More than 1,000 people are dead or missing after flash floods that hit the southern Philippines at the weekend.
At least 957 people are confirmed dead and 49 others are missing after tropical storm Washi lashed the southern island of Mindanao and surrounding areas.
Washi brought heavy rains that swelled rivers, unleashing flash floods and landslides that swept away shantytowns built near river mouths.
The Irish Government is giving €100,000 to the relief operation.
The toll rose sharply as the bodies of people who were swept out to sea were recovered.
"They were underwater for the first three days but now, in their state of decomposition, they are bloated and floating to the surface," Mr Ramos said.
A British national was among those who died in the storm, Britain's Foreign Office said.
President Benigno Aquino flew to Mindanao today to survey the devastation by air, coordinate the relief effort, and express his condolences to the victims' relatives.
The president said the impoverished nation of 94m people was now in a "state of calamity", his spokesman Ricky Carandang told reporters.
The southern port cities of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan were the worst affected with 579 and 279 fatalities respectively, but other areas were also hit and needed immediate aid from the national government, the spokesman said.
Authorities in both cities are preparing mass burials of unidentified bodies to address health concerns, as well as the overpowering stench from huge numbers of dead that have overwhelmed mortuaries.
