The Philippines suffered another national disaster which could
have killed hundreds if not thousands when a devastating landslide
buried alive a whole village in southern Leyte province in the
central Visayas region.
This took place less than two weeks after a deadly stampede
killed about 70 people waiting to join a popular game show outside
a stadium east to Manila on February 4. This tragedy was regarded
by many here as a small-scale national disaster.
Officials said a whole elementary school with some 240 school
children studying inside was buried along with 372 houses
sheltering from 2,000 to 3,000 people at ordinary times, when the
village Guinsaugon in St. Bernard, Southern Leyte was suddenly
wiped out of landscape by tons of mud and rocks.
Few of the witnesses said it came all of a sudden and in a few
minutes with the sound of a huge explosion the entire village was
gone!
Thirty-three bodies have been found and 58 survivors recovered
from the disaster site, which looked like a huge burial ground
covered with black and grey earth.
Apparently shocked and wearing a black sports jacket when she
appeared on television, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo vowed to
help the victims of the landslide, whose number stood at around
1,500 according to some officials, while some others estimate the
figure at as high as 3,000.
"Help is coming!" she said. "The full resources of the
government are being harnessed to bring the biggest possible rescue
and relief resources in the fastest way possible. Help is on the
way."
Arroyo said rescue and relief operations would come by sea, land
and air in a massive and coordinated effort to help the victims at
the fastest possible time.
She also ordered the Coast Guard to dispatch naval cutters to
Southern Leyte and the whole naval force in the Visayas to provide
all possible assistance to the victims, with two navy ships being
dispatched and hospitals and relief centers being established to
"save lives".
Officials said the next 24 hours after the disaster took place
are crucial for the survival of those buried under thick and wet
mud and rocks. But rescue operation was suspended late afternoon
due to fear of a new landslide on the disaster site.
The landslide took place after nearly two weeks of heavy rain in
eastern Visayas region in central Philippines. A weather phenomenon
called "La Nina" was blamed for the heavy rainfalls.
Moreover, the mountains overlooking the doomed village have
already had its forest badly destroyed by heavy logging, said
officials.
The Philippine National Red Cross said other landslides are
likely in Visayas and Mindanao region, where deforestation is also
threatening residents living beside mountains under the current
LaNina weather expected to last till May. It asked residents near
mountains in South Leyte to evacuate immediately.
Rescuers said they badly need equipment and sniff dogs, as
wellas medical kits, rubber boots, blankets and bottled water. Some
equipment got stuck in the mud and could not work any more, said
officials.
To make things worse, sanitarian condition is expected to
deteriorate when the dead under the mud begin to rot.
The International Red Cross, the United States Navy and Japanese
government have all promised to help in the rescue operation.
However, officials are still holding hope that people under the
mud could survive for 24 hours as is stated in scientific
theory.
But the chances are becoming smaller and smaller for those
buried under the mud to survive as time is ticking away with rescue
operation being suspended until dawn break.
(Xinhua News Agency February 18, 2006)
