SAN FRANCISCO, AGUSAN DEL SUR (MindaNews/16 September) — Local officials here said they have recovered one fatality, leaving three victims still missing in the aftermath of a landslide that claimed the lives of six individuals near a girder bridge at Kilometer 31 in the remote village of Mahayahay, San Luis town, on Sunday evening.
Sadat Rivera, municipal disaster risk reduction and management officer of San Luis, said the retrieval team recovered the body of Jerry Abunda, 47, at around 11 AM on Tuesday. He was the grandfather of three-year-old John Paul Abunda, who was among the two victims retrieved on Monday.
San Luis Mayor Ronald Corvera has deployed three backhoes to the site and ordered rescuers not to leave until all six victims are accounted for.
Earlier, the team also recovered the remains of Jonard Gonzales, 24, a resident of Barangay Zillovia in neighboring Talacogon town and driver of one of the two Saddam trucks involved.
Still missing are Dandan Cinco, 24, also of Zillovia and driver of the second Saddam truck; Elvin Mantipalan, a truck helper; and Fausta Abunda, 62, grandmother of John Paul.
A “Saddam” truck is a colloquial term for an old six-wheeler military truck once used by logging companies operating in the hinterlands of San Luis in the 1980s.
Barangay chairperson Sergio Manlomabe told government-run DXGP 89.7 FM that the landslide was triggered when one of the Saddam trucks tried to pull out a tree blocking the road to the bridge, dislodging boulders and mud from the mountainside. The landslide struck as heavy rains and thunderstorms pounded the area.
A joint retrieval team composed of local police, Army soldiers, and municipal disaster responders earlier recovered the first two fatalities.
Rescue worker Roy Antipala, of the Municipal Engineering Office, said thick mounds of mud complicated the search for the remaining victims on the second day of retrieval operations.
Manlomabe said the young John Paul had joined his grandparents to collect firewood and make charcoal under the bridge when the landslide hit.
Resident Marry-Anne Salayao Garcia recalled in a social media post that strong winds and heavy rains also damaged several homes in Mahayahay around the same time last year.
Municipal Engineer Marlon Aclan told DXGP anchor John Sahay that days of continuous rainfall had saturated the soil, making the area highly susceptible to slope failure.
The affected sitio has long been identified as among the most landslide-prone areas in San Luis during the rainy season. (Chris V. Panganiban, Sr./MindaNews)
