MANILA: Authorities in the Philippines announced on Friday that 44 people had died in floods caused by incessant rains in the country, as search and rescue workers raced to locate dozens of others who were still missing.

As Filipinos celebrated Christmas, floods in the Visayas and Mindanao regions inundated villages, towns and highways, making it one of the deadliest weather-related events in the country this year, affecting some 510,000 people.

Diego Agustin Mariano, information officer at the Office of Civil Defense, told Arab News that as of this morning, "unfortunately, we now have 44 (dead) reported."

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Although the flooding has subsided, intermittent heavy rains continued on Friday, forcing rescuers in landslide-hit villages to sift through mud and debris in search of survivors.

At least 28 people are still missing. Search and rescue efforts are still ongoing, Mariano said, but I am unable to estimate their chances of survival. We continue to see the positive side. We are confident that those missing are still alive and will be traced and rescued.

The National Council for Disaster Risk Reduction and Management estimated the cost of damage to infrastructure and agriculture, at 1.37 billion pesos ($24.6 million).

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In the most severely affected central-southern provinces of Western Mindoro, Oriental Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon, Palawan, Bukidnon, Camiguin, Misamis Occidental, Misamis Oriental, Lanao del Norte, and the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, about 57,000 people still live. were going to shelter at the evacuation centers.

Unlike other deadly meteorological events in the country, the floods were not brought about by tropical storms, which frequently hit the Philippines.

The Christmas rain was brought by a shear line that developed in the south of the country, where warm and cold air masses meet. The Philippines is consistently listed as one of the most vulnerable and affected countries by climate change.

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As the world continues to warm, the archipelago nation has seen an increase in extremely destructive weather events over the past ten years.