Leyte cops looking for stolen landslide sensor

PALO, Leyte — Eastern Visayas police commander Chief Superintendent Arnold Revilla has ordered Southern Leyte police director Senior Superintendent Felipe Pacada and his men to locate a missing landslide early warning system in the mountainside Barangay Malinao in St. Bernard, Southern Leyte.

The sensor-based Landslide Early Warning System (SLEWS) stopped transmitting data two days after the St. Bernard Municipal Disaster Management Office reported the equipment missing last Thursday.

Olaf Neussner, chief adviser of the Environment and Rural Development Program of Deutche Geselleschaft fur International Zusammernarbeit, said the $5,000 SLEWS was installed last November to monitor landslides in Southern Leyte.

“The system was set up at the potential landslide area in Barangay Malinao,” he said.

“All sensor nodes were placed near larger cracks and fissures in the field. Five sensor nodes were installed in the area.”

Nuessner said the stolen equipment included a motion sensor, radio transmitter, solar panels, antenna, two batteries and a router.

“The police already identified a suspect and we hope the equipment could be recovered soon since it is most needed at this time when heavy rains continue to be experienced in the area,” he said.

“We need the equipment to periodically monitor and send us data on the situation of the 16 identified landslide prone areas.

“At least 40 households have been left without advance warning of landslide after the theft. The system could also warn other neighboring villages of impending landslides.”

More heavy rains expected

Hundreds of thousands of people already reeling from floods across the nation have been told to expect more heavy rains until March.

The death toll has risen to 53.

Venus Valdemoro, Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) spokesman, said heavier than normal rainfall is forecast for most of the country over the next three months.

“There will be more rains in areas which should already be experiencing the dry season,” she said.

Heavy rains have swamped much of the country since late December, with floods affecting nearly 1.6 million people including more than 93,000 who fled their homes, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC).

Most of the victims drowned or were killed in landslides, the agency added.

Barangay Manalog in Hinunangan, Southern Leyte has been isolated for the past two days because of floods caused by continuous heavy rains, the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) has reported. Eight families have been evacuated from Barangay Badjangay, also in Hinunangan town, this morning due to floods.

A military helicopter failed to deliver relief goods to 200 families in Barangay Manalog because of zero visibility due to heavy rains, the PIA said.

In Eastern Samar, Mayor Septemo Santiago fears hunger will occur in Maslog after residents have consumed relief goods.

He said the ricefields in Maslog have been totally submerged in floodwaters.

“My people cannot even go to their farms due to this incessant rain,” he said.

Santiago said people have not returned to their homes after the floods have subsided as heavy rains continued.

“These people constructed makeshift houses made of canvass, materials from coco trees and other indigenous materials just to have roofs over their heads,” he said.