Landslide-hit areas in Subic permanent danger zones

NEIGHBORS light a candle for victims of a landslide in Barangay Wawadue, Subic, Zambales. GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

OLONGAPO CITY—The Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) has declared landslide-hit areas in Subic town in Zambales as uninhabitable after an inspection on Wednesday.

Danilo Uykieng, MGB regional director in Central Luzon, said areas in the boundary of the villages of Wawandue and Cawag and in Barangay San Isidro in Subic, where landslides occurred on Monday following monsoon rains that started on Sunday, have been declared as permanent danger zones.

Uykieng said the local government should not allow residents to rebuild their houses and live in those areas. At least 18 people died in Subic after landslides buried several houses in three villages there.

He said the landslide victims and residents who remained in the surrounding area are informal settlers.

He said inspection of other landslide-hit areas in San Marcelino and Castillejos towns is ongoing.

On Monday, the death toll from landslides and floods induced by the southwest monsoon in Zambales climbed to 28, as more bodies were recovered in Castillejos and San Marcelino.

Earlier, Zambales Rep. Jeffrey Khonghun said areas in his district, from Olongapo to San Marcelino, suffered the most as heavy rain from Sunday to Monday triggered landslides and floods.

In Castillejos, Mayor Jose Angelo Dominguez said his town recorded five fatalities from a landslide in the village of Balaybay.

On Wednesday, Zambales Vice Gov. Ramon Lacbain II said the provincial board had declared a state of calamity in Zambales.

Subic Mayor Jefferson Khonghun clarified that he was not blaming the Department of Public Works and Highways for the widespread flooding in his town that was aggravated by heavily silted waterways.

Khonghun, in a message posted on his Facebook page, said: “I am not blaming [the

DPWH], I am asking for help to [dredge] the rivers because every year they get shallower due to sand coming down from the mountains caused by the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo.”

In Occidental Mindoro, the provincial board placed the province under a state of calamity, despite improved weather on Tuesday, due to

infrastructure and agricultural losses caused by the southwest monsoon rains.

Disaster response agencies said damage to roads, bridges and houses reached P34.7 million.

Eugene Cabrera, director of the Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council in Mimaropa (Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon, Palawan), said the flood affected 1,791 families (7,884 people) in the towns of Paluan, Sablayan, Abra de Ilog and Mamburao.

The RDRRMC’s latest report said 121 families (423 people) remained in evacuation centers.

In Cavite province, torrential rains also flooded the towns of Noveleta, Rosario and Kawit and the cities of Bacoor and Imus, said Gov. Juanito Victor Remulla. Robert Gonzaga and Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon, and Maricar Cinco, Inquirer Southern Luzon