Rep. Tulfo slams DENR ‘inaction’ on Davao de Oro landslide

This screengrab from AFPTV aerial video footage taken on February 7, 2024 shows the site of a landslide in Davao de Oro province on Mindanao island in the southern Philippines. Faulty warning systems, poverty and deforestation of mountains in the southern Philippines turned recent unseasonally heavy rains into deadly disasters, weather experts said in a report on March 1, 2024. (Photo by Renante Naparan / AFPTV / AFP)

MANILA, Philippines — House Deputy Majority Leader for Communications Rep. Erwin Tulfo criticized the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) for its alleged inaction on the landslide that claimed 98 lives in Maco, Davao de Oro, in February.

In a statement on Sunday, Tulfo slammed the DENR and the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) for supposedly not acting on the tragic landslide which occurred in a mining village.

READ: Davao de Oro landslide deaths soar to 98; over 5,300 in evacuation centers 

“It happened in February before Valentine’s. Now there are 98 dead in Maco, Davao De Oro, and there are still eight missing. So, the [toll] is going to be a hundred. The DENR didn’t do anything, there’s also nothing, you didn’t hear anything from the MGB. So that means there is a problem here,” Tulfo was quoted as saying in the statement.

The government official also lamented the purportedly slow response of the national government in addressing the landslide in Davao de Oro.

“That’s why sometimes our government is criticized by our fellow citizens. It’s very slow, it takes too long. Now that I’m in government, I feel like everything moves in slow motion,” Tulfo noted.

READ: Survivors now shun landslide-hit village 

The areas affected by the landslide in Maco town have been declared a “no-build zone” by its local government unit (LGU) since a landslide hit the area on Sept. 6 and 7, 2008, wherein 25 people were killed. The LGU’s declaration followed a recommendation by the MGB.

“It means, there shouldn’t be any structure there anymore. Don’t build anything. If there’s anything there, remove the people. Now, there are 98 dead. What are we going to do? Forget about it? Bury it in oblivion?” Tulfo asked.

“That’s the problem, that’s why we filed a resolution to investigate it. It was brought to the Committee on Disaster Resilience under Cong. [Alan] Ecleo,” he added, saying that he would question the DENR and the MGB once the committee starts its probe on the incident.

Tulfo said that the House of Representatives would have time to investigate the landslide in Maco next week.

“Next week, Congressman Ecleo promised that we will start the investigation,” he noted.