2 more bodies retrieved from Benguet landslide

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet—The remains of two miners were recovered by a team of volunteers digging through mud and rocks in a landslide-hit area in Mankayan, Benguet province, on Monday, police said.

The bodies of Rocky Mangrubang, 19, a native of Aurora province, and Ronald Paul Angel, 19, a resident of Mankayan, were recovered at 10 a.m. in Barangay Taneg, said Insp. Joyce Ann Dayag, information officer of the Benguet police office.

She said volunteers composed of miners, residents, soldiers and policemen were still looking for six people out of 16 miners and their family members who took shelter in a mining camp in Sitio Elizabeth. The camp was buried by a landslide triggered by heavy rain dumped by Typhoon “Ineng” on Aug. 22.

Benguet Gov. Nestor Fongwan said the landslide hit a nearby mountain slope, and not the slope where the camp had been put up.

“The loose rocks and mud fell toward the slopes of the camp. It was so sudden. The eroded area was heavily vegetated so our experts tell us it was triggered by oversaturation from the rains,” Fongwan said during a meeting last week of the Benguet Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.

The bodies recovered on Monday raised to 19 the typhoon’s death toll in Benguet, 15 of whom died in Mankayan town. Landslides also killed two persons in Bakun town and a person each in Atok and Buguias towns. Kimberlie Quitasol, Inquirer Northern Luzon