More bodies pulled out from mountainside rubble

MANILA, Philippines - As the weather cleared, disaster teams pulled out more bodies from tons of earth that buried several mountainside communities in the Cordillera Autonomous Region (CAR) during the onslaught of typhoon “Pepeng.”

Olive Luces, executive director of the Office of Civil Defense-CAR, said the death toll from the landslides and floods reached 270 yesterday. The CAR police said 82 people were injured and 32 still missing.

Rescue workers were trying to clear roads so that food, water and other supplies could reach survivors.

The National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) said over 50 road sections and nine major bridges had either been destroyed in the landslides or washed away by floods, making it difficult to reach the hardest hit areas.

The relentless rain loosened saturated soil in mountain communities in CAR, triggering a deadly torrent of mud and rocks late last week that swallowed houses and roads.

In Baguio City, desperate residents were clambering through debris and negotiating roadside cliffs to bring supplies or to seek help.

The city had been totally isolated for two days, forcing the US military to airlift food supplies to the area.

“Our food supply was gone, our gasoline requirements are now reserved for priority emergency vehicles,” Baguio Mayor Peter Bautista said on local radio. Over 300,000 people live in the summer capital. He said funeral parlors were also running low on coffins.

Most of the dead were recovered in a mountainside community called Little Kibungan, where tons of mud and floodwaters buried or swept away houses as people slept.

Marsman Diang said he wept as he frantically dug into the mud Friday for his five nieces and nephews. Four were found dead, wrapped in a bed sheet.

One was pulled out barely breathing and did not make it to the hospital alive.

The children’s father, Diang’s brother, left to work in Japan two months ago to raise money for the kids’ education. He heard about their deaths in a phone call from Diang. “He couldn’t talk. I heard him weeping with his wife when I called to tell them that their children were gone,” Diang said. President Arroyo is expected to visit the community today.

In barangay Twinpeaks in Tuba, Benguet, councilman Ambrosio Bengwasan and his 26-year-old son Oliver remain unaccounted for.

A relative, Romeo Milo, 60, had been walking around the devastated village trying to locate the spot where the two could have been buried. He related how a loud thud preceded the surge of mud and floodwaters from a nearby mountain. The landslides killed five villagers.

NDCC executive officer Glenn Rabonza, meanwhile, said the Department of Health has sent 200 cadaver bags as well as five embalmers to Baguio City.

A US Chinook helicopter airlifted coffins from Pampanga to Baguio City.

“Our disaster operation is still in the active search and rescue mode as well as relief distributions,” Rabonza said.

Early yesterday, a convoy of 32 military trucks left Camp Aguinaldo to deliver 1,000 water jugs, 5,000 kilos of used clothing, 2,000 kilos of blankets, 2,000 kilos of plastic mats, and 4,000 kilos of food packs to Baguio City.

Rabonza said 2,000 anti-tetanus shots have been delivered to CAR for injured landslide survivors.

A US-C130 cargo plane loaded with relief goods and medicine is now on standby at Clark Field in Pampanga for a mercy flight to CAR and to the Cagayan Valley region.

Rabonza said the aircraft will leave once the runways of the Loakan and Tuguegarao airports are cleared of debris.

PNP warns profiteers

The Philippine National Police said it will not hesitate to arrest violators of the price control law.

“We will require the PNP to monitor closely prices of commodities in Baguio City and all disaster affected areas,” Director Leopoldo Bataoil, chief of the Directorate for Police Community Relations, told The STAR in a text message.

“We appeal to all concerned to help the victims of calamity instead of taking advantage of them. We will arrest violators of the price control law and hoarders of basic commodities,” he said.

Clearing work in full swing

Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner, armed forces spokesman, said the military is working closely with US troops in clearing portions of Kennon and Naguilian Roads and Marcos Highway.

“It will be massive and expensive on the part of the AFP,” he said.

“Actually these operations starting from Ondoy are starting to take their toll on the resources of the AFP because we use much fuel,” he said.

“I’m not saying we’ve run out of resources, but we’re using much for these operations,” he said.

Since the start of the calamities, the military has deployed an estimated 10,000 troops for search, rescue and relief efforts.

He said they have already started pulling out troops and equipment from relief efforts in Metro Manila for deployment to Central and Northern Luzon.

“Some of the equipment are being pulled out from Marikina, Metro Manila and being brought now to Northern Luzon,” he said. “Our heavy equipment are needed in Northern Luzon for rehabilitation efforts.”

But Brawner assured that relief and rehabilitation efforts would continue in the affected areas of the metropolis, as well as in the nearby province of Rizal.

NDCC spokesman Lt. Col. Ernesto Torres said Kennon Road is now open to light vehicles.

He added that damage to property and crops could increase from the original estimate of P5 billion.

Pepeng pummeled northern Luzon for a week before moving on the weekend into the South China Sea.

It first hit as a typhoon on Oct. 3, exactly one week after tropical storm “Ondoy” dumped the heaviest rains in more than 40 years on Metro Manila.

Ondoy has left 337 people dead, with the death toll from both storms surpassing 630. Another 300,000 people out of the over six million people affected remain in evacuation camps. With Jaime Laude, James Mananghaya, AP