Defense Secretary Eduardo Ermita said the toll of confirmed deaths had risen to 23 with 21 bodies recovered in the town of Liloan and two more in Maasin.

Southern Leyte Governor Rosete Lerias earlier said that as many as 93 people were missing in landslides brought on by heavy rains late Friday. She said more than 250 people had been rescued from the disaster sites.

Military and relief officials are in the affected areas with heavy equipment to search for the missing, civil defense officials said.

Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman said she was hopeful that some of the missing may have simply fled and not reported in.

"Let us pray that the death toll will not be that high," Soliman said in a radio interview.

She said the actual number of those buried could be immediately confirmed, but that figures would be reconciled later.

Presidential palace spokesman Ricardo Saludo said that the government would provide medical assistance to the injured and shelter and relief to those who were forced to flee their homes.

"There will be rescue operations to be conducted, using both armed forces, police and fire units," Saludo told AFP.

"The first priority is to assist the community affected, to assure there are immediate rescue operations," he said.

About 150 families who fled the disaster scene were sheltered in evacuation centers and food and medicines were being rushed to them, Soliman added.

Soliman said she and Defense Secretary Ermita would visit the scene of the disaster on Sunday or Monday but would not go to the area immediately in order to ensure all transport resources were used to help the victims.

Only two helicopters were immediately available for rescue and relief efforts, she added.

Police official Senior Inspector Romualdo Baguhin told reporters that as many as 20 houses in his town of San Francisco had been buried in the avalanche of mud.

Antonio Maamo, vice mayor of Liloan town, said survivors told him that late at night they heard a thundering sound coming down the mountains, and a few minutes later a torrent of mud covered their houses.

Residents panicked and fled for high ground but had difficulty navigating in the darkness, said Teresita Orano, one of the survivors who lost a child in the disaster.

Maamo said three houses in his town were completely buried.

Getting help for those affected was made more difficult because the avalanche had washed out some bridges, preventing heavy equipment from being brought in, the vice-mayor complained.

Rescuers were forced to dig using hand tools like shovels and iron bars, Maamo said.

Electricity was also knocked out by landslides in several towns.

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