A young girl was found alive nearly 60 hours after a rain-induced landslide hit a gold-mining village in Brgy. Masara, Maco, Davao de Oro. She was rescued Friday morning, Feb. 9, and was immediately taken to a nearby hospital to receive medical treatment, according to reports.
The girl, identified as three-year-old Senang Macaste, was saved as emergency responders used their bare hands and shovels to look for survivors, disaster agency official Edward Macapili of Davao de Oro province told Agence France Presse (AFP).
“It’s a miracle,” Macapili said. “That gives hope to the rescuers. A child’s resilience is usually less than that of adults, yet the child survived.”
“We can see in the social media posts that the child did not have any visible injuries,” Macapili added. He said the girl’s father saw his child before she was taken to a medical facility for a check-up.
In videos uploaded online, one of the rescuers working on the ground was seen carrying the toddler, who was covered in mud, back to safety as search and retrieval operations continue in the area. Searchers are racing against time and weather to find anyone else still alive in the thick mud.
While rescuers were using heavy earth-moving equipment in places, they had to rely on their bare hands and shovels in areas where they believed there were bodies. Sniffer dogs were also being used to detect those buried in the mud and rubble.
As of late Thursday evening, Feb. 8, casualties from the tragedy already reached 15 with more than 100 still missing and 31 injured. The landslide destroyed houses and engulfed three buses and a jeepney on Tuesday night following days of heavy rains across parts of the Davao region in southern Mindanao.
Landslides are frequent hazards across much of the archipelago nation due to the mountainous terrain, heavy rainfall, and widespread deforestation from mining, slash-and-burn farming and illegal logging.
Rain has pounded parts of Mindanao on and off for weeks, triggering dozens of landslides and flooding that have forced tens of thousands of people into emergency shelters. Massive earthquakes have also destabilized the region in recent months.
Hundreds of families from Masara and four nearby villages have had to evacuate from their homes and shelter in emergency centres for fear of further landslides. Schools across the municipality have likewise suspended classes.
The area hit by the landslide had been declared a “no build zone” after previous landslides in 2007 and 2008, according to Macapili. “People were asked to leave that place and they were given a resettlement area, but the people are so hard-headed and they returned,” he said. – With AFP