Survivors of the Philippines' deadliest typhoon spent a gloomy Christmas Day surrounded by mud Wednesday as heavy rain drove many inside their flimsy shelters, dampening efforts to retain some holiday cheer in the deeply devout nation.

Groups of children in plastic raincoats braved the incessant rain in the devastated central city of Tacloban, knocking on doors in trick-or-treat fashion and beseeching pedestrians for candies, coins and other Christmas presents.

Communist insurgents in the southern Philippines torched three taxis barely an hour before their 48-hour Christmas truce took effect, police said Tuesday.

New People's Army (NPA) guerrillas burned the three cabs of Holiday Taxi company in the city of Panabo late Monday, about an hour before midnight when their truce started, said regional police spokesman Chief Inspector Jed Clamor.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on donor nations Sunday to ramp up aid to typhoon-battered Philippines as it grapples with a funding shortfall on the long road to recovery.

"We must not allow this to be another forgotten crisis," Ban told reporters a day after touring the storm-ravaged city of Tacloban.

The Philippine military and one of Asia's last communist guerrilla groups said Wednesday they are to call an informal truce over Christmas, bringing some peace to a nation reeling from disasters.

The Communist Party of the Philippines said its New People's Army guerrillas would observe a 48-hour unilateral ceasefire in the mainly Catholic Asian nation from December 24, and another 48-hour truce from New Year's Eve.

A Philippine beauty queen has been crowned Miss International in a pageant marred by allegations of intimidation that kept her predecessor away -- pledging to use her title to help victims of the country's devastating typhoon.

"This is my dream. Thank you Japan for giving it to me," an ecstatic Bea Rose Santiago said at the event, held late Tuesday in Tokyo.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry toured the typhoon-devastated central Philippine city of Tacloban on Wednesday, expressing shock at the "stunning" destruction and vowing that Washington will not abandon its key ally.

"This is a devastation unlike anything that I have ever seen at this scale," Kerry told reporters as he toured a temporary U.S. aid supply depot for survivors of Super Typhoon Haiyan.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry laid a wreath Tuesday at a cemetery for U.S. and Filipino war dead, and said it symbolized the countries' close ties.

Kerry, a Vietnam war veteran, said he was "honored" to lay the wreath at the American Cemetery in a Manila suburb, which contains the remains of over 16,600 Americans and 570 Filipinos who died fighting the Japanese during World War II.

The Philippine economy should grow 7.0 percent this year and between 6.5 and 7.5 percent next year despite the devastation caused by a killer typhoon and an earthquake, the government said Tuesday.

Economic planning minister Arsenio Balisacan said that while losses in agriculture caused by Super Typhoon Haiyan in November were expected to hit growth in the near term, rebuilding would likely make up for it further down the line.

Survivors of Super Typhoon Haiyan gathered to pray while a priest sprinkled holy water on their ruined homes Tuesday in a ceremony marking the end of a 40-day mourning period for the thousands killed.

The memorial took place in Tacloban on the island of Leyte, which bore the brunt of the Philippines' deadliest typhoon, accounting for more than 5,000 of the 6,069 confirmed deaths.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry warned China Tuesday against imposing an air defense zone over the South China Sea, similar to one it declared over disputed islands in the East China Sea.

"The zone should not be implemented and China should refrain from taking similar, unilateral actions elsewhere in the region, and particularly over the South China Sea," Kerry told a news conference in Manila.