Monsoon rains leave 7 dead, 7 missing in Philippines

By Roy Ramos

ZAMBOANGA CITY, the Philippines

Weeklong monsoon rains have left at least seven people dead and six injured in the Philippines while seven others remain missing.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said in a report Tuesday that the casualties were victims of flashfloods, drowning and collapsed walls, mostly in the country’s north where over 30,000 families were displaced.

Monsoon rains have battered the archipelago for more than a week, with state weather bureau PAGASA forecasting that heavy rains would continue through Friday.

According to NDRRMC, the fatalities include a 68-year-old man who was swept away while crossing a river in the central province of Iloilo, an 11-year-old boy whose body was recovered from a water pumping station in Manila, and two teenage girls pinned by a wall that collapsed due to strong winds, also in the capital.

In the northern province of Quezon, a construction worker was killed and five of his colleagues went missing after flashfloods struck an underground tunnel along the Sumag River where they were working.

A fisherman has been unaccounted for since Aug. 8 in central Marinduque province, and another since Saturday in Palawan province.

NDRRMC said that of the six people reported wounded, most had sustained injuries due to collapsed walls and falling debris.

More than 40 houses have been destroyed and 32,220 families -- equivalent to 154,988 persons -- displaced in Manila and five northern provinces.

The government has spent nearly 3 million pesos (more than $64,700) in relief assistance for those displaced.

The Philippines suffers around 20 typhoons and storms each year, many of them deadly.

In 2013, Typhoon Haiyan -- one of the strongest tropical cyclones ever recorded -- struck the country's central islands, leaving more than 8,000 people dead, missing and injured.