Third fatality unearthed in Apayao landslide
TUGUEGARAO CITY, Philippines — A third fatality was unearthed on Friday from a landslide that struck the mountainous Sitio Purag of Barangay Badduat in the town of Kabugao in Apayao province, the Kabugao Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (MDRRMO) said on Saturday, November 22.
Search-and-retrieval team members unearthed the man’s body at past 10 a.m. on Friday and later brought his remains to a funeral home at the town center, the MDRRMO said.
READ: Search continues for third victim in Apayao landslide
Earlier on Thursday, hours after the landslide occurred, the bodies of two men were also recovered by rescuers from under the mounds of sil that covered them.
The identities of the three fatalities were withheld, citing data privacy and requests from their families, the MDRRMO said.
Kabugao Mayor Bensmar Ligwang expressed sympathies to the bereaved families even as he lauded the search teams who retrieved the bodies. The team was composed of the Philippine Army’s 9th K9 Company, K9 Battalion Infantry Regiment, 98th Infantry Battalion; the Kabugao police; the Philippine National Police’s 1505th Mobile Company-RMFB15 based in Benguet; firefighters; and MDRRMO and local health workers.
The three men were buried in a landslide after heavy rains brought on by northeast monsoon and shearline triggered the collapse of soil along a steep mountain in Badduat village on November 20. /das
