‘Habagat’ death toll now at 7

Filipino workers clean up debris washed along the banks of a swollen river in Marikina, east of Manila, Philippines Monday, Aug. 15, 2016. Thousands of residents living along a swollen river were forced to evacuate on Sunday following heavy southwest monsoon rains that inundated low-lying areas in Metropolitan Manila and at least four provinces in the country’s Luzon island. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

The death toll in the ongoing onslaught of the “habagat” (southwest monsoon) has risen to seven, with five more reported missing from a tunnel flashflood in General Nakar, Quezon on Saturday, officials said.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) however said the number of residents evacuated to due flooding and other environment threats have declined to around 24,000, who are still housed in 63 evacuation centers in the Ilocos, Central Luzon, Calbarzon, Western Visayas and National Capital Region.

The latest deaths involved a construction worker who drowned in the flashflood that occurred inside the Sumag River Tunnel in General Nakar, Quezon on Saturday.  Five other workers at the tunnel who remain missing were identified as Ronald Sanchez, Danny Hamois, Ferdie Sanadan and Zeith Picat, the NDRRMC said.

The other unnamed fatality was a fisherman whose body was found at a mangrove area in Brooke’s Point, Palawan, also on Saturday.  The fisherman’s companion was also missing, it said.

The NDRRMC also confirmed the drowning death on Sunday of a car passenger after the vehicle was swept away by strong currents while attempting to cross a swollen river in the boundary of Maragondon and General Emilio Aguinaldo towns in Cavite.

The number of persons injured related to the weather disturbance remained at six, according to the NDRRMC.

In a report released yesterday morning, civil defense office head Undersecretary Ricardo Jalad said government agencies were monitoring a low pressure area located 800 km east of Baler, Aurora.