11 fishermen missing in Bicol due to bad weather

At least 11 fishermen were missing after fierce winds and waves overturned their boats off the eastern Philippines as bad weather, which has claimed 51 lives in recent weeks, continued to wreak havoc in parts of the country, officials said Sunday. A search was under way for the fishermen from the town of Pandan in Catanduanes province who sailed out to sea late Saturday despite warnings of bad weather, Mayor Resty de Quiroz said. Twenty domestic flights to and from the country's eastern and central region were canceled or diverted Sunday due to strong rain and wind set off by a cold front, which forecasters expect will continue to affect the country's weather until early March. De Quiroz said the fishermen sailed out to sea after it calmed following weeks of pounding rain, but the weather suddenly turned nasty, overturning or damaging their boats. "We warned them of the bad weather but we know their families won't eat if they don't set out to sea," said Benito Ramos, who heads the government's disaster-response agency. About 1.5 million people have been affected by four weeks of intermittent heavy rains, which caused flooding and landslides and left 51 dead in 16 provinces. More than half a million people have been provided food packs and medicine in emergency shelters or in isolated rural communities, Ramos said. President Benigno Aquino III has said he is considering a total ban on logging in the country after blaming the recent flooding on illegal loggers. After a visit to flood-hit Southern Leyte and Agusan del Norte provinces last week, Aquino expressed exasperation that illegal logging has continued in those regions despite a long government crackdown. — AP