20 Maguindanao del Norte landslide fatalities buried

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Twenty of the more than 30 people who perished in the landslides that hit seaside villages in Maguindanao del Norte last week were together buried on Monday.

The simple but markedly emotional burial rite in the seaside Barangay Kusiong in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao was jointly facilitated by municipal officials, the Bangsamoro Ministry of Indigenous Peoples Affairs and the regional government’s Rapid Emergency Action on Disaster Incidence (READi) outfit.

All of the 20 fatalities laid to rest Monday belong to the non-Moro ethnic Teduray community.

They were in their houses at the foot of Mt. Minandar in Barangay Kusiong from where rocks and mud that covered their entire village cascaded from following six hours of heavy downpours spawned by the Tropical Storm Paeng.

Emergency responders from the Bangsamoro READi and rescuers from different local government units in nearby provinces, personnel of different police and Army units and teams from the Bureau of Fire Protection and the Philippine Coast Guard are still searching for 14 residents of Barangay Kusiong whose houses were flattened by landslides and rampaging floodwaters.

Bangsamoro Local Government Minister Naguib Sinarimbo, who is overseeing the READi contingent, said they shall provide the families of the people who perished in the calamity with essential relief support and psycho-social interventions to ease their plight.

Local officials have, since Sunday, been fixing bridges in Maguindanao del Norte's Datu Blah Sinsuat town, adjacent to Datu Odin Sinsuat, that floodwaters destroyed.