'Ompong' death toll in Cordi 67; 63 missing

DENR: Mining not cause of deadly Itogon landslide 

ITOGON, Benguet – Bodies are still being unearthed at Barangay Ucab here  where rescuers are holding on to faintest ray of hope to get survivors from tons of mud and rock from a huge landslide that buried almost a hundred small-scale miners in a bunkhouse and church at the height of typhoon ‘Ompong’ on Sept. 15.

Death toll due to Typhoon Ompong has risen to 67 in the Cordillera, while 63 other were reported missing as of Wednesday noon, the Dept. of the Interior and Local Government in the region said.

DILG regional director Marlo Iringan, who heads the regional Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council cluster on management of the dead and missing, said those confirmed dead were mostly from this mining town with 45, followed by Baguio — 11, Mountain Province — 6, La Trinidad, Benguet — 3 and one each from Tuba, Benguet and Kalinga province.

Of the 63 missing persons, 59 were in Itogon and four in Baguio City.

Itogon Mayor Victorio Palangdan said at press time, 18 bodies have been recovered from the major landslide in Ucab.

 The National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council took over management of search, rescue, and retrieval operation in landslide area in Ucab, said Iringan.

This, as the Cordillera Mining Geo-Sciences Bureau of the Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources said mining was not the cause of the huge landslide in Ucab but due to Typhoon Ompong.

Engineer Fay Apil, regional MGB director said a huge mass of soil atop the mountain became loose due to more than a month of heavy rain compounded by huge downpour of Typhoon Ompong even as President Duterte said he would close mining operations nationwide due to environmental hazards these pose.

Ruben Carandang, Office of Civil Defense Cordillera regional director and chairman of the regional DRRM, said the Northern Luzon Command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines sent additional personnel Wednesday to help in search, rescue, and retrieval operation in Ucab.

From day-one of the landslide, about 200 persons have been helping each other in Ucab digging tons of soil and mud to recover bodies and look for survivors.

“There are over a thousand persons alternately doing the SSR operation,” Carandang said.

At present, personnel from the AFP, Philippine National Police, Bureau of Fire Protection, private volunteers, including miners, are collaborating with each other in the SSR operation.

At the briefing, Carandang thanked the AFP for sending five choppers, which are now being used in transporting supplies in areas isolated by the damage of the typhoon.

He said the choppers were also used by ground officials for aerial inspection of the landslide area to look for sites where the Department of Public Works and Highways can access by backhoe and heavy equipment to reach the site.

Benguet Gov. Crescencio Pacalso said heavy equipment will be used in removing the soil that diggers take out from the landslide area to clear the site.

“We cannot use the backhoe to dig for bodies,” Pacalso said.

 Live animals found

The Itogon mayor expressed confidence they can still find survivors under the rubble.

 “I am still hopeful that we can still find survivors,” as he said live animals were found under the collapsed structures.

He said if live animals can be found, there is a big chance survivors will also be recovered.

On Tuesday, Political Adviser and Secretary Francis Tolentino told media in an interview that the operation is still a “rescue operation,” relating past experiences in Nepal, China, and other countries, where survivors were still rescued several weeks after being buried underground.

Tolentino was assigned by President Rodrigo Duterte as his point person and emissary in the aftermath of Typhoon Ompong.

Pressed for time

Carandang said forensic experts from the National Bureau of Investigation have already arrived in Itogon.

They will be in charge of processing the dead and conducting possible DNA tests on unidentified bodies.

The military chief said experts would soon start getting samples from relatives of the missing persons to be matched with those of the recovered unidentified bodies.

In a coordination meeting on Tuesday, Dr. Sheilah Mapalo of Baguio City said the central office of the NBI has opted to send two forensic teams.

She said the DNA testing is crucial, as decomposition makes the bodies difficult to identify.

It was agreed in the Tuesday meeting that a temporary burial site be identified for unrecognizable bodies, which will be exhumed when the DNA test results come out.

She said it will take a little more time for the DNA results to be completed.

She added the bodies will not be released if the families are unsure of getting the remains of their family members. 

National police spokesman Senior Supt. Benigno Durana, Jr., said police rescue teams are going on with the diggings despite difficulties.

Aside from the local police, the Philippine National Police added 24 commandos of its elite Special Action Force to help in search and rescue missions.

The SAF commandos are equipped with gadgets that help monitor and locate people buried in collapsed structures.

“According to our Chief PNP (Director General Oscar Albayalde), we will not lose hope and with our prayers, we will not stop until the last of our fellow Filipino will be accounted for,” Durana said.

Evacuation orders unheeded

Before “Ompong” hit Northern Luzon, Palangdan said they urged affected people to evacuate in all landslide-prone areas, including Ucab where miners were buried alive.

But the miners refused even struggling with policemen who were sent to get them out of the area, according to Palangdan.

“We did our best to do the procedure of the incident command system… we tried to enforce the forced evacuation but pumalag po sila,” said Palangdan.

The official said they were left with no option but to respect the decision of the miners to stay.

The bunkhouse where the miners sought refuge, Palangdan said, was as big as half of a basketball court.

PNP investigation

Durana said the PNP was ready to undertake investigation to determine liability of local officials who failed to implement the disaster and risk reduction management protocol.

The DILG, he said, was conducting investigation why there were big fatalities in some areas considering enough warnings and advice were given before the landfall of “Ompong.”

