11 still missing in Mountain Province landslide

TUGUEGARAO, Cagayan, Philippines — Eleven more persons, including five members of the Civilian Armed Forces Geographic Unit (CAFGU), remain missing in the landslide that buried a building of the Department of Public Works and Highways in Natonin, Mountain Province last week.

Capt. Jefferson Somera, 5th Army Division spokesman, said examination conducted on three bodies brought to Aguinaldo, Ifugao last Friday showed that they were not the remains of militiamen Leobel Orchilion, Linang Pallichang and Jonathan Ngilin. The bodies were returned to the funeral parlor by their supposed relatives.

Somera said five CAFGU men of the 77th Infantry Battalion (IB) went on leave to moonlight as construction workers.

Lt. Col. Rembert Baylosis, 77th IB commander, had earlier said that the family members of the CAFGU men buried in the landslide would receive P200,000 in cash assistance.

Another body was recovered from ground zero in Barangay Banawel on Monday night, bringing the total number of fatalities to 18.

The municipal disaster risk reduction and management council will take over rescue and retrieval operations starting Friday, according to Natonin Mayor Mateo Chiyawan.

As this developed, Chiwayan questioned a risk assessment report of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) released on Oct. 25, which showed that “no area in Natonin is declared safe.”

“Saan kami magbi-build ng bahay namin. Baguio City was also declared a high-risk area in terms of landslides... but MGB personnel have big houses there,” he said.