arroyo said local officials must decide whether to rehabilitate the damaged areas or simply move the victims to other places.

"Which is better, remove the mountain or relocate?" Ms Arroyo asked.

She ordered local officials and the Mines and Geosciences Bureau to come up with a final recommendation as to which plan would be more feasible.

The plans are to either flatten the mountains that caused the slides or relocate affected families.