‘Ompong’ death toll rises to 74; families get financial aid
Rescuers used shovels and their bare hands as they sifted through a massive landslide on the third day of search, rescue and retrieval operations in Barangay Ucab, Itogon, Benguet, where 55 persons are still reported missing.
Nine more fatalities were recorded by authorities Tuesday morning increasing the death toll to 74, according to the PNP-National Operations Center (NOC) in Camp Crame. Many of those buried in Itogon were small-scale gold miners and their families who took refuge in a building-abandoned by large mining firm which has since turned into a chapel.
Because the slide destroyed roads, authorities have been unable to bring heavy equipment into the area to accelerate the search. As a result the teams were using human chains to extract debris.
The area was primed for disaster before Mangkhut hit, as it came on the heels of nearly a month of continuous monsoon rains that left the already hazardous area soggy and dangerously loose.
Almost all the storm's victims were killed in dozens of landslides unleashed along the Cordillera mountain range, a key gold mining area. Retrieval operation to continue Senior Superintendent Lyndon Mencio, provincial director of the Benguet Provincial Police Office (PPO), told the Manila Bulletin residents have joined policemen, soldiers and volunteers to speed up the retrieval operation as they race for time.
He lamented they have so far pulled out cadavers from the massive slide but the team still hopes to pull out a survivor. This, Mencio said “fuels the team.”
President Duterte said government has not given up hope on the people buried in a landslide.
"We will continue with the retrieval operations until such time the military, sabihin ng pulis that they have done their best and that's it," Duterte told families of landslide victims in Benguet Monday. “Just continue praying. They're still there but maybe in distress," he added.
Duterte also offered his sympathy to the families saying he shares their grief. "I feel it's my duty to be here with you and to assure you," he told the grieving families.
In trying to comfort them, he said God "controls everything," including when and how people die. He acknowledged that it was prudent to accept that "we are born and we will die" in this world.
"Only God can answer all these questions. Even if I make a vain attempt to blame somebody, to blame the weather or maybe to blame the negligence of others, it won't really help anymore," Duterte said.
"Ang sikreto dito is just the acceptance hindi 'yungnamatay, tapos nayun eh. that we are born and we will die. Sa ayaw natin sa hindi, now tomorrow, our appointment with our earthly existence is handled by one Creator," he added.
Financial aid
Before the President left, Special Assistant to the President Christopher Go said he gave 120,000 in financial aid to each family on top of the 125,000 given by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to the families.
Duterte has authorized the Bureau of Customs (BOC) to release "ukay-ukay" or seized second-hand clothes to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) for relief operations in provinces hit by typhoon Ompong.
With the anticipated arrival of more relief goods, Duterte warned DSWD Sec. Virginia Orogo against pilferage in the government's relief operations.
Duterte shared that while he was Davao City mayor said he witnessed theft during a relief operations.
"You watch out for pilferage. DSWD is noted for that," Duterte told Orogo.
The government earlier ordered the customs bureau to release seized rice and other food items to be given to the victims of typhoon Ompong. (With reports from AFP, Francis T. Wakefield and Aaron B. Recuenco)