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
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