People push a half-submerged tricycle through a flooded street due to heavy rains caused by tropical depression Vicky in San Francisco town on the southern island of Mindanao, Philippines on Friday. (Photo: AFP)

Nearly 10,000 people were evacuated from their homes in the northeastern Philippines as heavy rain across the country left at least eight people dead, authorities said on Sunday.

The storm, which has inundated villages and destroyed scores of houses in recent days, is the latest to batter the disaster-prone archipelago.

Floodwaters reached waist-deep in 14 towns in the Cagayan Valley in the northeast of the main island of Luzon — which saw the worst flooding in decades last month — regional civil defence officer Francis Joseph Reyes said.

That forced nearly 10,000 people to seek shelter in emergency centers.

The rain, which was intensified by the northeast monsoon, has filled Magat dam near to its critical level and the release of water threatens to aggravate the flooding, Reyes said.

Authorities said at least six people drowned in two provinces on the major southern island of Mindanao, which was also hit by torrential rain in recent days.

Two elderly women were also killed in a rain-induced landslide on Saturday in the central province of Leyte.

The Philippines is hit by an average of 20 storms and typhoons every year, which typically wipe out harvests, homes and infrastructure in already impoverished areas.

At least 148 people died in a succession of recent typhoons that destroyed hundreds of thousands of houses.