Body of farmer buried alive by landslide in Zamboanga del Sur recovered

Rescue and retrieval volunteers recovered farmer Dominador Obera’s body from a pile of mud and rocks in Purok Buntod, Guinlin village, Tigbao town, Zamboanga del Sur, on Tuesday afternoon. —photo by the 53rd Infantry Battalion

TIGBAO, ZAMBOANGA DEL SUR, Philippines — A farmer who was reportedly missing since Monday afternoon was found by rescuers buried on a landslide site in Guinlin village, Tigbao town, Zamboanga del Sur on Tuesday afternoon.

The body was identified as that of 60-year old Dominador Obera, as confirmed by his wife, Merlinda.

The wife relayed that on Monday morning, her husband went to their farm to spray fertilizer to their planted corn, when heavy rain poured at around 2 p.m.

READ: Pagasa: Rainy Monday likely in parts of Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao

She added that when the rain stopped later that afternoon, their daughter-in-law asked permission to harvest some cassava crops and later reported of a landslide nearby.

Merlinda was confident that her husband might have found a place to take cover during the rain, but she got worried when he failed to return home at 5 p.m.

At 7 p.m., she and her son started looking for the victim, and decided to search in places he could possibly be found, but to no avail.

They then asked for help from the barangay officials who immediately sent a team of responders to conduct retrieval operation at the landslide site and another to scour the river.

At the landslide site on Tuesday, the victim’s slippers were found, boosting their belief Obera was buried underneath.

Guinlin village chief Elmer Ebarle said the day-long retrieval operation conducted by their village workers and volunteers, who were later assisted by the Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office staff and members of the Bureau of Fire Protection and the military, managed to unearth Obera from the pile of mud and rocks.

Ebarle said that with the continuous daily heavy rains in their village, he already advised residents living near creeks and landslide-prone areas to immediately evacuate, giving assurance that their village’s evacuation center is always prepared for these families.