A landslide in the southern Philippines killed one person and left three missing, bringing the nationwide death toll to 33 as the current wave of bad weather began to hit over Christmas.

Meanwhile, authorities are still looking for about 20 people after flooding and landslides over the Christmas weekend in the central and southern parts of the country of 110 million people.

Four people were fishing in a small river in Davao Oriental province on the island of Mindanao yesterday Wednesday when a landslide crushed them where they were, police said.

The body of a 62-year-old man has been found and a search is underway to identify three more people, Mati police chief Ernesto Gregore told AFP.

Hundreds of homes and more than 50,000 acres of crops were destroyed across the country, and tens of thousands of people were forced to flee their homes, according to the National Emergency Management Agency.

The Philippines is among the countries in the world most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Scientists warn that the storms that hit the archipelago every year will become more and more ferocious as the planet’s temperature rises.

Source: RES-IPE