MANILA - The estimated total damage due to the onslaught of tropical depression "Urduja" has breached P1 billion, data from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) showed Wednesday.

Damage to infrastructure is pegged at P543.22 million while damage to agriculture is about P475.30 million, NDRRMC spokesperson Romina Marasigan said in a press conference.

The NDRRMC's latest situation report showed that national roads in Masbate, Eastern Samar, Samar, Leyte, and Compostela Valley were damaged by "Urduja".

Corn and rice fields, banana and coconut plantations, as well as livestock, from Masbate, Camarines Sur, Cebu, Biliran, Leyte, Southern Leyte, Samar, Eastern Samar, and Northern Samar were also ravaged by the storm over the weekend, Marasigan said.

Official death toll remains at 41, making Urduja the deadliest storm this year, while the number of missing persons is still at 45, Marasigan said.

"Sinabi ng DILG (Department of Interior and Local Government) na maaari na ang ilang missing ay baka mailagay na sa dead," she said.

(The DILG said some of the missing may be declared as dead.)

Urduja swamped large swaths of the Visayas and parts of southern Luzon over the weekend, leaving at least 5 provinces in a state of calamity.

On Tuesday, "Urduja" left the Philippine Area of Responsibility.

But state weather bureau PAGASA said another weather system may develop into a storm over the Christmas weekend.

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