Days of heavy rain leave at least 16 dead in Philippines

State weather forecaster Dan Villamil said rains in the vacation town, four hours north of the capital, were already 47 per cent higher than normal for the whole month.

“The rainfall recorded for Aug 1-9 was highest in Baguio, with an accumulated 1,413.2mm,” he said, adding the city’s typical downpour for the month was 963.2mm.

Parts of Metro Manila had recorded rain equivalent to about 90 per cent of a typical August, he added.

Landslides killed six other people elsewhere on Luzon, while another drowned, one was hit by a falling tree, and one was electrocuted, according to a civil defence office tally.

While heavy rain continued to fall on Monday evening, Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon told a news conference that floodwaters were receding.

“Our interventions are continuing, but we really need to fix the years and decades’ worth of faulty flood mitigation interventions,” Dizon told reporters, referencing a scandal over bogus flood-control projects that have cost taxpayers billions of dollars.

The Philippines is the first major landmass facing the Pacific cyclone belt, and the archipelago is hit by an average of 20 storms and typhoons each year, putting millions of people in disaster-prone areas in a state of constant poverty.

Scientists say human-driven climate change is making extreme weather more frequent, prolonged and intense.