Mom, child dead in Olongapo trash slide

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Philippines—A mother and her daughter were killed when a portion of a dump in Olongapo City was loosened by rains accompanying Typhoon “Pedring” on Tuesday night, Olongapo City Mayor James Gordon Jr. said on Wednesday.

Gordon said the trash slide buried the huts of three families but as of 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, only two bodies had been recovered.

He identified the victims as Lanivhie Ganseco, 26, and her 14-month-old daughter, Shanaia. A man, identified as Eduardo Doesnt, 38, was reported missing.

The village council has no information on how many people live in each of the huts near the dump in Barangay New Cabalan, Gordon said.

The trash slide occurred at around 9 p.m. Tuesday. “Rescuers had to suspend operations because it was risky to undertake one amid the typhoon,” Gordon said.

Efforts to recover bodies began on Wednesday morning.

The dump, located in the border of Bataan, was closed to settlers for health and safety reasons but people lived next to it to make a living out of collecting recyclable materials, Gordon said.

He said the dump was built on funds from the United States Agency for International Development in the early 1980s.