Obet to enhance monsoon rains amid PAR exit

MANILA, Philippines — Typhoon Obet will continue to enhance the southwest monsoon despite exiting the Philippine area of responsibility, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration said.

Obet exited the PAR around 9:30 p.m. yesterday and was last located 1,070 kilometers northeast of extreme northern Luzon. It was packing winds of 140 kilometers per hour with gusts of up to 170 kph while moving northwestward at 20 kph.

Meanwhile, tropical depression Atsani weakened into a low-pressure area and was last located 1,600 kilometers east of extreme Northern Luzon.

PAGASA said it was unlikely to redevelop into a tropical cyclone in the next 24 hours.

Neneng, with international name Gaenari, has dissipated outside the PAR.

PAGASA said occasional rains will be felt in Zambales while Metro Manila, the Ilocos Region, the Cordillera Administrative Region, Cagayan Valley, the rest of Central Luzon, Cavite, Batangas, Rizal, Occidental Mindoro, Palawan and Antique will experience cloudy skies with scattered rains and thunderstorms due to the monsoon.

Partly cloudy to cloudy skies with isolated rainshowers or thunderstorms due to the monsoon will prevail over the rest of Luzon and Western Visayas.

The rest of the country will have partly cloudy to cloudy skies with isolated rain showers or thunderstorms due to localized thunderstorms.

PAGASA raised a yellow rainfall warning over Benguet, La Union, Pangasinan, Zambales and Bataan from this afternoon until tomorrow afternoon.

An orange warning was raised over Zambales and Occidental Mindoro.

A yellow warning was likewise issued for Ilocos Sur, Abra, La Union, Benguet, Pangasinan, Tarlac, Pampanga, Bulacan, Bataan, Metro Manila, Rizal, Cavite and Batangas from tomorrow afternoon until Friday afternoon.

Bulacan deaths

Two senior citizen siblings, meanwhile, died in Bulacan from electrocution inside their flooded house in Hagonoy yesterday.

Brig. Gen. Jess Mendez, Central Luzon police director, identified the fatalities as a 73-year-old woman and a 62-year-old man, both residents of Barangay San Juan.

A neighbor and a barangay tanod retrieved the woman’s body and found her brother also slumped lifeless inside the house. — Ramon Efren Lazaro, Artemio Dumlao, Ric Sapnu, Bella Cariaso