<span data-style="border-bottom: 1px solid #0000FF !important;text-decoration:underline !important;color:#0000FF !important">The United Nations said on Friday that the death toll from a super typhoon in <span data-style="border-bottom: 1px solid #0000FF !important;text-decoration:underline !important;color:#0000FF !important">the Philippines was at least 4,460, citing regional officials, but the national disaster council maintained a much lower figure.
The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the number of 4,460 was given from the regional task force of the Philippines’ National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council on Wednesday.
But NDRMMC’s spokesman Reynaldo Balido insisted the official toll from the typhoon that ripped through the central Philippines on 8 November remained at 2,360.
‘As of 13 November, the government reported that 4,460 people have died,’ an OCHA statement said.
Asked for the source of the figures, Manila-based OCHA spokeswoman Orla Fagan said ‘We are getting it from the operations centre of the regional task force set up by the NDRMMC.’
When asked about <span data-style="border-bottom: 1px solid #0000FF !important;text-decoration:underline !important;color:#0000FF !important">the UN’s statement, Balido replied, ‘Not true’. He then repeated the NDRMMC’s published figure of 2,360.
Philippine President Benigno Aquino said on Tuesday that he estimated the final death toll would be around 2,500.
Meanwhile, a US aircraft carrier sent mercy flights into the typhoon-smashed Philippines on Friday, transporting food and supplies desperately needed for survivors still begging for help in wreckage strewn with bodies one week after the disaster.
Aid has been excruciatingly slow to get through to hungry and homeless survivors, with United Nations <span data-style="border-bottom: 1px solid #0000FF !important;text-decoration:underline !important;color:#0000FF !important">humanitarian chief Valerie Amos admitting that the delivery of supplies had not been quick enough.
<span data-style="border-bottom: 1px solid #0000FF !important;text-decoration:underline !important;color:#0000FF !important">The UN and <span data-style="border-bottom: 1px solid #0000FF !important;text-decoration:underline !important;color:#0000FF !important">the Philippines government are in dispute over the extent of the death toll. The world body says 4,460 have been confirmed dead -- but the Philippines’ National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council insisted the number remained at 2,360.
The USS George Washington Strike Group -- with 5,000 sailors on the huge carrier alone, and seven other ships -- arrived on Thursday with badly needed equipment, manpower and expertise, giving some hope to survivors that the delivery of aid would speed up.
‘I heard there are now American planes,’ 28-year-old Merly Araneta said.
‘I will try to make it to the airport. But I have only eaten twice in five days and drank rainwater collected in a plastic cup. I am so tired.’
Hundreds of people were also standing in searing heat trying to get on planes out of the stricken city.
The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the number of 4,460 was given from the regional task force of the Philippines’ National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council on Wednesday.
But NDRMMC’s spokesman Reynaldo Balido insisted the official toll from the typhoon that ripped through the central Philippines on 8 November remained at 2,360.
‘As of 13 November, the government reported that 4,460 people have died,’ an OCHA statement said.
Asked for the source of the figures, Manila-based OCHA spokeswoman Orla Fagan said ‘We are getting it from the operations centre of the regional task force set up by the NDRMMC.’
When asked about <span data-style="border-bottom: 1px solid #0000FF !important;text-decoration:underline !important;color:#0000FF !important">the UN’s statement, Balido replied, ‘Not true’. He then repeated the NDRMMC’s published figure of 2,360.
Philippine President Benigno Aquino said on Tuesday that he estimated the final death toll would be around 2,500.
Meanwhile, a US aircraft carrier sent mercy flights into the typhoon-smashed Philippines on Friday, transporting food and supplies desperately needed for survivors still begging for help in wreckage strewn with bodies one week after the disaster.
Aid has been excruciatingly slow to get through to hungry and homeless survivors, with United Nations <span data-style="border-bottom: 1px solid #0000FF !important;text-decoration:underline !important;color:#0000FF !important">humanitarian chief Valerie Amos admitting that the delivery of supplies had not been quick enough.
<span data-style="border-bottom: 1px solid #0000FF !important;text-decoration:underline !important;color:#0000FF !important">The UN and <span data-style="border-bottom: 1px solid #0000FF !important;text-decoration:underline !important;color:#0000FF !important">the Philippines government are in dispute over the extent of the death toll. The world body says 4,460 have been confirmed dead -- but the Philippines’ National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council insisted the number remained at 2,360.
The USS George Washington Strike Group -- with 5,000 sailors on the huge carrier alone, and seven other ships -- arrived on Thursday with badly needed equipment, manpower and expertise, giving some hope to survivors that the delivery of aid would speed up.
‘I heard there are now American planes,’ 28-year-old Merly Araneta said.
‘I will try to make it to the airport. But I have only eaten twice in five days and drank rainwater collected in a plastic cup. I am so tired.’
Hundreds of people were also standing in searing heat trying to get on planes out of the stricken city.