Woman dies in landslide

BATANGAS CITY—A woman died while her husband and 8-month-old son survived after a landslide hit their house on Thursday night in Barangay Inicbulan in Bauan, Batangas, officials said on Friday.

Vicente Tomazar, director of the Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon) Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (DRRMC), said the landslide hit the victims’ house at 10:30 p.m. on Thursday.

He identified the victims as Jean Laksinto, the lone fatality in the family; Erik, the husband; and their 8-month-old child, identified only as Burikrik.

Supt. Renato Mercado, Bauan police chief, said the soil in the slope where the Laksinto house stood was softened by the continuous rain over the past few days.

“This caused the landslide that uprooted the alpaca bamboo tree that fell on the house,” he said.

Mercado said Erik managed to bring their baby to safety but when he came back for his wife, he was trapped inside the fallen house.

The couple’s baby, who was entrusted to neighbors and the village chief, was brought to a hospital.

Mercado said rescuers used a backhoe to remove the tree and house so they could rescue the couple.

Tomazar said it took more than 10 hours for rescue operations by the Batangas police, Philippine Air Force, Coast Guard and Red Cross personnel to retrieve the couple.

They were retrieved at 9:15 a.m. on Friday. Rescuers rushed the couple to the hospital but Jean was declared dead on arrival at 9:22 a.m. Erik was under treatment for still unspecified injuries, he said.

In Occidental Mindoro, 64 persons living along the coastal waters off Barangay Sibalat, Magsaysay town, were evacuated from their houses at 9 a.m. on Friday due to a storm surge, said Eugene Cabrera, regional director of the Mimaropa (Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon, Palawan) DRRMC.

The evacuees were staying at Sibalat Elementary School, also in Magsaysay town.

Cabrera said Ali Taburna, 50, was also reported missing on Thursday after going fishing onboard his banca in the vicinity of the waters off Sta. Cruz, Occidental Mindoro.

At 3 p.m. on Thursday, a whirlwind hit Sibalat, damaging 12 houses, according to Cabrera.

Cabrera said operations at the sea and air ports in Mimaropa returned to normal on Friday.