Government authorities yesterday scrambled to provide food and other emergency provisions to more than two million people affected by widespread flooding, as the death toll rose to 77, officials said.
The flooding that submerged 80 percent of Manila early in the week has largely subsided, allowing residents to return to their homes, but more than 100 low-lying towns and cities to the north remain under water.
Undersecretary Benito Ramos of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NRRRMC) said the huge displaced population, including 441,000 people crammed in crowded evacuation camps, would need to be fed and taken care of for at least another seven days.
“The bulk of our operations involves relief, also clean-up,” Ramos told Agence France Presse.
“Volunteers are packaging 100,000 food packs for

immediate distribution.”
The government’s disaster coordination council said it was serving nearly 758,000 people displaced by floods Saturday, significantly more than the previous day as tens of thousands trickled into evacuation centers overnight.
But with 2.68 million people affected, up from 2.44 million on Friday, many are having to fend for themselves.
The UN World Food Program (WFP) said it was providing 52.5 tons of high-energy biscuits and hiring trucks to help the government transport other relief supplies.
“WFP is saddened by the humanitarian impact of the non-stop rains over the last week in the Philippines,” its country chief Stephen Anderson said in a statement.
The UN body said it also plans to distribute supplementary food to about 77,000 children in the flooded areas.
A Malacañang official, for her part, also yesterday said Australia is joining the United States and the European Union in providing assistance to victims of massive flooding in Metro Manila and Central Luzon this week.
“Earlier, the United States Agency for International Development has pledged P4.3 million for disaster relief. And from my understanding from Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario, Australia has also pledged relief assistance,” deputy presidential spokesman Abigail Valte told a radio interview.
The Palace official also assured that the government has enough funds for relief assistance aside from the help coming from private and foreign donors.
Valte said that according to the Department of Budget and Management, the government has a calamity fund of around P5.95 billion.
“It’s available to enable national government agencies to immediately respond to the needs of our citizens, and to localities that were affected by the monsoon rains,” she added.
Apart from the calamity fund, the government could also use its quick response funds that have been released to different departments early this year.
Among the departments with response fund include the Agriculture, Education, Health, National Defense, Public Works and Highways; and the Office of Civil Defense, Valte said.
If these quick response funds were summed up it would amount to some P2.989 billion, she explained.
The NDRRMC reported that 66 persons had been confirmed killed, up from 60 on Friday.
As of Saturday, the total cost of damages to infrastructure (P138,020,230) and agriculture (P19,561,381) in Regions I, IV-A and IV-B is P157,581,611.50.
Most of the damages are from roads, bridges, other structures and flood control in Region IV-A.
The NDRRMC said relief aids worth P 45,351,268 were already provided to the affected families while the local government units provided P 25,478,422; non-government organizations, P1,352,100; Department of Health, P 6,281,513; and Department of Social Welfare and Development, P12,239,232.
The NDRRMC said a total of 24,906 personnel, 424 vehicles and 388 sea crafts from search and operation units of the Philippine National Police, Armed Forces of the Philippines, and Philippine Coast Guard were mobilized for search and rescue operations in various areas in Metro Manila.
Meanwhile, the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) said an active low-pressure area (LPA) entered the territory Saturday afternoon and may become a tropical depression in two to three days.
It added the LPA was estimated at 1,020 km east of Central Luzon as of 2 p.m. – still too far to affect any part of the country.
The LPA will be codenamed “Helen” once it becomes a storm.
Pagasa also is not discounting the possibility the LPA may again enhance the southwest monsoon and cause heavy rain. With PNA and AFP