THE Provincial Local Government Unit of Davao de Oro (PLGU-Davao de Oro) has confirmed that the remaining 14 unidentified and unclaimed bodies in the Masara landslide tragedy are currently undergoing deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) testing at the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Central Office.
In a radio interview with Davao de Oro 2nd District Representative Ruwel Peter Gonzaga, earlier this week, he revealed that the process may take several weeks due to extraction, quality control testing, and sequencing.
“Pag-uli ana, mo-match na gani, mailhan, i-deduct ‘to sa mga missing (individuals). Sa lahi nga pagkasulti, makuhaan pa na’ng walo nga naa sa missing nga pangalan,” (Once it will be returned from us and matched to [missing individuals], it will be deducted from the missing (individuals). In other words, some of the eight missing names will be removed) he said.
On February 22, 2024, Maco’s Municipal Mayor Arthur Carlos Voltaire Rimando signed Executive Order (EO) No. 17 declaring the termination order of the search and retrieval operation with eight bodies still buried.
Originally, the search and retrieval operations started on February 14, in line with the recommendation of the Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (MDRRMO) of Maco and other humanitarian and disaster clusters, including the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (PDRRMC) in the province.
Based on the final report of the local government unit of Maco (LGU-Maco) and the Management of the Dead Missing Unit of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (MDM-DILG), the landslide on February 6 at Zone 1 of Barangay Masara killed 93 lives. Of the number, 79 have been claimed by their respective families. DEF
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