1 more body retrieved in Agusan Sur landslide site
SAN FRANCISCO, AGUSAN DEL SUR — The body of Jerry Abunda, 47, grandfather of the three-year old boy whose body was recovered on Monday, was retrieved by rescuers on Tuesday, underneath the debris that covered a girder bridge at Kilometer 31 in the remote village of Mahayahay, San Luis town, in this province.
Sadat Rivera, municipal disaster risk reduction and management officer of San Luis, said the retrieval team recovered Abunda’s body at around 11 a.m. on Tuesday. The body of his grandson, John Paul Abunda, was among the first victims retrieved from the landslide site on Monday.
The team also found on Monday the remains of Jonard Gonzales, 24, a resident of Barangay Zillovia in neighboring Talacogon town and driver of one of the two “Saddam” trucks that were in the area when the landslide struck.
A “Saddam” truck is a colloquial term for an old six-wheel military truck once used by logging companies operating in the hinterlands of San Luis in the 1980s.
A joint retrieval team composed of local police, soldiers and municipal disaster responders earlier recovered the first two bodies.
The elder Abunda was with the boy and his wife Fausta (not Helen as earlier reported), who remained missing, to gather firewood and make charcoal under the bridge when the landslide struck at around 7 p.m. on Sunday, burying them and three more people underneath, Mahayahay Barangay Captain Sergio Manlomate said.
Search continues
With the retrieval of Abunda’s body, three more people remained missing: Fausta, Abunda’s wife; Dandan Cinco, 24, the driver of the second “Saddam” truck; and Elvin Mantipalan, a truck helper.
Rivera also corrected that motorcycle driver Macjoe Nuer earlier reported among the missing actually survived the incident.
Manlotame earlier told a government-run radio here that the landslide was triggered when one of the Saddam trucks tried to pull out a tree blocking the road to the bridge, dislodging boulders and mud from the mountainside.
The landslide happened after days of heavy rains in the area, which could have loosened the soil along the mountainside.
San Luis Mayor Ronald Corvera has deployed three backhoes to the site and ordered rescuers not to leave until all six victims are accounted for.
Rescue worker Roy Antipalao from the Municipal Engineering Office said thick mounds of mud complicated the search for the remaining victims on the second day of retrieval operations.
The affected area has long been identified among the most landslide-prone areas in San Luis during the rainy season.
Municipal Engineer Marlon Aclan said that days of continuous rainfall had saturated the soil, making the area highly susceptible to slope failure.
