MANILA, Philippines - The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council on Wednesday pegged the official death toll from Tropical Cyclone Ruby at nine while the Department of Health (DOH) received more reports of fatalities.
In its latest report, the NDRRMC identified the latest fatality as Romeo Disparo, 72, of Ajuy, Iloilo. The agency also hiked the number of injured persons in Central and Eastern Visayas to 480.
NDRRMC executive director Alexander Pama earlier explained that fatalities that were only confirmed, verified and validated by the DOH will be included in the government's official death toll.
On Tuesday morning, Pama said the NDRRMC confirmed 11 fatalities - meaning the bodies had been found - but only three of these were verified and validated at that time.
In an interview with ANC on Tuesday afternoon, acting DOH Secretary Janette Garin said her agency has received 39 reported deaths from different provinces after Ruby crossed the country.
However, she said the DOH was still verifying if all the deaths can be attributed to the tropical cyclone.
"The work of the DOH is to decipher whether the cause of death is typhoon-related or not," she said.
Garin said all the information will be sent to the NDRRMC, which will make the final announcement on the death toll.
The Philippine Red Cross earlier claimed that they had confirmed 21 typhoon-related deaths.
Ruby's impact
The NDRRMC said Ruby affected a total of 2,392,593 people in the regions of Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Mimaropa, Bicol, Western Visayas, Central Visayas, Eastern Visayas, Caraga and Metro Manila.
Of this figure, a total of 1,766,929 people were evacuated from their homes.
As of Wednesday, 604 passengers and 13 sea vessels remain stranded due to bad weather.
Twenty-one provinces in six regions are also still experiencing power outages due to Ruby.
The NDRRMC monitored two landslide and one rockslide incidents in Luzon while 17 areas were flooded in Quezon, Laguna and Marinduque.
Nine bridges remain impassable due to floods triggered by Ruby, which also damaged 913 houses and destroyed 425 more.
The cost of Ruby's damage to infrastructure and agriculture was pegged at P1.27 billion and P682.58 million, respectively.