AT LEAST people were confirmed dead while more than 1 million were displaced after three storms devastated the Philippines in a week.
In the small village of Bilwang in Kawayan town, Biliran province of the central Philippines, three members of the family, age 4, 12, and 63, were drowned after a stream suddenly rose, causing a flash flood that destroyed their house and swept away the victims at around 2 a.m. on September 26, 2025, while another 7 year-old sister remained missing.
In an interview with Police Major Analiza Armeza, spokesperson of Police Regional Office in the Eastern Visayas region, she said they have deployed 1,560 personnel as Reactionary Standby Support Force during the onslaught of Severe Tropical Storm Opong (international name: Bualoi) as the center of the storm hit the region on the early dawn of September 26.
As cleaning and search-and-rescue operations continued on the morning of Sept. 26, she reported there are now 39, 075 individuals, or 11, 432 families in over 300 evacuation centers across the Eastern Visayas alone.
Brigadier General Jason Capoy, police regional director of Eastern Visayas, maintained that "preparedness saves lives."
"The police force plays an indispensable role in disaster response, whether in securing communities before a storm, protecting evacuees during its onslaught, or aiding recovery efforts after the disaster,” Capoy said.
In the nearby Bicol region, where "Opong," with its wind speed of nearly 200 kilometers per hour, also made its landfall, Diocese of Legazpi Bishop Joel Baylon has ordered their parishes to welcome evacuees in church-owned facilities and activated the Diocesan Commission on Social Concerns and the Social Action Center.
“The urgency of the present situation calls us to act decisively with the means already at hand... the [Church] must serve as both a sanctuary and a service center in this time of trial," added Diocese of Sorsogon Bishop Jose Alan Dialogo in a report from CBCP News on Sept.25.
In Camarines Norte, Bishop Herman Abcede of Daet urged the Catholic faithful to "transform this difficult moment into an opportunity for solidarity and faith."
“Prayer is our most powerful weapon. In these uncertain times, it is crucial that we turn to God and implore His mercy and protection," Bishop Luisito Occiano of Diocese of Virac in Catanduanes, as he summoned the clergy and the public to pray the "Oratio Imperata" against natural disasters.
The state social welfare agency earlier said they strategically set over 3.1 billion pesos worth of standby funds and a stockpile of over 2.5 million family food packs (FFPs), and more than P107 million other non-food items across the Philippine archipelago ahead of the storm. (Ronald Reyes/SunStar Philippines)