The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) on Sunday apologized for the discrepancy in the number of evacuees it reported on Saturday night.

In a televised meeting, NDRRMC executive director Undersecretary Ricardo Jalad said it is not his intention when he said that almost one million people were pre-emptively evacuated in the Bicol region as part of the local government's preparation for the onslaught of Typhoon "Rolly."

“The figures reported on pre-emptive evacuation a while ago, the 96,543 families or 346,993 individuals, that is the correct and official figures,” Jalad said.

“I apologized for the discrepancy of our report last night. It’s not intentional on my part maybe because I mistook the figures reported as targets for pre-emptive evacuation in some provinces in Region 5 as the actual figures already conducted,” he added.

Jalad apologized to the public, President Rodrigo Duterte, NDRRMC chairperson Sec. Delfin Lorenzana and to the whole NDRRMC.

In a press briefing on Saturday night, the NDRRMC executive director said 174,616 families composed of 794,000 persons were already evacuated in the Bicol region as they were the first area to be hit by the typhoon.

Rolly was still under category “Super Typhoon” when it made a landfall in Albay province on Sunday morning. Ella Dionisio/DMS