THE death toll brought about by the onslaught of Typhoon Ulysses in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) is now at seven, an official said on Friday, November 13, 2020.
Brigadier General R’win Pagkalinawan, Police Regional Office-Cordillera (PRO-COR) regional director, said as of 9 a.m. Friday, personnel of the Ifugao Provincial Police Office (IPPO) responded to a landslide in Sumigao View Point in Banaue, which transpired in the evening of November 12 that affected the quarters of construction workers.
“Based on the information we received from Ifugao PPO, four persons died, one individual was rescued while seven are still missing. Most of the victims were construction workers and a family,” Pagkalinawan said.
The Office of the Civil Defense (OCD) in a press conference Friday afternoon confirmed five bodies were recovered in the Banaue landslide.
The five individuals were identified as Joel Chur-ig, a driver of the Department of Public Works and Highways; Lance Bruce Guinyang, a three-year-old resident of Viewpoint, Banaue; Dante Boqueng of Cambulo, Banaue; Johnny Cabbigat Duccog of Chango, Viewpoint; and 71-year-old Jose Piog. James Harold Guinyang was injured in the landslide and is now being treated at Good News Hospital.
According to OCD, at least six are still missing as search and rescue operations are still ongoing.
On November 12, a farmer from Atok, Benguet was the first death recorded by the Cordillera Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (CDRRMC).
Another person died in Benguet after he was buried in a landslide in Buguias.
A total of 354 families or 1,265 individuals were affected by Typhoon Ulysses, according to the Department of Social Welfare and Development-Cordillera Administrative Region (DSWD-CAR).
Leo Quintilla of DSWD-CAR said 10 evacuation centers were opened in the region to accommodate 86 families or 338 persons.
Quintilla earlier said although isolation facilities used for Covid-19 may be found in identified centers for treatment, evacuation centers are separately located from these isolation facilities.
“Other evacuees that decided to stay with their relatives in certain areas, which we considered as outside evacuation centers, has a total of 150 families or 563 persons. Two evacuation centers were opened in Abra, one in Baguio City, three in Ifugao, two in Benguet, while Kalinga and Mountain Province have opened one each,” Quintilla said.
Family food packs were augmented by the DSWD in the Province of Kalinga.
As of Friday evening, 34 roads in the region are closed to traffic, while 42 road sections are one-lane passable due to soil collapse. Six schools were reported with infrastructure damage, five schools affected by flooding, five schools affected by landslide and one school affected with a damaged access road.