150 more bodies found in Iligan City

MANILA, Philippines—Some 150 more bodies were recovered in Iligan City on Christmas Eve, bringing the total death toll from the flashfloods and landslides unleashed by tropical Storm Sendong last December 16 to over 1,200, authorities said.

“What’s sad is that the number goes up every day. The body count is now 1,236,” National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) executive director Benito Ramos said in a phone interview from Iligan City on Sunday, Christmas Day.

“There’s no Christmas here in Iligan City,” he added.

He said the search for bodies would go on “as long as it takes.”

“If it will be like this every day, then there will be no Christmas and no break until the New Year. If every day we will find victims, then the (retrieval) operations will have to go on,” said Ramos who spent the previous week in Cagayan de Oro City.

Ramos did not give a breakdown of the total death toll but based on official reports, only the death toll in Iligan City climbed up.

From a previous 312, the death toll in Iligan City went up to 468, of which at least 371 have been identified.

The number of recovered remains in Cagayan De Oro remained at 674, of which only 273 have been identified.

Elsewhere the count remained the same: 41 in Bukidnon (Region X); 37 in Negros Oriental and one in Cebu (Region VII); three in Zamboanga del Norte (Region IX); five in Compostela Valley (Region XI); four in Lanao del Sur (Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao); and one in Surigao del Sur (Caraga Region).

Two deaths attributed to Sendong were also reported in Camarines Sur (Region V).

Ramos said many bodies were recovered far off from Iligan City, or as far as Oroquieta City in Misamis Occidental, prompting them to widen the search.

With the aid pouring in, he said they have enough provisions for the basic needs such as food, water and clothing of the thousands of families affected.

“We are running out of warehouses, that’s why we are looking for a storage place to accommodate all these relief goods,” he said.

Ramos said they needed more people to do the repacking of relief goods and augment the staff of the Department of Social Welfare and Development, the Armed Forces of the Philippines and even reservists who have been at the task.

Authorities next have to attend to the task of building core shelters for the displaced families.

Ramos said they already have an identified area for a relocation site in Cagayan de Oro City, but none yet in Iligan City.

“This will take some time. This cannot be completed in one month, even three months or six months because there are too many” shelters to build, he said.

He earlier said that about 33,000 persons have lost everything in the flashfloods “so we have to sustain them for a period of three, four or even five months before they can be relocated to the core shelter.”