Storm surges, flash floods and landslides remained potential threats even though Chedeng, once a super typhoon, has now weakened with maximum sustained winds of 160 kilometers (99 miles) per hour, they said.
"We plan to move people out of coastal villages," Nigel Lontoc, a senior civil defense official for the region, told AFP.
In all, some 24,000 people from the coastal province of Aurora, where the typhoon is projected to make landfall early Sunday, would be evacuated, Lontoc added.
Having started out in the Pacific Ocean, Chedeng is expected to weaken further as it crosses the main Philippine island of Luzon Sunday, according to state weather forecaster Alczar Aurelio.
Aurelio said large waves of up to two meters (6.6 feet) are expected to hit the area.
About 20 typhoons and storms hit the Philippines each year, many of them deadly, but such weather disturbances are rare in April, the height of the tropical Asian nation's dry season.
Chedeng is forecast to strike at the tail-end of a long Easter holiday that saw millions of Filipinos flock to the beaches to escape the heat.
Retired army general Jovie Narcise, who is visiting the Aurora town of Dingalan, said the skies there were clear but that there were big waves crashing along the shore.
Small outrigger fishing boats had been pulled up and stored about 30 meters away from the water to keep them from being swept out to sea, he said.
"There are lots of tourists arriving in the area but they are going to resorts situated on higher ground," Narcise told AFP.
Social Welfare undersecretary Vilma Cabrera told a news conference in Manila that about 10,000 tourists were warned Friday to stay away from the Aurora beaches.
"We have asked the tourists (in Aurora in Quezon province) to stay in their hotels and avoid the water," said Lontoc, the regional disaster official.
Storm surge advisory
Meanwhile, residents in four areas in the province have been advised to take precautions against possible storm surges.
Quezon is one of the areas state weather agency PAGASA had placed under Storm Signal No. 1 as of 11 a.m.
In its advisory, Project NOAH – a government program for disaster prevention and mitigation – said the four are under Storm Surge Advisory 1, meaning waves could be between one and two meters.
Areas covered by the advisory include:
Quezon, Quezon, 1.4 meters
Calauag, Quezon, 1.4 meters
Gumaca, Quezon, 1.3 meters
Lopez, Quezon, 1.3 meters
"Those living within the vicinity of the areas identified in this list should also take precautionary measures against possible storm surges," Project NOAH said.
Chedeng was tracked about 450 kilometers southeast of Aurora's coast at 10:00 am (0200 GMT) and was moving northwest at 22 kilometers an hour.
Last week, Maysak ravaged the Federated States of Micronesia, leaving at least five dead, thousands homeless and crops destroyed. — Agence France-Presse with a report from GMA News
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