EVACUEES displaced by Typhoon Ondoy have started to leave government-administered shelters, the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) said on Monday.

In its latest report, the NDCC pegged the damage to infrastructure and agriculture to a total of P8.328 billion in the areas hit by the typhoon.

The fatalities also stood at 288, with 42 missing and five injured.

The report said some of the families who sought shelters in evacuation centers at the height of the storm have already returned to their homes, but a bigger number is still left in centers.

“Evacuees further decreased from 74,258 families or 370,147 individuals to 64,975 families or 317,660 persons currently staying in 505 evacuation centers,” the NDCC said.

A total of 797,404 families or 3,899,307 persons across the country were affected by Ondoy.

In Malacañang, Secretary Hermogenes Esperon Jr., who heads the Palace’s relief efforts, said about 4,500 people have so far volunteered to repack relief goods that arrive in Malacañang. Most of them are students who don’t have classes. Others are government personnel who volunteered their time to help in the relief efforts.

Esperon said at least 300 volunteers are in Malacañang at any time to help in repacking relief goods.

Esperon added that the Antonio Floirendo Foundation donated P2 million for the relief effort.

So far, he said, 98,000 families have benefited from Malacañang operations.

In addition, 30 rolling stores of the National Food Authority have been sent to devastated areas to enable flood victims to buy basic goods at cheaper prices.

Meanwhile, Defense Secretary and concurrent NDCC Chairman Gilbert Teodoro belied on Monday reports that residents of Marilao, Bulacan, have fallen ill from diarrhea.

Teodoro, along with medical teams from the Armed Forces, personally checked the residents, who were also affected by Ondoy.

United Nations Development Program Philippine country director Renaud Meyer informed the Senate on Monday that the agency is airing a “flash appeal” in Geneva for the early delivery of $75 million from the international donor community for immediate aid to typhoon victims in Metro Manila and other devastated areas hit by two killer typhoons.

Appearing at a climate-change committee hearing chaired by Sen. Loren Legarda, Meyer confirmed that the appeal will be launched on Tuesday in Geneva, but they would have to “wait until Wednesday to get the details” on the size of the forthcoming assistance from various donors.

Meyer explained that “a flash appeal is a tool that the international community uses to call on international assistance and any disaster that’s happening in a member-country.”

He added that the projected $75- million aid “is the envelop that is estimated being needed in the Philippines to cater to the immediate needs” of typhoon victims.

Meyer said the objective of the flash appeal is to mobilize the money among the donor communities and the member-states of the United Nations. “It is an estimation of the needs based on assessments that are being done jointly between the government and the United Nations.”

Meanwhile, Metrobank Group chairman George S. K. Ty, through the Metrobank Foundation Inc., donated an additional P5 million to Oplan Sagip Bayan.

The additional donation is in response to the government’s call for intensified private-sector assistance to the ongoing emergency and relief operations for the victims of Typhoon Ondoy.

Launched by President Arroyo early this week, Oplan Sagip Bayan is housed in Malacañang Palace and headed by Evangeline Lourdes “Luli” Arroyo-Bernas. It has already provided relief and temporary shelter for families displaced and made homeless by the storm.

The Metrobank Group’s P5-million donation is on top of the P10 million that Ty has extended to local governments affected by the storm. Among them are Cainta, Taytay, Rodriguez, Tanay, San Mateo and Teresa in Rizal; Marikina, Quezon City, Pasig, Muntinlupa, Pateros, Mandaluyong, Caloocan, Taguig, Las Piñas, Manila, Pasay, Malabon and Makati in the National Capital Region; and the provinces of Bulacan and Pampanga.

Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay said the city government has distributed relief goods to thousands of families affected by Typhoon Ondoy not only in Pateros, Marikina and Rizal, but also in various localities in the provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, Pampanga and Zambales.

More than 14,000 patients from various areas affected by Typhoon Ondoy have already benefited, and thousands more are expected to benefit from ongoing medical missions conducted under the Sagip-Tulong ni PGMA project of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor).

This service is on top of the continuous distribution of rice, bread, water and assorted groceries being undertaken by the state-run gaming corporation.

Since Sunday, Sagip-Tulong teams have been conducting two to three medical missions per day in various evacuation centers in Marikina, Pasig, Taguig, as well as the Laguna and Rizal provinces. (With B. Fernandez)