NDRRMC ‘Ruby’ death toll hits 11

MANILA, Philippines–The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) has confirmed 11 deaths in the aftermath of Tropical Depression “Ruby” (international name: Hagupit).

“Aside from the three who were officially reported in our situation reports, we have confirmed eight more deaths. But we’re not including their names yet because these are subject for validation,” NDRRMC Executive Director Alex Pama said on Tuesday.

“Our colleagues have seen the bodies. We’re just waiting for the validation from the Department of Health,” Pama said.

The three identified bodies are:

– Jimmy Cardente, 14, from Cebu who died from electrocution

-Princess Abelgas, 2-month old, from Samar, hit by a falling tree

-Sunny Recto from Biliran who died from falling debris

Two previously reported deaths from Iloilo (Thea Rontojo and Ernesto Baylon) were excluded from the list because their deaths were not directly related to Ruby. Both died from hypothermia in evacuation centers.

There were 45 people injured from the typhoon.

The Philippine Red Cross reported 27 deaths from the typhoon as of Tuesday.

Pama said the NDRRMC reports were based on protocols of confirming, validating and verifying the deaths first before including them in the official toll.

“This is not a comparison game. We are following procedures. We are following protocols and somewhere along the line, once those are validated, we will see,” he said.

Ruby slammed mostly Eastern Visayas and Southern Luzon before it weakened into a tropical depression as it went its closest to Manila.

2 million affected 

A total of 456,386 families or 2,086,562 persons were affected by Ruby, and 371,846 families or 1,699,041 persons took shelter in evacuation centers.

The NDRRMC also noted an agricultural damage of about P1B in areas of Bicol, Western Visayas and Eastern Visayas regions.

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