Rescuers carry a body recovered from a landslide caused by Typhoon “Ompong” (internationally known as “Mangkhut”) in Itogon, Benguet province on Monday, Sept. 17, 2018. Itogon Mayor Victorio Palangdan said that at the height of the typhoon’s onslaught Saturday afternoon, dozens of people, mostly miners and their families, rushed into an old three-story building in the village of Ucab. The building, a former mining bunkhouse that had been transformed into a chapel, was obliterated when part of a mountain slope collapsed. (Photo by AARON FAVILA / AP)
Itogon Mayor Victorio Palangdan on Thursday appealed to Benguet Corporation to provide temporary shelters and burial site for landslide victims.
“Nakikiusap ako sa Benguet Corporation na mag-boluntaryo na maghanap ng relocation site para sa mga tao,” he said in a press briefing.
“Yung mga unidentified na walang nagke-claim na bodies, they should provide temporary burial sites,” he added.
Search and rescue operations from the deadly landslide caused by typhoon “Ompong” (international name: Mangkhut) entered its fifth day on Thursday. At least 50 were killed from the landslide and more than 40 remained missing.
Palangdan said the mining firm has not reached out to authorities even if they have sent people to help out in the ongoing operations.
“Kung may nakikinig na taga-Benguet Corporation, pumunta na kayo dito at we will organize, we can have a meeting for a solution of this problem,” he said.
The mayor also said that the Pacalso Elementary School must be vacated by evacuees by Sunday as classes would start on Monday.
“Ang problema may nag donate ng temporary shelter, pero walang lupa,” he said.
Palangdan said that out of 418 evacuees, only 18 chose to return to Ifugao.
“Paano ang 400? So that’s our problem now,” he noted. /kga