MANILA - The National Disaster Coordinating Council on Monday said it is shifting its focus from rescue to massive relief operations for nearly 500,000 people affected by tropical storm Ondoy (international codename Ketsana).

Defense Secretary and concurrent NDCC chairman Gilberto Teodoro said the Department of Social Welfare and Development, one of the attached agency of the council, has already set aside P20 million for the relief operations. “The general concentration of the NDCC is to bring food to the relief centers…Relief, relief, relief, that is the challenge. Its going to massive,” he said.

At least 100 people have died while 32 remain missing, according to NDCC's latest casualty count as of 12 p.m. Monday. Teodoro, however, said the casualties could be higher since the agency is still verifying data sent by local government officials.

Unofficial figures received by ABS-CBN News earlier said as many as 78 people were killed in the whole of Marikina while the NDCC only counted one fatality. Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno also reported 17 deaths in Antipolo while the NDCC has yet to record a single one. 

Teodoro said the agency is providing direct assistance in Metro Manila, on top of the assistance being provided by local government units.

He said some residents in areas that are still flooded would not leave their homes for fear of losing their valuables to looters. "Now the challenge is to get food to them especially because they don’t want to leave the areas where they stay," he said.

“We’ll just try to divide our resources as judiciously as possible. We have really to man the evacuation centers and the relief centers that the local governments will establish but beyond that, we’ll try our best, if possible, to service the people on the roof,” he said.

He said, however, that the NDCC will concentrate on bringing food to evacuation centers first. "Distribution is a local government duty but we’ll try to help out as we can," he said.

The defense secretary also pleaded for understanding amid reports that some people are still on their rooftops and are awaiting government rescue. He also chastised Sen. Loren Legarda for criticizing the delay in rescue operations.

“We really feel their anger and pain but it is physically impossible to reach each and everyone with the conditions that we face.”

He said the shift to relief operations does not mean that they are abandoning the rescue operations. “The concentration is relief. If there is anybody, for example, somewhere that needs to be rescued, we have to rescue the person,” he said.

A team composed of representatives from the social welfare and public works departments and the Office of Civil Defense is currently making an assessment report on the effects of tropical storm Ondoy.

NDCC spokesman Anthony Golez said the DSWD has prepared 30,000 family packs as part of the massive relief operations. He said the NDCC has released ”thousands of sacks of rice already to the different areas , particularly those outside Metro Manila.”

Teodoro conducted an aerial survey of Pampanga where a number of landslides occurred. He said about 200 families has to be relocated from Mt. Arayat because of the possibility of landslides.