ITOGON, Benguet – Mayor Victorio Palangdan said it is unlikely any of the dozens of people thought buried in a huge landslide set off by typhoon Ompong will be found alive, though rescuers were still digging through the massive mound of mud and debris covering a chapel where they had sheltered.
Of the 40 to 50 people thought buried, there is a “99 percent (chance) that they really are all dead,” the mayor told a news conference Monday.
This municipality is among the worst-hit by the typhoon (international name: Mangkhut) that struck Saturday.
Ompong killed 65 people since it tore through the Philippines. The storm killed another four people in China, where it weakened to a tropical storm as it churned inland Monday.
Palangdan said rescuers have dug out 11 bodies from a the slide, which is covering a former miners’ bunkhouse that had been turned into a chapel. Dozens of residents sought shelter there during the storm despite warnings it was dangerous.
“They laughed at our policemen. They insisted,” the mayor said. “They were resisting when our police tried to pull them away. What can we do?”
Hundreds of rescuers, including police and soldiers, scrambled to search for the missing as grief-stricken relatives waited nearby, many of them quietly praying.
“We will not stop until we recover all the bodies,” Palangdan said.
Most of those buried in the slide are thought to be poor miners and their families. To prevent such tragedies going forward, Environment secretary Roy Cimatu said the government would deploy soldiers and police to stop illegal mining in six mountainous northern provinces, including Benguet.
Philippine officials have said in the past that gold mines tunneled by big mining companies legally or by unauthorized individuals and small outfits have made the hillsides unstable and more prone to landslides.
Tens of thousands of small-time miners in recent years have come to the mountain provinces from the lowlands and established communities in high-risk areas like the mountain foothills of Itogon.
Mangkhut on Monday was still affecting southern China’s coast and the provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan, and rain and strong winds were expected to continue through Tuesday.
On Monday afternoon the storm was about 200 kilometers (124 miles) west of the city of Nanning in Guangxi region, traveling in a northwesterly direction and weakening as it progressed. There were no additional reports of deaths or damage. (AP)
