Intense rains continue to pound Metro Manila, Luzon

THE National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) went on red alert Sunday, August 12, as intense southwest monsoon rains continued to pound Metro Manila and neighboring provinces.

As of 3 p.m. Sunday, weather bureau Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) continued to raise the orange warning level over Metro Manila and the provinces of Bulacan, Pampanga and Rizal. Orange means intense rains threaten flooding in these areas.

Yellow warning, for heavy rains, is up over the provinces of Cavite, Quezon, Zambales and Bataan. Light to moderate rains persist in Batangas, Nueva Ecija, Tarlac and Laguna.

As of 8 a.m. Sunday, National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) director Chief Superintendent Guillermo Eleazar said a total of 6,616 families of 34,426 individuals evacuated due to severe flooding.

He said most of the affected areas were in the northern part of Metro Manila, particularly the Camanava area, and the eastern part particularly Marikina City, where severe flooding was experienced as the water level of the Marikina River continued to rise.

Police were able to seize six sachets of dried marijuana leaves from the youngsters.

During the interrogation with the police, the suspects also revealed their source of illegal drugs whom they said is working in their school canteen.

The local police headed by Chief Inspector Jan Carl Gopez, this town’s chief of police, immediately staged a buy-bust operation against the said source of illegal drugs, who was later identified as Emerson Cortez, a resident of Barangay San Vicente, this town.

Confiscated from Cortez were two packs of dried marijuana leaves and P200 marked money used in the operation.

Cortez is currently detained at this town’s police station while the three minors were turned-over to the Municipal Social Welfare and Development.