Atin Ito First Filipino Community Newspaper in Ontario
At least seven people died, 48 others remained missing, and 31 were rescued after a landslide buried two buses that were ferrying employees of a mining company in Maco, Davao de Oro on Tuesday night, Feb. 6.
The landslide occurred around 7:30 p.m. in a mountainous area in Zone 1, Brgy. Masara outside the mining site of Apex Mining Co., where the buses wait for the company employees so they could all go home, a statement from Apex read.
“Based on the initial report as of 4:30 p.m. today, there are seven bodies recovered in the landslide and 31 rescued, all injured,” said Jiesyl Mae Tan, information officer of the Incident Command Post-Incident Management Team (ICP-IMT) in Maco.
“At the moment, there are 48 reported missing individuals,” she added.
There were 758 families who were brought to evacuation centers after their homes were also affected by the landslide.
A large part of Mindanao, including Davao de Oro, has been drenched since Jan. 28 after days of rain due to the combined effects of the trough of a low pressure area (now dissipated) and northeast monsoon (amihan).
Col. Rosa Ma. Cristina Rosete-Manuel, spokesperson of the military’s Eastern Mindanao Command (EastMinCom), said three of the rescued employees were in critical condition and had to be airlifted to Davao Regional Medical Center in Tagum City via a Sikorsky helicopter from the Philippine Air Force (PAF).
Rosete said that the roads remained impassable and there was also no cellphone signal in the area.
A Tactical Command Post (TCP) was setup by the 25th Infantry Battalion at Tagbaros Patrol Base to coordinate the rescue efforts.
“A total of 14 military vehicles have been mobilized to support rescue operations, alongside other vehicles from various organizations and agencies while sufficient heavy equipment from Apex Mines is on standby, awaiting the optimal conditions to resume clearing operations,” Manuel said.
The search and rescue operation was halted around 12:15 a.m. Wednesday under the direction of Davao de Oro Congressman Ruwel Peter Gonzaga, the acting incident post commander, “due to hazardous conditions and the deteriorating situation on the ground.”
Search and rescue operations resumed at daybreak with the deployment of rescue and retrieval teams, Manuel added.
Emergency communication teams from 1001st Infantry Brigade, 10th Infantry Division were also deployed to establish radio contact within the affected vicinity. — Martin Sadongdong
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Credit belongs to: www.mb.com.ph
