Mother, 3 kids killed in Catbalogan City landslide

TACLOBAN CITY, Leyte, Philippines—A mother and her three young children were killed after their home was buried in soil and run over by boulders while they were sleeping on Friday in Catbalogan City, Northern Samar.

Seven families were also rendered homeless after the landslide destroyed their houses in in Barangay Guinsorongan, Catbalogan.

Killed were Maricel Bulan, 30 and her children Carlo Jr., 6; Carla, 4 and Mary Carl, 2.

Maricel’s husband, Carlo, was not around when the tragedy struck as he was in Matuguinao town, Samar, where he worked as municipal clerk.

Maricel and her children were sleeping about 3:30 a.m. on Friday inside their home located at the foot of the hill, said Cherlyn Lubang of the Office of the Civil Defense in Eastern Visayas on Saturday.

A portion of the hill suddenly gave way. Mounds of earth and boulders cascaded, covering the houses below.

Seven families were able to get out of their homes before the landslide swept their houses. But Maricel and her children were not as lucky.

“Based on their accounts, they felt that their houses were being hit by some rocks and were slowly moving which caused them to wake up from their sleep and get out from their homes,” Lubang told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in a phone interview on Saturday.

Catbalogan social welfare officer Nida Aroza said the landslide might have been triggered by incessant rains since Wednesday that may have loosened the earth.

She, however, said it was not raining during the landslide.

Aroza said the city government would shoulder the burial expenses of the victims while seven families, composed of 42 individuals, were given food packs.

Four families took temporary shelter at the two-story barangay (village) hall while the rest chose to live with their relatives.