The death toll on the onslaught of tropical storm "Maring" has ballooned to 40 as more reports of casualties were reported in various areas affected by the weather disturbance.
But the Office of Civil Defense said only 23 of the reported death toll was confirmed to be true and typhoon-related while the other 17 are still subject for validation.
At least 18 people, according to the report of the OCD, are still missing.
Ilocos Sur has the most number of fatalities with 14, followed by Benguet with nine, Pangasinan with seven, Palawan with five and three in Cagayan. The rest of the fatalities were from Ilocos Norte and La Union.
The OCD also reported that the damage to agriculture was already at P2.1 billion, the hardest was hit was Ilocos Region with almost P1.4 billion damage while the Cordillera Administrative Region accounted for almost P427 million.
The damage to infrastructure was reported to be at more than P1 billion, with Ilocos Region accounting for most of the damage at more than P900 million followed by the CAR with P100 million.