Search for the missing `100 plus in Kusiong continues: say execs

KUSIONG, Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte (MindaNews) – Authorities are still determining if the “100 plus” residents who were on the path of the landslide in the early hours of Friday are still alive, in the evacuation centers or are dead and their bodies have yet to be recovered.

What is certain for now is that the remains of at least 13 residents have been recovered as of Saturday noon, and 31 are injured.

Datu Lester Sinsuat, mayor of Datu Odin Sinsuat, on Saturday, said: “Dito sa area po ng Barangay Kusiong, napakalungkot po itong pangyayari dahil hanggang ngayon marami pa po kaming hinahanap. May hindi pa narecover, so sabi ni kapitan hindi natin alam yung 100 plus ano ba yun siya, nasa evacuation or hindi ko na alam kung ano yung nangyari po sa kanila” (What happened here in Barangay Kusiong is so sad because until now we are still searching for many. There are those whose bodies have not been recovered so the barangay captain said he does not know if the 100 plus are in the evacuation centers or we do not know what has happened to them).

Kusiong Barangay Captain Jafeer Sinsuat, narrated that they sounded the siren at midnight when they felt an unusual flow of the waters from Mt. Minandar, to warn residents to evacuate to higher ground.

He recalled that by midnight, the avalanche of rocks and boulders came crashing down.

At the time of the interview on Saturday noon, 13 bodies had been recovered, and Jafeer said they were still looking for a hundred more.

“May mga one hundred plus pa po na hinahanap so hindi pa po alam kung buhay pa po sila or nasa evacuation center kasi wala pa pong communication” (We are looking for about a hundred more so we do not know if they are still alive or in the evacuation center because there is no communication yet), he said.

He estimated about 200 families were “na wash out,” apparently referring to the families affected, many of them Tedurays who had earlier been relocated from the coast to this supposedly higher ground.

Mayor Sinsuat said he is aware that the surviving residents no longer want to stay there.

Residents of the Kusiong Relocation Site moved there from the coast two years ago, according to Bai Fatima Kanakan, former chief of the Office of the Southern Cultural Communities of the defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindana.

The mayor acknowledged that they thought the relocation site they had chosen then was the “pinaka safe” (most safe).

“Itong relocation natin, akala natin ito na ang pinakasafe na relocation dahil mataas siya. Pero hindi natin akalain sa pangyayari, wala namang may gusto na ganito yung mangyari sa ating mga kababayan so hindi ko lang alam kung ano yung mga gusto ng mga tao dahil nasa trauma pa sila ngayon pero napagusapan na namin ni barangay captain na may mga maghahanap tayo ng mga relocation site naman para dito sa atin” (We thought this relocation site was the most safe because it is on higher ground. But we did not expect this would happen, no one wanted this to happen to our fellowmen so I do not know what the people want because they are still in truam but the barangay captain and I have talked about looking for another place for their relocation), the mayor said.