MANILA, 17 September 2005 — Heavy rains caused flooding in and around the national capital yesterday, sweeping away four children and a man and forcing the evacuation of hundreds of people, rescue workers said.
Garbage-clogged drainage canals were blamed for the quick rise and slow retreat of floodwaters in metropolitan Manila.
The Office of Civil Defense reported that four people were swept away in suburban Muntinlupa by the overflowing Cupang creek as they prepared to abandon their house.
Coast Guard spokesman Lieutenant Armand Balilo said the bodies of four children, aged two to four years old, were recovered one after the other by rescuers.
Balilo said civilian rescuers also recovered at the mouth of the creek the body of a 24-year-old man who went missing before dawn after floodwater swept several houses along the river bank.
Cupang flows into Laguna de Bay, the Philippines’ largest inland body of water.
Two children were also reported injured after a landslide hit a residential area in Antipolo, east of Manila, police said.
The landslide struck Mabilog village in barangay San Luis, destroying three houses, police said.
Hundreds of people were evacuated from low-lying areas in Rizal and provinces north of Manila, officials said.
An overflow of the Malisic creek and the Maasim river flooded four villages in Candaba town, Pampanga province.
In the provinces of Rizal and Cavite, hundreds of people from 30 villages were forced to flee to evacuation centers, said Armando Duque, regional disaster chief for Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon provinces).
Duque said more than 100 families were evacuated in several villages in Angono and Binangonan towns in Rizal early yesterday morning after creeks and rivers overflowed.
Hundreds of families were also affected in the towns of Naic, Kawit, General Trias and Bacoor, in Cavite province.
In Candaba town in Pampanga province north of Manila, five villages were under water while 15 others were also flooded in Cavite province south of Manila.
The report did not say how many people were affected. Landslides blocked a highway and 15 families living near a river had to be evacuated in Real town in Quezon province.
In Aurora, almost 100 families in Paltic village, Dingalan town fled their homes on Friday as heavy rains since Tuesday caused the river there to overflow and water at the Dingalan Bay to rise, swamping the village hall. A swollen river flooded a major highway in Aurora province with up to three meters of water, forcing authorities to reroute traffic.
In Gabaldon, Nueva Ecija, the Danglan River swelled on Friday, raising the floodwaters in the villages of South Poblacion, Sawmill, Pantok, Bagong Sikat and Calabasa to knee-deep level, according to Chief Inspector Nelson Sulit, Gabaldon police chief.
The seasonal monsoon rains over wide areas of the main northern island of Luzon have been intensified by a low pressure that swept through the region this week.
Forecaster Lucrecio About said the weather is expected to improve by Monday as the low pressure area moves over the South China Sea away from the country.
Bad weather also forced the cancellation of four domestic flights and the delay of 13 others at the Manila Domestic Airport. (Input from Inquirer News Service & agencies)
