A WARNING of a storm surge of as high as 3 meters whipped up by Typhoon Pepito has prompted the evacuation of coastal communities along the country's eastern seaboard.

The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) issued the warning Friday.

During the situation briefing, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. directed government agencies to move people to higher ground.

"It's not enough to move them away from the sea. We have to get them to high ground. That's the only thing that we can do when there is a storm surge," Marcos said.

The president said the "new feature here that we have to deal with is the storm surge because that's as fatal as a regular typhoon."

"Let us not forget the lessons of storm surge. Again to go back to Yolanda, the problem is we were telling everybody there will be a storm surge; nobody knew what storm surge was. We should've just said tsunami, the people would have left the coast," Marcos said.

Hundreds of people fled Friday as Pepito, whose international name is Man-Yi, bore down on the Philippines, threatening yet more destruction for the country that has been battered by five major storms in the last three weeks.

Typhoon Ofel hit Northern Luzon on Thursday, and on Friday rescuers were still scrambling to reach residents stranded on rooftops.

Interior Secretary Juanito Victor Remulla said there would be a forced evacuation in coastal areas of Eastern Visayas, Bicol, Calabarzon and Cagayan Valley starting Friday night.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said 149 local government units have received the storm surge warning.

The agency said more than 1.9 million individuals could be at risk.

Pepito is forecast to make landfall in Catanduanes on Saturday morning.

Pagasa said that as of Friday afternoon, Pepito was tracked 265 kilometers east of Guian, Eastern Samar, packing winds of 150 kilometers per hour and gusts of up to 185 kph.

Storm Signals No. 1 and 2 were raised over huge sections of Luzon and Eastern Visayas.

Northern Samar Gov. Edwin Marino Ongchuan has ordered all employees in the capitol building in Catarman to reinforce their windows and doors of their offices in anticipation of Pepito's arrival.

All classes in the province were suspended on Friday.

The Philippine Coast Guard Station has halted all shipping between Allen to Matnog and in other parts of Northern Samar.

While Pepito is expected not to directly hit the province of Cagayan, Gov. Manuel Mamba said residents still fear the storm could trigger massive flooding.

Mamba said "there is no reason to be lax" as the massive floods during Typhoon Ulysses in 2020 devastated the province.

Crop damage in Cagayan has reached P1.4 billion due to the string of typhoons.

"Our problem is between now and the planting season because there's nothing to harvest anymore as these were destroyed. It means no work for the next three months. At this point there is no work in agriculture, we need the private sector's help," Mamba said.

President Marcos also said the Philippines may have to import close to 4.5 million tons of rice due to agricultural losses caused by the recent typhoons.

Interviewed after the situation briefing on Typhoon Pepito in Quezon City, Marcos said he just received a report from the Department of Agriculture (DA) on the need to import rice.

"We reached 3.9 million last year. The upper estimate is 4.5. But we have already in place the prices of rice — imported rice has gone down significantly since last year. And we are not in competition like during the El Niño period," he said.

Marcos assured the public that the country's food security remains "alright" despite the losses from the typhoons.

"We just came out of El Niño. ... Although, during the El Niño time, we've had the highest production for that season. But this time the typhoons destroyed the crops. So, that's going to be something — that's going to be something that will require attention," he said.

The NDRRMC said some 420,000 individuals in the Ilocos Region, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Bicol and Cordillera Administrative Region were affected by Nika and Ofel.

Cagayan Valley had the biggest number of affected residents, with 228,635 people or 58,171 families.

Damage to infrastructure was at P320,658,974.