RETRIEVAL operations continue until the last victim is found in level 070 Barangay Ucab, in Itogon, Benguet.
Since the start of the search and retrieval, at least 18 bodies were already recovered from the site.
As of 12 noon of September 19, the retrieval teams are still looking for 61 individuals, 56 of these are from Barangay Ucab, three in Dampigan, Loakan, and two from Virac, all in Itogon.
General Leopoldo Imbang, 503rd Brigade commander, said continuous search and retrieval operation persists for the remaining missing persons buried by the massive landslide brought by Typhoon Ompong.
“Para ma fast track iyong retrieval, we need backhoe. Kapag nakapasok, mas mapapadali. We are optimistic to retrieve all survivors,” said Imbang.
Imbang said recovery of the victims remains a challenge with the steep slope and mud which covered the two bunk houses where the victims sought refuge in the midst of typhoon.
The Office of the Civil Defense and the Department of Public Works and Highways in the region are looking for ways on how to open the roads leading to the area in Ucab to bring in the heavy equipment and flood lights which will help in the retrieval operations even at night.
Raffy Alejandro, National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council director who is at Itogon, Benguet, also vowed to retrieve all victims of the landslide.
“We are having a hard time in bringing in the much needed heavy equipment and flood lights because the area is still isolated but we are doing everything to retrieve all the unrecovered bodies,” Alejandro said.
Alejandro added the NDRRMC have setup a command post for the dead and missing which is led by the Department of the Interior and Local Government, Scene of the Crime Operatives (Soco), Department of Social Welfare and Development, and the National Bureau of Investigation who will conduct the forensic examinations and possible identification of the retrieved bodies.
At least 500 rescuers are already in the site to fast track the retrieval operations.
Since Monday, rescuers Sidney Bahog and Joey Bango have been helping in the search for their relative from Cababuyan, Hingyon Ifugao.
“Milagro nu ada mabirukan (It will be a miracle of we can find anybody alive),” relates the two.
Both rescuers conveyed their hopes to rescue the victims in order to conduct proper burial for the casualties.
The soil has remained sturdy which added to the difficult operations, the rescuers added.
Juliet Puhyah from Banggan, Banaue in Ifugao, who has been in the site since Monday is also hopeful her brother’s body will be retrieved.
Puhyah said they will wait until her brother is found in order to bring him back home and provide the proper burial.
Meanwhile, Itogon Mayor Victorio Palangdan welcomed the order to halt all mining activities in the region, saying it is time to go back to agriculture.
The chief executive attributed the chances of survival to God, saying it is only He who knows if there will be any to be recovered.
Saint Louis University has sent teams of priests on standby at the command post ready to bless the dead while DSWD is giving out assistance to families.
The Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) headed by Chief Inspector Mariano Tagiam has also been assigned to the top of the landslide site and is tasked to pull retrieved bodies and transport them to the command post for the Soco to process.
The BFP is composed of a 32-member team of trained respondents, the same group who were deployed in Bohol and Tacloban when Typhoon Yolanda struck.
The team uses the low angle single suspension with rescue assist and the two point suspension rescue with stretcher method to pull up retrieved bodies from a 300 meter ravine. (With a report from Jonathan Llanes)