The low-pressure area east of Luzon developed into a tropical depression on Friday and was given the local name "Julian."
The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) said Julian, the 10th tropical cyclone in the country this year, was spotted 940 kilometers east of Casiguran, Aurora or 975 kilometers east of Tuguegarao City, Cagayan before noon Friday.
It has maximum sustained winds of 55 kilometers per hour (kph) near the center and gustiness of up to 70 kph and moving west at 15 kph.
The State weather bureau said Julian is likely to reach tropical storm category within 12 hours and severe tropical storm category within 24 to 36 hours.
It is forecast to intensify into a typhoon Sunday morning before exiting the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) Monday.
PAGASA said the raising of tropical cyclone wind signal is not expected throughout the forecast period and the tropical depression is less likely to directly cause high impact weather over the country.
The southwest monsoon or "habagat" will continue to affect the country and will bring cloudy skies with scattered rain showers and thunderstorms in the Bicol region and Eastern Visayas.
Metro Manila and the rest of the country will have partly cloudy to cloudy skies with isolated rain showers due to habagat and localized thunderstorms.
PAGASA warned residents in areas affected by the southwest monsoon and localized thunderstorms that flash floods or landslides may occur during severe thunderstorms.
The State weather agency raised a gale warning on the northern and western seaboards of Northern Luzon due to the southwest monsoon.
Strong to gale force winds are expected to affect the coasts of Batanes, Babuyan Group of Islands, and Ilocos Norte.
PAGASA warned that sea travel is risky, especially for small sea craft, over seaboards where a gale warning was raised due to rough to very rough force winds and wave height of up to 4.5 meters.