MANILA, Philippines – Pasay City Mayor Antonio Calixto declared a state of calamity in the city Wednesday, August 21.

Pasay is the 5th Metro Manila city to be placed under a state of calamity, following Muntinlupa, Pateros, Paranaque, and Malabon.

By being under a state of calamity, provincial or city governments can gain access to calamity funds, impose price control on basic goods, grant interest-free loans, and give additional allowances to public employees and disaster agencies working in the area.

“Halos lahat po apektado sa amin, buti nalang humupa-hupa ang ulan. Marami pong constituents, hindi pa rin nakakababa sa kanilang mga tahanan,” Calixto said in an ANC interview. (Almost everyone was affected [by the flood and rain], luckily it’s not raining as hard anymore. A lot of our constitutents are still stuck in their homes because of the flood.) 

As of Aug 21, 10 am, 142 families or 5,210 individuals remain in evacuation centers in the city, according to the Pasay Social Welfare Development agency. Most of the evacuees began returning to their homes Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning.

On Tuesday, August 20, close to 46,000 individuals were in Pasay evacuation centers.

Most of Pasay’s 200 barangays were affected by the Metro Manila-wide flooding. Several Pasay barangays are still severely flooded — in Kalayaan, Maricaban, Malibay, and areas close to waterways. At 5pm Tuesday, at least half of Pasay’s streets were still flooded. -Rappler.com