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Monday, September 08, 2008
8 dead, 10 missing in Compostela Valley slides
DAVAO CITY -- Eight people were killed and nine were injured while 10 others are still missing when two landslides hit a village in Maco, Compostela Valley in a span of 12 hours.
Office of Civil Defense (OCD)-Southern Mindanao Director Liza Mazo said that as of their latest account, 18 houses were damaged and 70 families were displaced by the twin landslides that hit the mountain barangay of Masara.
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An Associated Press wire report placed the dead at 11 and the missing at 16, as rains buried more than 20 houses in the remote gold-mining barangay.
The first slide happened Saturday around 3:30 p.m. The landslide, which hit the barangay center, was believed triggered by heavy rains. Five villagers were killed and eight others injured in the incident.
The following day at 3 a.m. Sunday, another wave of landslides occurred in the same place, virtually rendering the roads impassable to all types of vehicles.
Three more people were killed in the second slide while another one was injured. A total of 10 people were reported missing as of Sunday afternoon.
The AP report said small stone houses and huts at the foot of Masara were destroyed Saturday by falling mud and rocks. It added that the landslides, which cascaded down a mountainside with frightening booms, buried about 28 houses and forced up to 5,000 people in Masara and nearby barangays to run from their homes, said Mayor Voltaire Regalado of Maco, which includes Masara.
Regalado said he declared a state of emergency in Masara to allow the rapid release of disaster relief funds.
The OCD identified five of the eight fatalities as Esteban Mahilit, 59; Ma. Christine Labor, 4; Ma. Teresa Labor, 1; Rosemarie Labor, 28; and Harold Sanchez.
Seven of the nine injured were identified as Pagay Pablo, 9; Eduardo Lazaro, 65; Estrella Magnanao, 52; Eugene Peraliz, 17; Ynaya Sotero, 37; Edwin Romeo, 36; and Jeremy Abuol, 28.
The names of the missing have not been disclosed yet but one of them is said to be the barangay captain of Masara, Juvencio Anquera, who was among the first ones who responded to the first landslide.
He went missing with his two children when their house was hit by the second landslide Sunday, an AP report quoting Police Regional Office Chief Andres Caro said.
"He went home to cook food for us and his fellow rescue workers," Anquera's son, Wilkins, told reporters.
Those displaced by the landslides are temporarily housed at the Masara Elementary School. Rescue efforts are ongoing as of Sunday afternoon.
The Philippine Air Force (PAF) in Southern Mindanao immediately dispatched one of its search and rescue helicopters early Sunday morning after receiving reports of the two landslides.
In an interview, PAF Colonel Isagani Silva said they immediately dispatched their search and rescue helicopter to help in the operations of the Regional Disaster Coordinating Council (RDCC) in the area.
"But we were told there was no need for the airlifting of the wounded persons," Silva said.
He said the medical facilities in Compostela Valley are already capable of providing treatment for the wounded persons in the area.
As of noon Sunday, the search and rescue helicopter of the PAF was already on its way back to Davao City as a downpour started anew in Maco, Compostela Valley and triggered fears a third landslide could strike.
Cell phone service was lost in the disaster in Compostela Valley province, about 840 kilometers southeast of Manila, further hampering rescue efforts, Caro said.
Roger Corales, who escaped unharmed, said Saturday he saw people crying for help as they slowly disappeared under the falling earth, their hands grasping desperately for something to hold on to.
Among those confirmed dead were a mother and her two children. Their bodies were rapped in blankets and laid on the floor in a candlelit village chapel.
This is not the first time a landslide hit the barangay. On August 7, 2007, a landslide also affected the village, killing 10 people and prompting the Bureau of Mines and Geosciences (BMG) to recommend that the landslide-prone area be abandoned.
But many villagers, who depend on the local gold-mining industry for a living, refused to leave, Caro said. (BOT/CPM/Sun.Star Davao/AP/Sunnex)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Pampanga. (September 8, 2008 issue)
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