President Bongbong Marcos questioned government officials over the high death toll from the onslaught of severe tropical storm Paeng.
Marcos who led a meeting with disaster officials asked why residents were not evacuated immediately.
“I would like to start with the flooding in Maguindanao, simply because we have to already look at it dahil ang daming casualty,” Marcos said.
“It will be important to us to look back and see why this happened, na hindi natin naagapan ito na 67 ang casualty,” he added.
Marcos wants a clearer picture on why residents were evacuated ahead of the storm.
“So maybe if we could start with there first, just to give me a better idea of what happened, what caused the flooding and bakit hindi natin sila na-evacuate at nagkaganyan ang casualty, napakataas?” Marcos said.
The NDRRMC reports the death toll due to severe tropical storm Paeng has risen to 72
The NDRRMC adds that 67 deaths were reported and recorded in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). The rest of the fatalities were from Western Visayas and the Soccsksargen regions.
The NDRRMC says validation is still ongoing for these reported deaths.
BARMM also reported 11 individuals are still missing increasing the figures of missing persons to 14. The NDRRMC added that 33 persons were reported injured, but only two of these injuries have been validated.
Based on its recent report 184,161 people have been affected by Paeng while at least 9,737 people are still inside evacuation centers in affected areas.
