Landslide buries DPWH building; 8 bodies found

DU30 visits as 4 rescued, 22 missing in Mt. Province catastrophe 

By Angel Baybay

NATONIN, Mountain Province -- Eight were confirmed dead, 22 still missing, four rescued while 10 others escaped from the landslide at Barangay Banawel here that buried a Dept. of Public Works and Highways Tuesday as Typhoon “Rosita” unleashed its wrath which residents said was the worst natural calamity to happen in the town in recent years.  

Mayor Mateo Chiyawan and the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council confirmed these figures amid conflicting figures from other sources and media outfits covering the incident.

Most of the casualties were employees of RAF Construction and Moment Diagram Construction contracted by the DPWH to extend and make the roof of the DPWH building of the second district engineering office.

Retrieved dead from the slide were Benito Longan, 78; Junjun Laron RAF employee and native of Agoo, La Union; Joel Arevalo, 39 from Bicol region; Gregorio Castro from Baguio City and three other unidentified individuals.

Mike Saleo-an, of barangay Banawel and one of those who volunteered to join the retrieval operations was reportedly carried away by a strong current while crossing a creek on his way home to Sitio Pomangwao.

His body was fished downstream by residents who responded to the alarm.

Rescued were Juventino Lammawen, Jupiter Pacyod, Fritzgerald Lumpanga and Junjun Gallingoy. All of them suffered minor injuries.

Together with some private houses, the DPWH building was crushed and buried t Tuesday afternoon by rolling boulders and mud from a massive landslide up the mountain slope.

As of press time, rescuers had to use bare hands and tools since heavy equipment volunteered by government offices from and outside the province were busy clearing many landslides going to the accident area.

Volunteer rescuers walked through many kilometers but this did not dampen the their will to help.

Aside from the medical and rescue teams from  different local government units of the province including contingents from the police, Army, and Fire Department, teams from nearby provinces reached ground zero.

After an aerial visit last Thursday, President Rodrigo Duterte ordered all national line agencies to facilitate the recovery of Natonin.

The president urged the DPWH to hasten opening of road networks going to and from Natonin.

Upon the request of Gov, Bonifacio Lacwasan, Jr. who accompanied the president last Thursday, the President also ordered the DSWD to airlift basic goods to the affected people of Natonin.

Lacwasan, as of press time, was following up his request for airlifting of the cadavers to Alfonso Lista in Ifugao where they will be transported by vehicles to their grieving families.

                 Rescue and retrieval operations started Wednesday morning and survivors and dead bodies were found by midday, Natonin Councilor Rafael Bulawe said.

Bulawe said it was past 1:30 p.m., when the rescuers found four survivors from rubble of the building at Sitio Har’rang in Barangay Banawel.

Bulawe said two persons were the first to be rescued.

Juventino Gallad Lammawen and Fritz Lumpanga were rescued near the landslide area.

According to Lammawen, while he was closing the main gate of the DPWH compound at around 4 p.m. on Tuesday he noticed the soil on the mountain starting to move which prompted him to jump into a concrete culvert to seek refuge.

Jonnel Emengga, chief of the DPWH-MP District 2 Planning and Design Division, said according to an eyewitness, the mountain across the DPWH building eroded around 4 p.m., eventually burying the whole two-story concrete structure and everything around it.

Emengga said the DPWH building was supposed to be empty, with only the two guards on duty.

He said probably the guards allowed some residents to seek refuge at the height of the typhoon.

Bulawe said the Bureau of Fire personnel, DPWH workers, and residents were the first to help in the search and rescue operations.

“It is difficult to reach the place due to several landslides and mudflow on the road, which is about two kilometers away from the Poblacion,” Bulawe said.

He said it took a while for the rescue and retrieval operation to start, as flood water and landslide mud on the way were waist-deep.

Bulawe said members of the Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office were doing road clearing operations around 4 p.m. on Tuesday, when the incident happened.

He said there was no signal in the area that is why they only learned of the incident at 7 p.m. when they returned to the MDRRMC office at Poblacion.

In a report, the Mountain Province Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office said all the three buildings in the DPWH compound were buried in the landslide.

It was learned that those who sought refuge at the building were construction workers working for the completion of the DPWH buildings.

"The ill-fated building is beside a residential area and the strong rain and wind could have prompted residents to seek refuge at the (concrete) office," Emengga said.

Describing the structure and the location, the engineer said the building was around  200 square meters in floor area with two stories already finished. At the back and beside it were buildings, which were also being constructed.

Fronting the building is a two-lane concrete highway located some eight meters from the base of the building.

Chiyawan earlier reported one of those killed in the Barangay Banawel landslide was a citizen hoping to rescue those trapped when the landslide was triggered by the rains and winds of Typhoon Rosita on Tuesday evening.

The mayor said the chances of plucking out more survivors in the landslide is grim.

"These 22 missing are considered casualties, no chances of survival... Karamihan ng natabunan laborers ng second building," he said. "It's completely ground zero. Wala kang makitang building, lahat putik," Mayor Chiyawan said.

Office of Civil Defense Cordillera Regional Director Ruben Carandang saidrescue operations proved to be a challenge because roads leading to ground zero are only accessible by foot and rescuers have to resort to manual ways to search for the laborers.

Carandang said it was taxing to reach the landslide area because of the other landslides that also occurred near the area.

"Maraming landslide because there's a road-widening project ongoing there going to the DPWH building," he said.

Chiyawan said the laborers and nearby residents that sought shelter in the two DPWH buildings, one of which was still under construction.

"Ginawang evacuation center kasi malakas ang hangin. Itong building ay concrete so feasible for an evacuation center. In the afternoon humina ang hangin, bumalik sila sa tahanan nila, pero naiwan ang laborers kasi ongoing ang construction ng second building within the same area," he said.

The DPWH said at least 17 other landslides were reported along the roads leading to Natonin.

The agency said the location of the building was "never identified as a danger zone" and passed a safety test six years ago.

"We checked, but it was really safe. There were quality tests conducted and it was constructed before 2012," Gladys Faith Claver of Mt. Province 2nd District Engineering Office, said.  

"Nagkataon lang na malakas ang ulan, na talagang nag-mudslide kaya tinulak ang buong building," Claver added.

Describing the structure and the location, Emengga said the building is concrete and more or less 200 square meters in floor area with two storeys finished.

At the back and on its side are buildings which are also being constructed.

Emengga said this entire area was wiped out by the landslide.

Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Assistant Secretary Ana Marie Banaag expressed grief over the fate of the landslide victims.

“I am one with our kakailyan in Natonin, Mountain Province during these trying times,” said Banaag, who was former mayor of Natonin.

A report from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said national officials have requested two Philippine Air Force to be able to immediately respond to the Natonin tragedy.

The office is the agency’s Mountain Province Second District Engineering Office for the Cordillera Administrative Region.