Tent cities loom for Philippine flood victims

CAGAYAN DE ORO: Tens of thousands of flash flood survivors in the Philippines face life in tent cities for months while safe areas to resettle them are sought, a top relief official said Monday.

More than 60,000 people displaced by tropical storm Washi are sheltering in government buildings in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan cities, most of them in schools that reopen after the holidays, civil defence chief Benito Ramos said.

"We can't construct permanent shelters for them immediately. It will take some time. They have to move into tents when schools reopen on January 3," Ramos told.

Floods unleashed by the storm obliterated entire riverside communities on the north coast of the main southern island of Mindanao before dawn on December 17, many of them populated by poor migrants living in shacks built on sandbars.

Manila does not normally build houses for those left homeless by natural disasters, but President Benigno Aquino has banned the victims from returning to flood-prone areas, stationing armed police to enforce the measure.