Sixty people died from a landslide in Naga City in Cebu, its disaster office said Wednesday as the search for the dozens more who may have been trapped under soil and rocks entered its seventh day.
The landslide struck Sitio Sindulan in Tinaan village after heavy rain on Thursday morning, burying dozens of houses near a quarry site.
Ifugao Rep. Teddy Brawner Baguilat on Wednesday appealed to the government and private sectors for more assistance to the families of the miners who died in Itogon, Benguet, and of whom many were from Ifugao and the sole breadwinners.
Baguilat started the campaign for help for the missing immediately after it was known that scores of miners were killed in the landslides caused by the heavy rain from Typhoon “Ompong” that battered Northern Luzon.
Authorities were still searching for 28 missing residents in Naga City, Cebu’s disaster office head Baltazar Tribulano told DZMM radio. The searchers were also on the lookout for rain that could trigger fresh landslides as the slopes remained loose, he said.
Cebu was not directly hit by Ompong earlier this month, but it was pounded by heavy monsoon rain for days.
In the northern province of Itogon in Benguet, rescuers also recovered the bodies of miners and their families after a landslide triggered by Ompong buried their bunkhouse and chapel.
Ompong left at least 95 people dead across Luzon and destroyed some P26.7 billion worth of crops and livestock. With PNA