Waves hit RP; 5,000 homeless

Waves hit RP; 5,000 homeless

ZAMBOANGA, Philippines (AP): High waves whipped by monsoon winds struck at least three southern Philippine towns, destroying huts on stilts and leaving more than 5,000 people homeless, police said on Tuesday.

Police said several people were injured but there were no immediate reports of deaths when the waves, which reached several meters high, struck the towns of Matata, Sapa-Sapa and Simunol in the country's southernmost province of Tawi Tawi on Saturday.

Damming Unga, police chief of an autonomous Muslim region which includes Tawi Tawi, said that in the hard-hit town of Matata, more than 300 wooden houses built on stilts over the coast were destroyed by the waves, displacing nearly 3,800 people.

About 150 houses were destroyed in the island towns of Sapa- Sapa and Simunol, displacing about 1,450 people, police said.