Mindanaotoday.com | Rescuers dig up buried villagers
By: Uriel Quilinguing
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – Three of five persons believed to have been buried alive in Monday noon landslide at San Luis village in Malitbog, Bukidnon have been found, town officials said.
Mayor Gary Casiño announced Thursday, Oct. 20, 2022, morning a third cadaver was pulled out from the debris, but refrained from naming who, not until family members identify the body.
On Wednesday afternoon, Oct. 19, 2022, Vice Mayor Catherine Dela Rosa-Arguelles, in a Facebook post, made public the retrieval of a cadaver recognized to be that of Angelita Cabanday Lauronal, 52, who with husband Lucresio own the house near the ground zero.
Rescuers, aided by a K-9 dog, recovered Tuesday (October 18) afternoon the body of road-maintenance worker Vincent Jordan Achas, 30.
Achas was with Raffy Simprota, 34, dump truck driver; and Nerio Talines, 50, backhoe operator, all employees of the Municipal Engineering Office, at the time of the incident.
Casiño said they will not stop the excavation in search for the remains of two others.
Earlier, the town mayor told reporters onsite that search and retrieval work by municipal teams from Malitbog and that of Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental are hampered by intermittent rains and continuous downslope movement of earth materials.
Personnel from the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office of Bukidnon, Philippine Army’s 16th Infantry Battalion, Bureau of Fire Protection, and Municipal Police Station-Malitbog have been reinforcing the no let-up retrieval operations.
The Office of Civil Defense-10 delivered a stand-by power generator with 400 liters of fuel for lighting of the area where teams of rescuers have camped out since Tuesday night.
Three backhoe equipment, two of which from a private firm, have been scouring about a three-hectare area where bodies of missing persons could be retrieved.
The three municipal government employees responded to call for assistance to clear the road from rocks, stones, mud and debris brought downhill by Sunday night’s downpour.
They were supposed to call it a day and were resting in Lauronal’s house minutes before noontime Monday, when an avalanche occurred that put them, including a backhoe, completely out of sight.
Meanwhile, Angelita’s cousin Miraluna Higyawan disclosed that there were two survivors of the tragic incident, her older brother Marjun and four-year old daughter.
The younger Higyawan said her brother and niece escaped from second of the two-floor semi-concrete building by destroying the wall of the collapsing building.
She could no longer contact her brother by phone since Tuesday since the area is a dead spot. (MT)
####