Ship sinks as typhoon loiters off Philippines

By Manny Mogato and Ralph Jennings

MANILA/TAIPEI (Reuters) - A ship carrying refrigerated goods sank in the South China Sea, killing one person and leaving 10 crew missing, as a powerful storm stalled off the Philippines' northwestern coast on Monday, officials said.

Parma, the strongest typhoon to hit the Philippines since 2006, was gathering strength and was likely to remain stationary off the coast of the Ilocos provinces for the next three days, bringing more rains and possible floods and landslides.

It slammed into the northern Philippine mountains on Saturday and has killed 22 people, according to officials and radio reports.

Heavy rain in and around Manila, about 350 km (210 miles) southeast of Parma's center, could worsen the situation in the Philippine capital, which is still recovering from floods brought more than a week ago by Typhoon Ketsana.

Nearly 300 people were killed and half a million were forced from their homes by Ketsana. About 6.8 billion pesos ($145 million) in crops, mostly rice about to be harvested, were damaged, forcing Manila to consider more rice imports this year.

Rescue teams from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan were searching for the crew of the Panama-registered ship which sank late on Sunday in Taiwan waters, according to coast guard official Shih Ye-che.

Parma is likely to hover off the coast until Thursday, and could then move southwest out to sea, Philippine weather officials said.

"There's a possibility that Parma will gain further strength and intensify into a typhoon again because it remains over the sea," Prisco Nilo, head of the country's weather agency, told a news conference.

Parma's movement was affected by the much stronger Typhoon Melor, which was expected to enter Philippine territory from the east late on Monday, he said.

"The interaction between the two typhoons has prevented Parma from moving out of the country," Nilo said, adding a high pressure area near Hong Kong was also stopping Parma from moving westward.

Melor, with center winds of 205 kph (125 mph) gusting up to 250 kph, was swirling in the Pacific at 26 kph (16 mph) and likely to veer into the country's northeastern waters before heading for Japan.

Five more people were reported killed when Parma battered northern regions at the weekend, bringing total fatalities to 22, disaster and local officials interviewed on radio said on Monday.

More than 200,000 people were hit by the storm and a third of those were in temporary shelter areas due to floods and landslides. Power and communications have yet to be restored.

The government is preparing a 10-billion peso supplementary budget to finance relief work in the wake of Ketsana and may issue dollar-denominated bonds of $250-500 million to fund it, in addition to previous plans to issue yen bonds [ID:nMAN467387]

Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said rice stocks were sufficient for the year despite the crop damage. Any imports would be for 2010 requirements and these would be done at "an appropriate time," he said.