MANILA: Pope Francis drew a record six million people as he celebrated mass in the rain-swept Philippine capital Sunday, a triumphant finale to an Asian tour in which he championed the plight of the poor.

Filipinos are famous for practising a passionate brand of Catholicism and they turned out in a celebratory mood that defied the gloomy skies, determined to see the charismatic 78-year-old pontiff.

Francis made an exhilarating entrance to a Manila bayside park for the mass aboard a “popemobile” that was styled after the nation's iconic, flamboyant and much-loved “jeepney” minibus.

Dressed in a plastic yellow poncho, he waved and smiled to wildly cheering crowds, stopping repeatedly so he could lean over barriers and kiss babies, before reaching the sea of believers at Rizal Park.

The Philippines is famed as the Catholic Church's bastion in Asia, with 80 per cent of the former Spanish colony following the faith.

But even the pope was stunned at the size of the crowd which he looked out on from the stage.

“I cannot fathom the faith of the simple people,” Francis said, according to the Archbishop of Manila, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, who acted as the pontiff's chaperone.

Six million turned out to see the pope at the park and along motorcade routes, the head of Manila's planning agency, Francis Tolentino, told AFP, adding this was based on calculations done with the police.

This surpassed the previous world record for a papal gathering of five million during a mass by John Paul II at the same venue in 1995.

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said Sunday's crowd could even reach seven million. However he did not have any firm assessments to base this on.

In his first speech of his tour, at the presidential palace, Francis lectured the nation's politicians to show integrity and end “scandalous social inequalities”.

About 25 million Filipinos, or one quarter of the population, live on the equivalent of 60 cents a day or less, according to government data.

Typhoon trip

The pope also said the main reason for visiting the Philippines was to meet survivors of Super Typhoon Haiyan, the strongest storm ever recorded on land which claimed more than 7,350 lives in November 2013.

He flew on Saturday morning from Manila to Leyte island, ground zero for the typhoon, and celebrated a deeply emotional mass with 200,000 survivors.

“Long live the pope!” the crowd chanted before the mass.

Francis had planned to spend a full day in communities where homes were flattened by monster winds and tsunami-like ocean surges, but was forced to return to Manila to avoid another tropical storm.

Still, he was deeply moved by his truncated time in the typhoon areas and felt privileged to have made the trip, Cardinal Tagle told reporters.

The pope's tour, which also took him to Sri Lanka, was his second trip to Asia in five months, in a nod to the region's growing importance for the Church as it faces declining support in Europe and the United States.

It was also the fourth papal visit to the Philippines, and the rapturous reception given to him throughout his stay cemented the nation's status as the Church's Asian role model.

The pope will fly back to Rome on Monday morning.