Retrieval operations end for missing Sagada cave tourist

SAGADA, Mountain Province – The search for missing Dagupan, Pangasinan tourist Eufrocinia “Irene” Manaois inside the Sumaguing Cave has ended here Wednesday.

Giving up after nine days of searching, retrieval operations, the town’s disaster risk reduction council, has decided to stop the search and rescue operations that started August 19 until Wednesday, said Insp. Kristine Gamboa, Sagada town police commander,

The family of Manaois, who trekked up to Sagada Tuesday to see for themselves search and rescue operations by combined government and local village teams, has gone home and also gave the go signal to stop the operations, Gamboa said.

On Tuesday, a strong stench allegedly came out from the cave, prompting search teams to go back to the cave to verify but still emerged unsuccessful, the police officer said.

Manaois reportedly slipped off inside the Sumaguing Cave, a very popular spelunking destination in Sagada during the onslaught of monsoon rains last week.

At least 31 including Manaois and 13 Japanese students were earlier reported missing inside the cave.

All 30 were rescued aside from Manaois.

Two foreign divers joined the search for the missing employee of the Population Commission (PopCom) who was believed to have drowned last Aug. 17 in the cave.

Sagada Mayor Eduardo Latawan Sr. said Steward Gamin of Scotland and Ariel Aswell of Israel joined local divers in looking for  Manaois, 49, who was carried by rampaging waters during the height of the southwest monsoon.

Manaois was among the 31 local visitors and guides trapped in the caves.

Latawan said rescuers called off the search due to poor visibility and to give way to customary rituals conducted by the village elders for the retrieval of the missing tourist and the safety of the rescuers.

Aside from Manaois, search and rescue parties were looking for Monching Bakidan of Bontoc, Mt. Province, and Rosalino Calantay of Tubo, Benguet, who were reportedly carried by flashfloods in Chico and Damangil rivers respectively during the onslaught of Typhoon Maring.