Heavy rains caused a landslide in the mountain barangay of Pamutan, Cebu City, last Monday night.
Nobody was reported hurt or killed although a backhoe rented by the City Hall to do clearing operations in the area was buried.
Cebu City Disaster Coordinating Council action officer councilor Gerardo Carillo went to the area to check after he received the report yesterday.
In a telephone interview, Carillo said that the incident might have happened Monday night when the operator of the equipment and his companions were off work.
“One heavy equipment was buried in Pamutan. Tungod tingale sa sige’g ulan, the soil was loosened that caused the landslide,” the councilor said.
Aside from the backhoe, he added that part of the road where ongoing clearing operations and repair are being done was again affected by the landslide.
The councilor said that the city hired the services of Adlawan Construction to do repair and clearing operations in the roads in Pamutan after Typhoon Lando caused landslides in the mountain barangays last November.
With the recent incident, Carillo said that a team from the City Disaster Coordination Council was sent to the area to dig up the buried backhoe and continue the clearing and repair works.
Last November the city council placed the city under a state of calamity and preparedness, allowing the release of P37.5 million in calamity funds for disaster and relief operations in the mountain barangays. With this, the city deployed heavy equipment to mountain barangays Buhisan, Busay, Lahug, Sapangdaku, Paril, Cambinocot, Babag, Pamutan and Kalunasan where landslides were reported.
The typhoon also caused trees and billboards to fall on power lines causing power outages and loss of water supply that affected half of the city’s residents. -Wenna A. Berondo/BRP