MANILA - The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) started Wednesday a massive clean-up drive in areas hardest hit by tropical storm Ondoy, which left thousands of people displaced and 246 people dead.

Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro said four teams from the AFP General Headquarters, Philippine Army, Philippine Navy and Philippine Air Force will start a massive clean-up drive in Cainta, Rizal and the cities of Manila, Pasig and Marikina.

Teodoro said the holiday clean-up in typhoon-hit areas in the metro would follow anyday this week.

"Ang AFP ay magsasagawa ng massive clean-up activities, maliban pa po ito sa holiday clean-up," the defense chief said.

He said the military will be aided by the American troops with heavy equipment, including bulldozers, scoop loaders, trucks and hummer vehicles that were set to arrive in Manila on Wednesday morning.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has ordered the drafting of an executive order for a massive clean-up holiday in Metro Manila.

Teodoro said in a press conference that the massive clean-up day will be declared a special non-working day.

Teodoro said Malacañang has yet to set a date for the metro clean-up, but suggested that it may be scheduled within the week.

He added that the NDCC, which he concurrently heads, will relay details of the massive clean-up day to the mayors.

Still flooded

Teodoro said that simultaneous with the clean-up activities, military personnel will try to breach areas Rizal province and Pasig City that have not been penetrated by the government's rescue and relief efforts.

He said the military will try to deliver relief goods and conduct retrieval and rescue operations in still flooded areas in the two areas on Wednesday.

Before dawn Wednesday, Marine rescuers tried to enter Taytay town in Rizal with amphibious tanks, but failed due to narrow streets and deep floodwaters.

The National Disaster Coordinating Council said that as of 6 a.m., at least a dozen road sections in Metro Manila and Rizal were still impassable to all types of vehicles.

It said that the villages of Maybunga, Pinagbuhatan and Palatiw in Pasig City were still underwater; eight more villages in Muntinlupa City were still flooded; 9 villages in Pateros and 24 in Taguig City.

It said three areas in Taguig City -- Napindan, New Lower Bicutan and Ususan -- were still under "highwater level."

Death toll

The NDCC's death toll was still at 246 as of 6 a.m. Wednesday. It said 42 people have been reported missing due to floods and landslides.

The number of people affected by the storm has sharply risen to 2.25 million from Tuesday's 1.8 million, with 389,616 people still in 561 evacuation centers around the metro, Rizal and nearby provinces.

The agency said the storm's estimated damage to agriculture was P3.2 billion and P1.59 billion to infrastructure.

The storm has also damaged 263 schools in Regions 1, 2, 3, 4-A (Calabarzon), CAR and Metro Manila and 226 more school buildings were being used as evacuation areas for 26,212 people.

The Department of Education and the Commission on Higher Education has suspended classes in Metro Manila until Friday and Saturday, respectively, due to the effects of the storm.