The FINANCIAL -- JAKARTA, At least 16 people have died and several more have gone missing in the Philippines when Typhoon Mirinae hit the country over the weekend, according to local media reports.

Most of the deaths were drowning victims in suburban areas south of the country's capital of Manila, the National Disaster Coordinating Council said.

The council said the number of victims in the typhoon was low because the country had organized mass evacuations before the storm hit the island nation. Some 115,000 people were evacuated before the storm.

"We were thankful that the public listened to authorities. People are now more aware of what to do after Ketsana and Parma," Philippine National Red Cross head Gwendolyn Pang was quoted as saying by IRIN news, a project of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The Philippines have been hit hard by a number of typhoons over the last month, including Kujira, which left at least 27 dead, and Ketsana, which took at least 300 lives and caused the worst flooding in over 40 years in the area.

Mirinae left the Philippines on November 1 and hit Vietnam on November 2, dumping heavy rain on the country's coffee-growing region and forcing thousands of people to flee their homes but weakening as it headed inland.

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