The death toll from landslides and floods caused by heavy rains brought by a tropical depression in the eastern Philippines has risen to 68.

Rescuers were still searching for 19 missing people in the affected provinces in the eastern regions of Bicol and Eastern Visayas, the national disaster risk reduction office said on Monday.

Fifty seven of the dead were reported from Bicol, while 11 people died in nearby Eastern Visayas, the office said.

Twelve people were also injured in various accidents in the two regions most affected by the rains days before the tropical depression made landfall in Eastern Samar province on Saturday.

The system weakened into a low-pressure area but was continuing to bring heavy rains over the eastern provinces, enhanced by a cold front and the northeast monsoon, the weather bureau said.

More than 22,000 people were displaced by the bad weather, which also knocked out electricity in many of the affected areas, regional civil defence officials said.

Search and rescue operations were continuing for the missing, while emergency teams were also clearing some roads and bridges made impassable by landslides and floods.

Many areas were still flooded and emergency teams had to use boats and trucks to reach some areas, said Edgar Posadas, a spokesman for the agency.

“We are concentrating on responding to emergency situations,” he told Manila radio station DZBB.

“There are many ongoing retrieval operations and we work closely with our regional offices.”

The bad weather will likely also affect Manila and other parts of the country, which could dampen usually rowdy New Year’s Eve celebrations.

Each year the Philippines is hit by an average of 20 cyclones causing floods, landslides and other accidents.

One of the strongest in recent memory, Typhoon Haiyan, hit the country in November 2013, killing more than 6300 people and displacing more than four million others.

-AAP