Infrastructure and agricultural losses caused by Tropical Cyclones Luis and Maymay and the enhanced southwest monsoon (habagat) have reached nearly P3 billion, the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) reported Thursday.
OCD information officer Diego Mariano said infrastructure damage stood at P2.64 billion across Calabarzon, Ilocos, and the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), while agricultural losses reached P347.37 million across six affected regions. The storms also damaged 1,339 homes, with over 3.73 million individuals or 1.08 million families, impacted across 10 regions.
Casualty figures varied between state agencies. The OCD reported 21 fatalities, comprising 15 in Benguet, three in Rizal and three in Batangas, alongside 14 injured and three missing. Ten of the Benguet victims died in a landslide in Barangay Guisad Surong.
Meanwhile, the Philippine National Police (PNP) reported 25 deaths, 15 injuries, and four missing, adjusting a previous tally of 26 after resolving a double-counting error. The PNP count includes 15 fatalities in CAR, seven in Calabarzon, two in Ilocos and a 40-year-old police officer who drowned in Cadiz City, Negros Occidental.
State weather bureau PAGASA is also monitoring Tropical Storm Nangka outside the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR), located 2,560 kilometers east-northeast of extreme Northern Luzon as of 3 p.m. Thursday.
“It’s far from our country, it’s more than 2,500 km east northeast of extreme Northern Luzon,” PAGASA weather specialist Leanne Loreto said. “Generally, it’s moving farther away from our country and its not going to affect our weather as of now.”
Loreto noted that the habagat remains the sole weather system currently affecting Luzon and parts of the Visayas.