Masara rescuers shift to search and retrieval
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews)—Rescuers are transitioning their operations to search and retrieval a week after the landslide incident in Barangay Masara, Maco, Davao de Oro as authorities reported that the death toll is now at 68.
Based on data from the Department of Interior and Local Government– Management of the Dead and the Missing (DILGMDM) as of noon Monday, 68 individuals have been confirmed dead in the landslide, 32 injured, and 51 missing.
Lea Añora, Local Government Operations Officer (LGOO) of DILG-MDM, stated that out of the deceased, 26 were Apex employees, while 42 were residents of Zone 1 in the said barangay. Five bodies have yet to be identified.
From the missing individuals, 24 of them are local residents, 19 of them were employees of the Maria-Socio General Services Inc. (MSGSI), and 8 were Apex Mining employees. MSGSI is manpower service contracted by Apex, and the same company that owns the buses that ferry Apex workers.
“From [search and rescue and retrieval operations] we will go to search and retrieval, [however] we will recommend these first to the officials for the approval,” Engr. Ariel Capoy, head of the Incident Command Post in Maco, said in a press conference in Maco Monday afternoon streamed via Facebook Live.
Capoy said there is no definite time to continue the search and retrieval of the remaining cadavers until they reach atop where the landslide started.
As announced by the municipal government of Maco, relatives may approach the person in charge of the MDM at the Incident Command Post for information on missing loved ones through a one-stop shop near the Davao de Oro’s Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO).
The process begins with documenting the recovered cadavers, followed by autopsies to confirm their identities and then endorsing them to the funeral homes, among others.
Investigators would also rely on proof of identification from the loved ones, through official documents, and a knowledge of the victim’s identity, distinguishing marks, clothes, and other identity markers such as photos, identification cards, fingerprints, dental records, among others.
Meanwhile, an alternative evacuation center is being eyed among the affected residents currently housed in schools in Maco and Mawab municipalities.
Ferdinand Dobli, community relations manager at Apex, said qualified residents will be transferred to a new evacuation site.
“Priority are those affected by the Masara landslide and also in Mainit. In other barangays, if the [Mines and Geosciences Bureau] and other regulatory agencies will say that it is okay to return to their respective homes, then maybe they will be advised to return,” Dobli said.
For Capoy’s part, he said he was told by Davao de Oro Governor Dorothy Gonzaga that tents will be distributed for the other evacuees as well and to determine where they can put up a tent city.