The death toll in the Philippines from more than a month of sustained heavy rains has risen to 75, disaster agency officials said today, warning of more floods and landslides in the country's eastern seaboard.
Damage to agriculture and infrastructure was estimated to have reached more than two billion pesos ($45 million), but the rains have so far spared major rice and corn production areas in the north and western parts of the country.
About a third of the country's 80 provinces, mainly in central and southern regions, have been inundated by the rains that began in late December, with more than two million people affected.
Benito Ramos, head of the national disaster agency, said 32 people were missing, either swept by swollen rivers or lost at sea.
The weather bureau said it expected the rains, brought by the tail-end of a cold front, to continue until early March. Some areas in the south have recorded more than one metre of rain, more than three times the normal fall.
Reuters