TACLOBAN CITY, Leyte, Philippines -- An international group of scientists is planning to hold a second conference on the Guinsaugon landslide that occurred in Southern Leyte three years ago.

Guinsaugon, a village in St. Bernard town in Southern Leyte, was hit by a massive landslide that buried in mud and boulders almost the entire village and killed about a thousand of its residents on February 17, 2006.

St. Bernard Mayor Rico C. Rentuza said the International Consortium on Lanslide (ICL) signified interest in holding another conference on the Guinsaugon landslide in their town.

The ICL, created at the Kyoto Symposium in 2002 is an international non-governmental and non-profit scientific organization that is supported by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

Based in Kyoto, Japan, the consortium is also supported by the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, and intergovernmental programmes such as the International Hydrological Programme of UNESCO; the Government of Japan; and other governmental bodies.

Rentuza said the ICL already communicated to the municipal government its interest in holding a second international conference on the Guinsaugon landslide in St. Bernard.

The first international conference on the Guinsaugon landslide was held from April 28 to May 2, 2009, in Tacloban City and in Palo town, both in Leyte province, and in St. Bernard town.

Some 60 Filipino and foreign geoscientists from the Philippines, Japan, Canada, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, and Nepal as well as engineers, urban planners and disaster management workers attended the first conference.

During the conference, participants shared their experiences, particularly landslide mitigation measures in their respective countries. The gathering also aimed to give experts a better understanding of the Guinsaugon landslide and help integrate their findings into the rehabilitation efforts of St. Bernard.

He said initial findings showed that the Guinsaugon landslide could have been rain and earthquake-induced.

"What they are looking into now is more on how to use new technologies that could predict (landslides)," he said, referring to the holding of the second conference.

Rentuza said that when he attended the First World Landslide Forum in November 2008 in Tokyo, Japan, many inventions believed to be capable of predicting landslides were presented.

"So, we are inviting them to test (their inventions) in St. Bernard," he said in an interview Wednesday on the sideline of a gathering on solid waste management in Palo, Leyte.

The mayor said the second conference would be held in 2010 yet because the municipal council had not passed a resolution regarding the event.

He said the resolution would be needed because the ICL would want to institutionalize its partnership with the local government and to adopt the proceedings of the first conference as a basis for the holding of the second conference.