Death toll at 141, with storm-battered Philippine provinces on alert

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr on Wednesday placed more than 20 storm-battered provinces under a state of calamity in a bid to speed up rehabilitation from floods and landslides that have killed 141 people.
In placing 23 affected provinces in a state of calamity for six months, Marcos Jr directed all government departments and agencies to step up relief and rehabilitation efforts and to augment basic services and facilities.
The state of calamity also allows the government to control prices of basic necessities and prime commodities, as well as tap additional funds for rescue, recovery and rehabilitation measures.
More than 3.1 million people were affected by tropical storm Nalgae, which triggered heavy rains and strong winds last weekend, the national disaster agency said. Nearly 900,000 were displaced by the floods and landslides.
Most of the dead were from the southern province of Maguindanao, where floods and landslides swept an entire village and buried hundreds of houses.
Thirty-two of the fatalities were from the provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon, while 29 were killed in the Western Visayas region, disaster agencies said.
Nineteen other deaths were reported from eastern and southern provinces, the agencies added.
Damage to agriculture and infrastructure has been estimated at over 2.26 billion pesos ($39 million), the national disaster agency said. At least 11,294 houses were partially or totally destroyed, while 25 bridges and 255 roads were damaged, it added.
The Philippine archipelago is hit by an average of 20 tropical cyclones each year.