Landslide death toll up as earthquake stalls rescue

THE number of casualties from the Davao de Oro landslide on Tuesday has climbed to 28, authorities reported on Saturday.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said in its updated report that 35 have been reported injured, and 89 remain missing from the landslide that buried several houses and two buses that ferried miners.

The NDRRMC added the figures were subject to validation.

Reports said a total of 1,315 families or 5,318 persons from four villages have been affected by the calamity.

Sixty-two houses were damaged by the landslide, which the Mines and Geosciences Bureau said was caused by persistent rains in the province since late January.

Most of those believed to have been buried in the landslide were workers of Apex Mining Corp.

In a statement issued on Saturday, Apex Mining President and CEO Luis Sarmiento vowed to provide assistance to the victims and cooperate with authorities.

“The company is deeply saddened by this tragedy, and we can only imagine the pain that the families of the missing and the dead are going through,” Sarmiento said.

As of press time, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources has not imposed any sanction on Apex Mining.

The company maintained that the landslide occurred outside its mining area.

Forced to stop

The rescue operations by national and local government agencies were brought to a halt after an earthquake struck the region on Saturday.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage from the magnitude 5.8 quake that shook the Mindanao

region at 11:22 a.m. (0322 GMT), but rescuers were ordered to stop their search in the remote goldmining village of Masara.

“We ordered them (rescuers) to go up to a safer area,” Apex Mines official Ferdinand Doble told a news conference.

Rescue efforts had not resumed more than 30 minutes later as drones were flown to check for signs of potential secondary landslides that could endanger the lives of the rescuers, he added.

The quake epicenter is about 150 kilometers (90 miles) north of the landslide site.