Philippine typhoon rebuilding to cost $3bn: Aquino
MANILA (AFP) - The Philippines will need nearly $3 billion to rebuild parts of the country destroyed by the deadliest typhoon in its history, the presidential palace said Saturday.
President Benigno Aquino told reporters in Tokyo late Friday that scores of towns and cities across the central islands that were devastated by Super Typhoon Haiyan needed national government help to clean up debris and restore damaged infrastructure.
"The task is really daunting is it not? That's why we are saying it will take about 130 billion pesos ($2.94 billion) to put everybody in at least a better situation than where they were," he said according to a transcript released by Malacanang palace.
Haiyan smashed across the central islands with peak winds of 315 kilometres (195 miles) an hour on November 8, unleashing tsunami-like storm surges that killed thousands of people on the islands of Leyte and Samar.
The official death toll stood Saturday at 6,033, with the authorities still looking for 1,779 people listed as missing.
About a million houses were also destroyed, leaving four million people homeless, according to the government's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.
Tropical Storm Thelma, which killed about 5,100 people on the Leyte city of Ormoc in 1991, was previously the deadliest storm recorded in the Philippines, which is hit by about 20 typhoons and tropical storms each year.
Aquino was speaking on the sidelines of a summit between Japan and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the palace said.
