MANILA, Dec 29, 2022 (BSS/AFP) - Four people died in the southern
Philippines after being hit by a landslide, authorities said Thursday, taking
the nationwide death toll from recent rains to at least 39.

Rescuers were still searching for more than two dozen other people missing
after heavy downpours over the Christmas weekend caused flooding and
landslides across central and southern regions.

The latest deaths happened Wednesday in Mati City in the province of Davao
Oriental on Mindanao island when a landslide buried four people as they
fished, the national disaster agency said.

Authorities recovered the bodies of the victims, who include two teenagers.

"There was a heavy downpour in the mountains. They were fishing in a river
when the landslide occurred," Mati City police chief Ernesto Gregore told
AFP.

The weather turned bad over the weekend as the disaster-prone nation of 110
million people prepared for a long Christmas holiday.

Hundreds of houses have since been destroyed and more than 7,000 hectares
(17,300 acres) of crops wiped out by rains that have forced tens of thousands
of people into evacuation centres, the national disaster agency said.

Most of the fatalities have been in the province of Misamis Occidental, also
on Mindanao, where 16 people died from drowning or rain-induced landslides.

The Philippines is ranked among the most vulnerable nations to the impacts of
climate change, and scientists have warned that storms are becoming more
powerful as the world gets warmer.