ReliefWeb

Feature: Philippines

As many as 790,000 people were displaced between 16 and 28 December in Regions V, VI, VII, VIII, XIII and MIMAROPA due to Tropical Storm Urduja/Kai-Tak which made landfall in the Philippines on 12 December and exited on 19 December. A total of 418,000 people stayed in evacuation centres, while 372,000 people stayed with families and friends. As of 28 December, all evacuees had returned home (DROMIC, 4 Jan 2018).

As many as 447,000 people were displaced between 22 December and 6 January in Regions MMAROPA, VII, IX, X, XI, XII, XIII and ARMM due to Tropical Storm Tembin (known locally as Vinta) which hit the Philippines on 22 December and exited on 24 December. There were 98,000 people still displaced as of 6 January, of which about 76,000 people were staying inside evacuation centers and 22,000 people with family and friends (DROMIC, 6 Jan 2018). According to government sources, the scale of the disaster may have been attributed to two factors: naturally formed dams caused by intense rain broke and flooded the villages below and difficulties in convincing people to evacuate their homes shortly before Christmas. Among the areas battered by Tembin was Marawi, a lakeside city in Lanao del Sur that is still recovering from a five-month siege by a group affiliated to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) (Chicago Tribune, 25 Dec 2017; ACAPS, 28 Dec 2017). Tembin also led to significant displacement in Vietnam (see Vietnam entry below).

As many as 47,000 people were displaced between 1 and 10 January in regions MIMAROPA, VI, VII, X, and XIII due to Tropical Depression Agaton. here were about 1,600 people still displaced as of 6 January, of which about 1,300 were staying inside evacuation centers and about 300 were staying with relatives (DROMIC, 6 Jan 2018).