More than 1,000 families were pre-emptively evacuated due to the enhanced southwest monsoon in central Luzon and western Visayas, an Office of Civil Defense (OCD) officer said on Sunday.

"The typhoon is quite far. Our problem is the effect of the southwest monsoon," Diego Mariano, OCD-Joint Monitoring Center chief said.

He said at least 1273 families have evacuated pre-emptively in two regions as of Sunday.

Mariano said 1,082 families were from Negros Occidental, 111 from Antique and 36 other from Capiz all in the western Visayas region and eight other families in Angeles City, Pampanga in central Luzon.

Mariano said the OCD has not yet received an official report of pre-emptive evacuation in the provinces of northern Luzon which will be directly affected by Typhoon ''Betty''.

"Definitely there is already a plan to evacuate, it will depend on the call of the LGUs because one of the factor is the livelihood, they cannot just leave their livelihood and houses, that is why the LGU's is trying to balance that it will not be too early and not too late to evacuate," he said. Robina Asido/DMS