Hundreds of homeless Filipinos Saturday wait on rooftops, bridges or simply hold on to a rope as the government sent rafts, rubber boats to reach the submerged towns and villages.

Residents help a woman evacuate during flooding in Bocaue outskirts beside a highway north of Manila September 26, 2009.

The National Disasters Coordinating Council, or the government disasters relief agency, reported that by 5 a.m. local time (1900 GMT) 51 people were confirmed dead and 21 remained missing in Metro Manila and four other badly affected provinces nearby. Officials expect the casualty numbers to rise.

Hundreds remain on rooftops in Marikina city, the western suburban of Metro Manila and Rizal province as heavy rainfall rendered the areas into a huge lake, with roofs popping out of water here and there, a Xinhua stringer aboard the Air Force helicopter saw.

Rafts, armored personnel carriers, rubber speedboats and improvised boats made of wood and banana trees composed of the main forces of the rescue team. Military helicopters are also flying over the flooded villages to monitor the emergency rescue needs.

As the weather turns fair, floodwaters in some parts of the battered towns began to subside, but possible oil spills add odor to the flood, the stringer said.

TV footage of local television ABS-CBN shows over a hundred residents and their cars and vans crowded on a concrete bridge in Pasig city, west of Manila as floods completely submerged roads on both sides.

The disasters relief agency said 45 barangays (or villages) in the national capital region and 69 villages in just two neighboring provinces were “heavily flooded” while landslide occurred in at least seven areas across the central and southern Luzon island.

The government placed Metro Manila and about two dozen provinces in Luzon region under state of calamity as heavy rains submerged roads and flooded homes.

According to local weather forecast bureau, Kestana, locally known as Ondoy, has exited the Philippine archipelago and headed further west of the South China Sea by Sunday morning.

VietNamNet/Xinhuanet