Manila - The Philippine government on Wednesday advised Filipinos against flocking to cemeteries to honour their dead on the weekend when a new typhoon could hit the country. Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said Typhoon Mirinae was forecast to hit Friday night or Saturday when Filipinos were expected to start trooping to the provinces ahead of All Saint's Day.
All Saint's Day on November 1 is the traditional day for Filipinos to visit the graves of their dead. Tens of thousands even stay overnight in the cemeteries.
"Let us avoid visiting our relatives at the cemeteries and if they really need to make a visit, we can do it earlier, before Sunday," Teodoro said.
He said the government was making the early warning to ensure that the public was prepared.
"We see difficulties if our countrymen are not aware of the coming typhoon and they are planning to visit their relatives at the cemeteries," he said.
"They may be trapped there and this may cause traffic congestion in the streets ... and may delay the response and relief efforts that may be needed to be done," he added.
The Philippines is still recovering from back-to-back storms that killed nearly 1,000 people and caused more than 796 million dollars' worth of damages to agriculture and infrastructure.
Mirinae was packing maximum sustained winds of 105 kilometres per hour (kph) and gusts of up to 135 kph as it moved west-north-west from the Pacific Ocean.
The weather bureau said it could hit Manila, which was struck by the worst flood in over 40 years when Ketsana dumped more than one month's worth of rain on September 26.
One week later, Typhoon Parma struck the northern Philippines, triggering massive landslides and more flooding.
