Metro Manila, Philippines – All available uniformed personnel are responding to Severe Tropical Storm Kristine, concentrating on the severely affected Bicol region, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. assured Friday.

In a statement, Marcos announced that he has ordered the Armed Forces, Philippine National Police, Bureau of Fire Protection, and Coast Guard to mobilize all available personnel and resources for relief operations.

“I have ordered them to deploy vehicles, aircraft, boats, ships, and all other transportation assets for, first, rescue, and then relief and rehabilitation. This includes presidential helicopters,” he said.

The chief executive also canceled all leaves of uniformed personnel, except for medical and humanitarian reasons.

Meanwhile, Marcos ordered the budget department to release all necessary funds for the immediate procurement of resources.

He also directed the social welfare department to augment the relief goods distributed by local government units, the Agriculture department to assist affected farmers and deploy “Kadiwa” rolling stores selling affordable produce, the Public Works department to conduct emergency road clearing operations, and the Trade department to enforce price controls in areas under a state of calamity.

In a situation briefing close to noon on Thursday, Marcos ordered Cabinet secretaries to “continue to concentrate” on the Bicol region “ for now because they are the ones in most need.”

“Everybody is in need but the accessibility problem of Region 5 is a little bit more pronounced than all the other areas,” Marcos said.

“The problem is not the availability of relief goods and the responders but it’s the accessibility in areas especially in Camarines Sur dahil marami pang nakalubog (where many areas are still inundated),” he added.

According to the Office of Civil Defense, Kristine left at least 28 people dead in Bicol and a total of 46 nationwide before exiting the Philippine Area of Responsibility on Friday afternoon.