MANILA - Vice President Leni Robredo on Sunday morning visited submerged Cagayan province to provide assistance.

Robredo said her team arrived in the inundated province a few hours before her.

"We arrived Cagayan this morning. Our team arrived a few hours earlier with supplies. Situation is so much better. Many areas still flooded but water receded already," she said in a tweet.

In a video post on her Facebook account past 9 a.m., Robredo could be seen passing by Barangay Annafunan East in Tuguegarao City where, according to her, many requests for assistance. reached her office.

"Kare-recede lang po ng tubig, kaya kung mapapansin natin, parang meron pa siyang residue. Maputik pa yung mga loob ng mga bahay. So makikita natin na naglilinis yung mga tao," she described the area while her vehicle passes by.

(Flood water has just receded. So, if you notice, there's still residue. There's still mud inside the houses. And we can see people cleaning their houses.)

She said many were requesting for food and drinking water.

"Aasikasuhin natin 'yan ngayong araw," Robredo said, adding her team brought mattresses aside from hot meals.

(We will attend to those needs today.)

Robredo was among those who first coordinated response for the the province.

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Some 24 out of 28 towns and 1 city remain "underwater" in Cagayan as of Sunday morning, said Governor Manuel Mamba.

"Beyond Tuguegarao, mahihirapan po kayo makapasok kasi most are still underwater," he told ABS-CBN's TeleRadyo.

(You will find it difficult to enter beyond Tuguegarao as most towns are still underwater.)

The province experienced "unprecedented" flooding with the water level at the Bunton Gauge reaching 13.1 meters, much higher than the "worst" it recorded previously between 11 to 12 meters, Mamba said.

"Ito po ay unprecedented flooding. Ang sabi dito sa Tuguegarao, the last time na nagkaroon sila ng ganito was 1975. That was 45 years ago.

(This is unprecedented flooding. Tuguegarao last experienced flooding this worse in 1975.)

"Nakapag-prepare po kami, lahat ng klase ng preparasyon - preemptive evacuation, forced evacuation, prepositioning, information drive... Na-surprise din kami sa dami ng tubig na dumating dito sa'min."

(We were prepared. We made all kinds of preparations from preemptive to forced evauctaion, prepositioning, information drive...We were surprised by the volume of water that came to us.)

Mamba appealed to the government and private sector for food and water as some 294,000 residents were affected by the floods and the province's fund had been depleted by the COVID-19 pandemic and previous storms.

"Water and ready-to-eat food. Marami pong di pa rin makapagluto," he said.

(Many cannot cook yet.)

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