VILLAGE MOURNS Relatives and neighbors attend a funeral Mass for landslide fatalities at St. Francis of Assisi parish church on Monday. —TONEE DESPOJO / CEBU DAILY NEWS
CEBU CITY—Cries for justice rang out as 20 fatalities in the massive landslide that hit a community in Naga City on Sept. 20 were laid to rest on Monday.
Families of the victims echoed calls for Apo Land and Quarry Corp. to stop its quarry operations at Barangay Tinaan, which they blamed for the landslide.
A banner, with the words “Justice! STOP Quarrying!” was put up by Alexander Dejilles, one of the relatives of the victims, outside St. Francis of Assisi parish church during the funeral Mass.
Search and rescue operations continued on Monday despite admission from the provincial disaster risk reduction and management officer, Baltazar Tribunalo, that chances of finding survivors had dimmed.
“With the amount of debris that surrounded them, it is really hard [to find survivors]. But we are not losing hope,” Tribunalo said.
54 dead, 41 missing
Fifty-four bodies had been recovered while 41 people were still missing as of Monday. At least 10 people survived the landslide.
On Monday, rescuers focused on a community called Sindulan, where at least 20 houses with their occupants were buried.
Among those laid to rest at the public cemetery in Barangay Naalad on Monday were couple Lemuel and Jenessa Campanilla and five of their six children, aged between 3 and 12. The sixth child, 8-year-old Jazwel Jave, remained missing.
Jenessa was able to send a message to her relatives, through Facebook, that they were alive and waiting for help on Thursday afternoon, hours after the landslide buried her and about 50 other houses at 6 a.m. that day.
Health problems
“It is very painful for a mother to lose a daughter and all of my grandchildren. But I have no other choice but to accept [their fate],” said Gemma Aliganga, Jenessa’s mother.
Diarrhea, cough, colds and fever have stalked evacuees five days after the massive landslide struck Barangay Tinaan in Naga City, Cebu province.
RETURN TO GROUND ZERO A group of residents returns to their community at Barangay Tinaan, Naga City, to retrieve whatever belongings they can dig out from mounds of earth and rocks. LITO TECSON / CEBU DAILY NEWS
Josiemay Casana, 20, who was staying at Naga City National High School with her husband and their two daughters, said she and other evacuees had been experiencing cough and other sicknesses because it was cold in the evacuation centers, especially at dawn.
The Casana family had been in the evacuation center since Saturday after residents of nearby Barangay Pangdan were ordered evacuated following the landslide.
Josiemay said they were also worried about their safety because their house was right below one of the quarry sites of Apo Land.
On Sunday, Dr. EM Cañal of the Department of Health regional epidemiology surveillance unit confirmed that the water samples taken from five evacuation sites in Naga City turned positive for E. coli and fecal coliform contamination.
Ralph Joseph Balagulan, one of the medical volunteers, said they had readied medicine supplies for evacuees. However, the medical team deployed in evacuation sites was only available during the day, he said.