Marinduque declares state of calamity

SAN PEDRO CITY –– The island province of Marinduque was placed under a state of calamity, joining the list of several other areas in Southern Luzon that suffered damage from Typhoon “Tisoy” (international name: Kammuri).

Rino Labay, the provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (DRRMC) chief, on Friday said it took them a couple of days to pass the resolution, as such required at least two municipalities to first declare a “state of calamity.”

Initially, it was only Boac that passed a municipal resolution, until the towns of Gasan and Torrijos followed suit on Thursday.

Death toll

Labay said damage assessment continued Friday, particularly on the number of houses damaged by the typhoon.

The DRRMC in Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon, Palawan (Mimaropa) earlier reported two fatalities from Marinduque—38-year-old farmer Bernabe Lundag from Gasan and an unidentified man from Boac.

Labay said it was only Lundag’s death that they had verified as typhoon-related.

In Palawan, 60-year-old fisherman Romero Heredero of Barangay Maglalambay, Busuanga, was found dead in Sofronio Española town.

Regional police spokesperson Lt. Col. Imelda Tolentino, Friday, said Heredero’s body was found floating in a river in Sitio Carasanan, Thursday morning.

Authorities believed he drowned at the height of the typhoon.

Mimaropa police said the typhoon death toll was now at six, the majority of them from Oriental Mindoro./lzb