50 tons of roadblock cleared in N. Cotabato-Bukidnon highway

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines - Workers finished removing on Tuesday some 50 tons of boulders and mud that cascaded from a hill following three days of downpours and blocked a stretch of the North Cotabato-Bukidnon Highway.

Cynthia Ortega of the North Cotabato Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council told reporters the landslide in Barangay Tamped in Carmen town northwest of the province stranded hundreds of commuters and motorists.

Ortega said the landslide was caused by heavy rains, which loosened the sides of a hill beside the highway.

Ortega said the debris landed on the center of a portion of the North Cotabato-Bukidnon Highway in Barangay Tamped.

The thoroughfare connects the province to Bukidnon and Cagayan de Oro City.

“It was about 30 feet high, making the highway virtually impassable,” Ortega said.

The blocked portion of the highway had been reopened by government workers and barangay folks, said Ortega.

Ortega said the earthquakes that hit Carmen about three months ago caused movements in rock and soil formations in mountainsides along the highway.

The tremors destroyed more than a hundred houses and school buildings in the municipality.