The President of the Philippines, Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr, has indicated that it is not necessary to declare a state of calamity in the whole country, after the passage of tropical storm ‘Nalgae’ that has left a hundred dead and more than a million affected.
Marcos Jr. said that the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council has explained that it is unnecessary to decree a state of calamity since the effects of Nalgae have been «very localized», reports PhilStar.
«We are talking about the east coast of Quezon, Cavite, and Maguindanao (…) those are the areas (…) there is no need to decree national calamity for other regions,» the Philippine president justified.
The recommendation of the Department of Environment and Disaster comes shortly after it first recommended the declaration of a state of calamity following the passage of ‘Nalgae’ in the Philippines, after 16 of the 17 regions of the country were at «high risk» due to the consequences of the storm.
As ‘Nalgae’ leaves the radar of the Philippine authorities, tropical storm ‘Queenie’ has appeared in the last hours, hitting the west and southwest of the country in the regions of Visayas and Mindanao.
At least 98 people have died and more than 1.8 million have been affected by flooding caused by heavy rains. There are dozens of injured and about 70 missing. The rainfall has caused power outages, including in the capital Manila, where many districts are still without power, as well as the cancellation of numerous flights.
Due to the torrential rains, the alert is maintained for possible landslides and floods, the main causes of the almost one hundred deaths that have been recorded so far. ‘Nalgae’ is the twelfth tropical storm to hit the Philippines so far in 2022.
