MANILA: Floods and landslides triggered by monsoon rains and enhanced by four weather disturbances so far in August have left more than 30 people dead in the Philippines, mostly in Luzon, the local authorities said.
Nine Aetas in Zambales and Pampanga and two workers at Subic Bay Freeport were among the latest fatalities confirmed on Aug 29.
A lahar warning was also issued on Aug 29 for communities in Pampanga, where the devastation of the 1991 Mt. Pinatubo eruption remains indelible in local memory. This time, however, the threat of “non-eruption lahar” is not due to volcanic activity but to heavy rains letting deposits of pyroclastic material loose on local rivers.
A section of the decades-old Aquino Bridge in Tarlac province collapsed the night of Aug 28. Public works officials traced the cause of the structural damage to the strong currents of Tarlac River.
August alone saw four tropical cyclones entering the Philippine area of responsibility, with the latest, Typhoon Obet, also known as Typhoon Saudel, being the 15th for the year.
In August 2025, the country by then had experienced only the ninth cyclone of the year, Isang (Kajiki).
The Office of Civil Defence (OCD) on Aug 29 placed the death toll due to weather-induced calamities at 32, starting the count from “Luis” (Peilou) which made landfall on Aug 3. After Luis was “Maymay” (Kujiri) on Aug 5 and “Neneng” (Gaenari) on Aug 18 but no landfall and “Obet” on Aug 24, also no landfall.
At least eight million people, or 2.3 million families, have been affected across 10 regions, the OCD said.
Among provinces, Benguet recorded the highest number of deaths with 15, all from landslides. Ten of them were in Baguio City, three in Atok town and two in La Trinidad.
Four deaths were recorded in Rizal province, with two of them due to a rockslide in Rodriguez town. One person was pinned to death by a fallen tree in Antipolo, while another drowned in Binangonan.
Batangas province recorded four deaths: one drowned in Batangas City and another in Mabini, one was electrocuted in Lipa, and another was killed in a landslide in Santa Teresita.
The other fatalities were recorded in the provinces of La Union, Quezon, Oriental Mindoro, Occidental Mindoro, and Negros Occidental, and in Caloocan City.
At least 19 people have been injured, including 12 in Benguet province.
Three people remained missing: one each in Quezon City, Manila and Batangas City.
Infrastructure, agricultural damage
The affected regions as of Aug 29 were Regions 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 and 9, as well as the Cordillera Administrative Region, Calabarzon, the National Capital Region and Mimaropa (Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon, and Palawan).
Some 25,800 people from 7,500 families were staying in 297 evacuation centres.
The OCD said about 2,900 houses had been damaged, including 349 classified as totally damaged.
Damage to infrastructure was estimated at 6.11 billion pesos (S$1.25 million), while agricultural losses were placed at 2.32 billion pesos.
At least 117 local government units have declared a state of calamity, with the government releasing 1.65 billion pesos worth of relief assistance, the OCD added.
Communities along the river systems draining Mt. Pinatubo were placed on heightened alert around 11am local time on Aug 29, after the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) warned that heavy rains could generate noneruption lahars.
Aeta passengers
Major rivers on the western side of Mt. Pinatubo still hold significant deposits from the volcano’s 1991 pyroclastic density currents, mainly mixtures of ash and rock fragments.
The potential lahar flow is likely to be confined to the upper to middle reaches of the Sto. Tomas-Marella and Bucao river systems, but could turn into muddy streamflows and flooding downstream, affecting communities in San Marcelino, San Narciso, San Felipe and Botolan.
They are among the river systems covered by a government dredging project that has been going on for the last six years.
Nine members of Aeta communities, including five children, have died in two separate incidents in Zambales and Pampanga.
In Zambales, recovered on Aug 29 were the bodies of two children, aged 3 and 8, who went missing after a boat carrying 13 Aeta passengers capsized on Aug 26 in Mapanuepe Lake in San Marcelino town.
The search was still ongoing at press time for the last missing passenger, a 26-year-old pregnant woman.
In Pampanga, a 73-year-old Aeta man died in a landslide at Barangay Pidpid in Porac town on Aug 28, according to Vice-Governor Dennis Pineda.
The landslide occurred about 20km south of Mt. Pinatubo amid persistent rains.
Pineda said at least 30 Aeta families had been relocated to the Pio evacuation centre near the Porac town proper as a precaution.
Subic incident
At the Subic Bay Freeport, two people died and two others were injured after being buried in a landslide at Tipo High-Tech Park on Aug 29.
Initial reports from the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Law Enforcement Department identified the dead as Peng Jiahan, 26, a Chinese national and a sales and marketing supervisor at Fubong Environmental Technology; and Ernesto Ramos, a Filipino dump truck driver.
Details regarding the two injured victims were still being verified as of press time.
Earlier, the SBMA reported that a “soil erosion incident” occurred at Tipo due to non-stop heavy rains. - Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN
