Military ends retrieval operations
DUMAGUETE CITY – The three-week continuous retrieval operations by various military units in earthquake- hit areas in Negros Oriental have been terminated.
Colonel Francisco Patrimonio, commander of the 302nd Infantry Brigade based in Tanjay City, Negros Oriental, confirmed the end of the operations for victims believed still buried under landslides in Brgy. Solongon of La Libertad town and in Brgy. Planas of Guihulngan City.
Patrimonio said the stoppage had the concurrence of local officials and the next- ofkin of the missing persons, and that military personnel and logistics deployed to these areas of the province have been trimmed down.
Personnel and equipment of different AFP units involved in the search and retrieval operations have already returned to their respective headquarters, leaving only those originally based in Negros Oriental, he said.
The withdrawn men belonged to the 302nd Ibde and its 11th and 79th Infantry Battalions, the 32nd Division Reconnaissance Company, the 1st Scout Ranger company, the 703rd Community Defense Center reservists, the Alpha Company of the 12th IB, the 303rd Ibde through its 47th and 62nd IBS, the Panay-based 301st Ibde via its 82nd IB; the Philippine Navy; the Philippine Coast Guard and the Philippine Air Force.
The Philippine Army in Negros Oriental would however continue to provide assistance to the ongoing relief operations for the earthquake victims, specifically in the hardest hit areas of La Libertad and Guihulngan, said Patrimonio.
Patrimonio said the retrieval has to be terminated because the DENR had earlier declared the areas very risky to the lives and health of the working men. The unexpected rains and continuous aftershocks also rendered the sites in danger of further collapse, and that further exposure to the smell of rotting bodies would endanger the health of workers at the landslide rubble.
Hopes have diminished for survivors but the families of the missing persons have wanted to at least have the bodies of their loved ones recovered and given a decent burial, he said.
In the past week, retrieval efforts have already become “futile”, notwithstanding other risks posed to the soldiers and civilians participating in the recovery of landslide victims, said Patrimonio. “We exerted all best possible efforts to retrieve them,” but the landslide area is too deep and wide to cover, he said.
Phivolcs’ Art Daag had estimated the landslide areas to measure between 10 and 20 hectares wide and about 30 meters high.
The bulldozers deployed by the PA’S 542nd Engineers Brigade could only do so much in excavating the rubble in search of the missing persons who are now presumed dead, while rescue workers have also helped in digging manually for survivors or remains of the dead since Day 1 after the 6.9magnitude earthquake.
The Guihulngan City government has approved a resolution declaring the Planas landslide area as a memorial site in honor of those who perished.
Over in La Libertad, the Philippine Army has requested to pull out its troops from the Solongon landslide site even as Mayor Lawrence Limkaichong told Patrimonio that the LGU will hire instead civilian workers to continue digging for possible recovery of more victims.