“According to the DILG, that area is a hazard area and if there are situations like this (typhoon), preemptive evacuation is necessary,” said Durana.

“We have not yet received any order from the DILG to conduct investigation but if the DILG wants us to be involved, definitely we will do it,” he added.

A police officer who tried to persuade residents of the mining camp to move to safety as the powerful typhoon approached said Tuesday they refused to leave, and a day later the storm triggered a huge landslide that buried dozens of people.

The area was primed for disaster before Ompong hit, as it came on the heels of nearly a month of continuous monsoon rains that left the already hazardous area soggy and dangerously loose.

Many of those buried in Itogon were small-scale gold miners from Ifugao and their families who took refuge in the bunkhouse abandoned by the mining firm Benguet Corp.

Tearful families surrounded a whiteboard bearing names of the dead and missing as others inspected recovered bodies in an attempt to identify their loved ones.

"Of course his death hurts," Jocelyn Banawul said after her cousin's corpse was pulled from the debris. "But he was found, he's not buried there anymore."

Senior Insp. Heherson Zambale said he was stunned after learning the massive landslide had covered a chapel and bunkhouses in the mountain village where he and other officials had met with some of the victims a day before the tragedy struck that Saturday.

Zambale said he and other local officials tried to convince the villagers, mostly small-scale miners and their families, to move to a safer evacuation centre as the typhoon approached.

A villager officer who accompanied Zambale used a megaphone to warn people that Ompong was extraordinarily powerful and everybody should leave, he said.

The villagers told the policemen the chapel and nearby bunkhouses were on stable ground, and they would only move away if the storm became severe, he said.

Zambale said he saw about 15 villagers outside the chapel and bunkhouses. "Some were smiling and there were some who were just quiet. Some were listening to us," he said.

Police photographs showed officers in hard hats and light green raincoats talking with villagers outside of what appeared to be the concrete chapel and nearby bunkhouse, with piles of sandbags nearby.

Zambale said he had a bad feeling about the clearing where the buildings stood near a river, surrounded by tall mountains.

Some villagers heeded the warnings and left before the typhoon struck.

"But many were left behind," Zambale said.

Regional police commander Rolando Nana said a special police unit scanned the landslide-hit area with radar that can detect heart beats, but found no sign of life.

As more than 300 rescuers, including police and soldiers, used shovels and picks to search for the missing, Zambale said he still remembers the faces of the villagers he tried to convince to flee.

Even before the storm hit, the hilly region was primed for landslides after a month of monsoon rains saturated the soil.

Carlos Payadon, 62, was working the hot, muddy pit on Tuesday in search of his nephew Sidney Dumugdog.

He had hoped the young man, in his 20s, would find a different job with fewer risks, but Dumugdog needed the money.

"I know he is already dead. But I just hope we can dig up his body," Payadon said. "I can't give up. When you give up it's like forsaking your family."

'I will continue digging'

Paggadut helped dig out the corpses of six friends in the same area in 2008 when a typhoon triggered a landslide.

He himself could have been trapped under the mud this time had he not decided at the last minute to visit his children in another province.

"This is where I live," he said looking up at the gash the slide left in a towering green hill.

"In times like this, miners from all over the region pitch in," provincial police chief Lyndon Mencio, said adding they are an asset because of expertise at tunneling.

"All belong to the same profession and doing this gives them comfort, knowing they could count on this same kind of help," he added.

"It hurts a lot," said 27-year-old Jonathan Dunuan. "I will continue digging until all of the bodies have been found."

In its Sept. 16 bulleting, the CRDRRMC said 3,112 families or 12,113 persons were displaced in the provinces of Abra, Benguet, Apayao, Ifugao, Kalinga, Mt. Province and Baguio City.

A total of 5,874 families or 22,233 persons in the Provinces of Abra, Benguet, Apayao,  Ifugao, Kalinga, Mt. Province and Baguio City.

It added a total of 81 landslides and rock slide incidents, 13 flooding incidents, two sinking area incidents, three road slips/road washouts, seven fallen trees and vegetation were reported in CAR.

Roads closed

The CRDRRMC added that 112 road sections and one bridge in the Cordillera Region are currently closed to traffic due to road slips, road collapses, landslides, mudslides, debris flow, rockslides and falling trees.

The CRDRRMC also said that it has so far recorded 58 damaged houses in Benguet. Baguio City, and Kalinga.

Of the figure, 29 were partially damaged and 29 totally damaged.

Operational plan

Tolentino said the ground  where the rescue operation is ongoing, covers about 0.025 square kilometers.

During the emergency coordination meeting of various government agencies, it was agreed that the incident command center be moved to the operations center in Pacalso Memorial High School, where the municipal evacuation center is also located.

The move is to address the uncontrolled movement of numerous people, as well as to properly manage the dead, and to allow heavy equipment of the Department of Public Works and Highways to move in and clear the remaining landslides.

This is also to avoid possible health problems from arising, due to the presence of cadavers being processed while people sit and wait for updates.

Itogon is one of the country's oldest mining hubs, with known gold panning activity stretching back to before the 17th-century Spanish colonial conquest.

Thousands of people from all over the country still flock to the upland town seeking their fortune in largely unregulated mining, which is accompanied by periodic deadly accidents. -- With reports from PNA, AP and AFP