Hope dims for missing earthquake victims

GUIHULNGAN — Thousands of soldiers in the quake-hit Philippines Tuesday scoured villages buried under landslides, but authorities said hopes of finding dozens of missing people alive were dim.

FLICKERING HOPE. Rescuers frantically dig after allegedly hearing voices asking for help next to the body of a 21-year-old woman, retrieved from a mountain slope, which collapsed at the height of the earthquake in the village of Solonggon, La Libertad town, Negros Oriental on Feb. 7, 2012, a day after a 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck central Philippines. AFP

Two days after a 6.8 magnitude quake flattened homes, destroyed bridges and triggered deadly landslides in the central island of Negros, rescuers had yet to find anyone alive among at least 92 people reported missing.

“Rescue teams have so far not seen or heard any signs of life underneath,” Ernesto Reyes, mayor of the city of Guihulngan on Negros island where 29 people from a small mountain community were believed buried by a landslide, told Agence France-Presse.

“None of our missing have so far been retrieved.”

At least 48 people were confirmed to have died in Negros, with another 92 missing, regional military commander Colonel Francisco Patrimonio said on Tuesday.

In Manila, the national government’s disaster office said on Wednesday its death toll was 22, with 71 missing, but acknowledged it had not yet been able to verify reports from authorities in Negros.

Reyes said the mountain community in Guihulngan was buried under about 10 meters (30 feet) of debris, with rescue efforts painfully slow because people had only picks, shovels and their bare hands to claw through the dirt.