THE death toll from a tropical storm that hit the central Philippines on Christmas Day has risen to 11 with thousands more forced out of their homes by landslides and flooding, officials said on Friday.

Tropical Storm Wukong (local name: Quinta) has caused new destruction just weeks after Typhoon Bopha (local name: Pablo) hit the south of the country, flattening whole communities and killing over 1,000 people.

Most of Wukong's victims died from drowning, while three died when a tree fell onto their home, according to the official disaster monitoring council, which added that two people remained missing.

It said that over 13,000 people were in evacuation centers due to flooding and landslides caused by the latest storm, which affected the islands of Samar, Leyte Cebu and Panay.

But regional disaster officer Celeste Milan expressed confidence that the death toll would not rise much higher as people had taken precautions, with some having evacuated their homes before the storm hit.

"It won't be like Bopha. This was more just rain. Bopha was a strong storm. This [Wukong] was just a tropical depression," Milan said.

Wukong weakened as it blew out westward to the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea).

Relief efforts are still ongoing in areas of the southern Philippines where whole towns were wiped out by Bopha, the strongest typhoon to hit the country this year.

The Philippines is hit by about 20 major storms or typhoons each year that occur mainly during the rainy season between June and October; the latest storm to hit the nation was Wukong, which was its 17th.

AFP