Rescuers pull out from landslide sites

DUMAGUETE CITY, Negros Oriental – Most of the rescue groups have withdrawn from two landslide sites in Guihulngan City and La Libertad town.

As of Tuesday, only the Metro Manila Development Authority team and Army soldiers remained in Sitio (sub-village) Moog, Barangay Planas, in Guihulngan. Other soldiers were still in Barangay (village) Solonggon in La Libertad.

Governor Roel Degamo met with Minda Morante, regional director of the Office of Civil Defense, and asked her to tell the two local governments to pass resolutions declaring a stop to the retrieval operations. He said he wanted to end the mission himself, but Morante informed him that this was the call of the local officials.

“We will use the soldiers in rebuilding roads and bridges. Let’s move on and rebuild damaged infrastructure,” Degamo said.

The governor also wanted Morante to tell the MMDA team to stop digging.

Continuing the retrieval operations posed a risk to health as it would lead to diseases since the bodies of the victims were in a state of decomposition, said Dr. Expedito Medalla, head of the Department of Health Regional Epidemiological and Surveillance Unit.

In an interview, La Libertad Mayor Lawrence Limkaichong said he could not do anything to prevent residents from searching for their loved ones. He said he had given the diggers masks and gloves.

As of 4 p.m. Tuesday, records of the Army’s 11th Infantry Battalion showed 46 dead and 59 missing. Of the fatalities, 21 were in Guihulngan, nine in La Libertad, eight in Jimalalud, three in Tayasan, two each in Ayungon and Manjuyod, and one in Bindoy.

The Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council placed the number of deaths at 42 (17 in Guihulngan, nine in La Libertad, eight in Jimalalud, three in Tayasan, two each in Manjuyod and Ayungon, and one in Bindoy) and 60 missing (20 in Planas and 40 in Solonggon).

The provincial police recorded 40 fatalities (17 in Guihulngan, eight each in La Libertad and Jimalalud, three in Tayasan, two in Ayungon, and one each in Bindoy and Manjuyod) and 68 missing (27 in Planas in Guihulngan, 40 in Solonggon in La Libertad and one in Tayasan).

Power supply has been restored in certain parts of the province, the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines announced.

Five transmission structures along the Amlan-Bindoy-Guihulngan 69kV transmission line were affected by the calamity, according to a statement of Elmer D. Cruz of the NGCP corporate communications unit.

In Bacolod City, the Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines, Giuseppe Pinto, on Monday night, said the Pope’s prayers were with the Filipinos in these trying times.

“I assure you of the solidarity of his Holiness Pope Benedict XVI in all your aspirations and trials and that he remembers you in his prayers,” he said.

The papal envoy spoke before a crowd of more than 500 at a dinner at L’Fisher Hotel to kick off “Totus Tuus,” the week-long event marking the 31st anniversary of the visit of Blessed John Paul II to Bacolod on Feb 20, 1981.

“Our thoughts are with our brothers and sisters who are suffering because of the recent earthquake that hit this island,” Pinto said.

Many people and institutions have already done a lot to help, but a lot more needs to be done, he added. With a report from Carla P. Gomez, Inquirer Visayas