Philippines records over half of storm death toll in autonomous Muslim region

MANILA: Over 100 people have died in one of the most destructive storms to hit the Philippines this year, officials said on Monday, with more than half of the deaths recorded in the country’s southern autonomous Muslim region.

Tropical Storm Nalgae barreled across the Southeast Asian country over the weekend and set off flash floods and landslides, leaving behind a trail of destruction and flooding in one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries.

The worst storm impact was recorded in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, which had been swamped by unusually heavy rains. At least 53 people were killed in its Maguindanao province, according to data from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.

The region’s chief minister, however, said authorities are recovering more bodies from a huge mudslide in Maguindanao’s Datu Odin Sinsuat town.

“Retrieval operations are ongoing. So far more than 60 cadavers have been dug up,” BARMM Chief Minister Ahod “Al-Haj Murad” Ebrahim told Arab News.

The mudslide laden with rocks, trees and debris reportedly buried dozens of houses in Kusiong village where authorities fear more casualties as rescue operations continued on Monday.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who flew on Monday over the flood-submerged districts to inspect the damage after Nalgae, said it was not necessary to declare a one-year national state of calamity, a day after the recommendation was proposed by the national disaster council.

“I don’t think it’s necessary,” Marcos said during a press briefing.

“I came to that conclusion in consultation with DENR,” he said, referring to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. “They said (damage) wasn’t extensive; it was very highly localized.”

The president said Maguindanao, Quezon and Cavite were the country’s hardest hit provinces and have declared their own state of calamity.

Nearly 2 million people across over 5,100 villages in the Philippines were affected by Nalgae, according to official data, as floodwaters swamped many provinces and cities and displaced hundreds of thousands of people.

Typhoon Noru had damaged swaths of the country’s farmland only in September, causing damages of nearly $51 million.

The Philippines sees about 20 storms and typhoons every year. The archipelago nation of more than 7,600 islands also lies in the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, an arc of faults around the Pacific Ocean where the majority of the world’s volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur, making it one of the most disaster-prone countries.

In 2013, Typhoon Haiyan, one of the most powerful tropical cyclones ever recorded, left more than 6,000 people dead or missing and displaced millions in the central Philippines.