Manila, Nov 6: At least 114 people were killed and 127 others remain missing after Typhoon Kalmaegi lashed the central Philippines this week, triggering flash floods and landslides in what officials called the country’s worst disaster of 2025.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr on Thursday placed the nation under a state of emergency, enabling faster release of relief funds and stricter price monitoring to prevent profiteering in affected regions.
“The Filipino people have faced one tragedy after another, but we will recover together,” Marcos said after meeting disaster-response officials.
The Office of Civil Defence said the typhoon impacted nearly two million residents, displacing over 5,60,000, most of whom have taken shelter in evacuation centers. The storm moved out of the archipelago on Wednesday and into the South China Sea, leaving behind flattened villages, toppled trees, and submerged roads.
The worst-hit province, Cebu, accounted for 71 deaths and 65 missing persons, with officials describing scenes of residents clinging to rooftops as rivers burst their banks. “We did everything we could,” said Governor Pamela Baricuatro, “but there are some unexpected things like flash floods.”
Baricuatro said illegal quarrying and clogged rivers had worsened the devastation. “These problems, combined with poorly executed flood control projects, made the flooding worse,” she noted, referring to an ongoing corruption scandal involving non-existent or substandard infrastructure projects that has sparked nationwide protests.
Another 62 people were reported missing in Negros Occidental, a neighboring province that also endured heavy flooding.
In the southern province of Agusan del Sur, six Philippine air force members died when their helicopter crashed Tuesday while carrying humanitarian supplies to storm-battered areas. Military officials said the cause of the crash remained under investigation.
The typhoon struck Cebu barely a month after a 6.9 magnitude earthquake devastated its northern districts, killing 79 people and displacing thousands. “Families who had been living in tents were moved to sturdier shelters before Kalmaegi hit,” Baricuatro said, adding that the quake-ravaged northern towns were spared the brunt of the flooding.
Maritime operations were suspended nationwide, with 3,500 passengers and cargo drivers stranded at ports and 186 flights cancelled, the coast guard reported.
Authorities warned that another tropical system forming over the Pacific Ocean could intensify into a super typhoon, threatening the country’s northern regions early next week.
The Philippines, which experiences around 20 typhoons annually, remains one of the most disaster-vulnerable nations globally due to its location along the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” where earthquakes and volcanic eruptions frequently occur.
