STRUGGLE TO REACH LANDSLIDE SURVIVORS

       Search and rescue teams yesterday struggled to reach areas of the northern Philippines cut off by storm-triggered landslides and flooding that have left more than 600 people dead, officials said.
       In the heavily-damaged northern province of Pangasinan, manty towns remained under water while landslides had virtually cut off mountainous communities from rescuers, disaster relief officials said.
       Social Welfare Secretary Esperanza Cabral said the government had sent tonnes of food, medicines and clothes to a military base in the north but delivery to affected communities was slow.
       "There is a significant number of people affected," she said. "Our problem is getting to them."
       She said helicopters have been dropping food packs in Pangasinan, a province of 2.5 million that has been submerged in deep waters for the past three days.
       Four US military helicopters were due to airlift 10 tonnes of food to Baguio, a popular mountain resort that has been isolated after deadly landslides triggered by tropical storm Parma, spokesman Captain Jorge Escatell said. "It's going to be an allday mission... we are trying to get some help out there," he said.
       There have given varying reports of casualties, but the police in the Cordillera Administrative Region, which includes Baguio and several provinces hit with deadly landslides, said the death toll there alone climbed to 275 as more bodies were dug up from landslides yesterday.
       The National Disaster Coordinating Council in Manila however placed the official toll at 193 from Parma, which finally blew out into the South China Sea late on Friday after pummelling northern Luzon for a week. Altogether the death toll from Parma and tropical storm Ketsana, which killed 337 in Manila and surrounding areas, now stands at over 636, with fears the toll could rise, officials said.
       Ketsana triggered the worst follding in Manila and nearby areas in four decades on September 26, and many areas still remain follded two weeks later. Both storms affected over six million people, with over 300,000 people remaining in evacuation camps.