Hopes of rescuing Benguet landslide victims dim

ITOGON, Philippines — Hopes of rescuing 60 more miners and their families got dimmer as search, rescue and retrieval operations entered the fourth day yesterday.

Officials said there are about 64 people still buried under the mud and rescuers are racing against time to get them out alive.

As of yesterday, rescuers have retrieved 20 bodies from the muck in Itogon. This would add to the death toll in the Cordillera region that officials said has increased to 68.

Searchers at Itogon continued their grim work, digging with shovels and their bare hands in the vast expanse of mud that crushed the dwellings used by small-scale miners.

The town registered the most number of fatalities after the landslide that buried a mining shelter in Level 070, Barangay Ucab during the onslaught of Typhoon Ompong last Saturday.

Officials said Level 070, a small mining community of 250 people, would be closed down following the tragedy.

Authorities said the overall death toll from Typhoon Ompong has climbed to 81 and could hit triple digits as searchers dig through the landslide where dozens are presumed dead.

Ompong swamped farmed fields in Northern Luzon and smashed houses when it tore through with violent winds and heavy rains.

“From the list I saw 59 people are still missing (at Itogon),” Office of Civil Defense (OCD) chief Ricardo Jalad said.

“If you add that to those already recovered it’s possible the toll could top 100,” he said.

Itogon was primed for disaster before Ompong hit, as it came on the heels of nearly a month of continuous monsoon rains that saturated the soil of the hazardous area.

Town Mayor Victorio Palangdan said the residents had been warned of possible landslides in the area even before Ompong.

Palangdan said most of the small-scale miners living in the area ignored the warnings.

Most of the bodies were retrieved from the bunkhouse owned by the former Benguet Corp. that closed its mining operations in the area several years ago.

Benguet had extended help to the families of the small-scale miners killed in the landslide. It said the residents had ignored the geohazard warnings and continued mining at the abandoned site. – With Raymund Catindig, AFP

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