CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews / 23 Oct) — After six days of search, rescuers finally found the bodies of the missing couple in the muddy bottom of the landslide area in Sitio Kipolot, Barangay Palacapao, Quezon town in Bukidnon Thursday morning.
Quezon town public information officer Lyle Justine Egay said the children of Ely Ubatay and Thelma Ubatay, both aged 60, identified their remains after rescuers brought them in white body bags in the holding area in Sitio Kipolot.
The Ubatay couple, residents of Purok 9, Kahusayan, Kitaotao, Bukidnon, was swept along with their Bajaj 3-wheeler trikes (locally called “bao-bao”) when the highway collapsed in a landslide last Saturday evening.
Egay said rescuers supported by three backhoes and K9 dogs found the missing vegetable vendors buried by 10 meters of mud near where the wreckage of their bao-bao was found at the bottom of the mud pit.
He said the search was hastened when a backhoe managed to open a new path, allowing two backhoes to join the search.
Egay said the search was hampered by heavy rains that it had to be stopped a few times for fear that the walls of mud will collapse. (Froilan Gallardo / MindaNews)
