EIGHT persons were killed in different areas in the Cordillera while seven remain missing in Apayao and Abra in the wake of Typhoon Egay’s passing on Wednesday and Thursday.
Four were reported killed in Buguias, Benguet after a landslide buried a house in Lower Abatan Barangay.
One teenager was also earlier reported buried in a landslide that covered their house in Kitma, Bakakeng Barangay in Baguio.
Consolidated police reports showed that the bodies of two individuals were recovered from landslides in Kibungan and Itogon.
Police also reported that a mother and daughter were swept by the raging river in Pilar, Abra. The body of the daughter was found while the mother remains missing.
Six Apayao residents also remain buried in a massive landslide that occurred at about 6:00 P.M. on July 27 in Lubong Butao Barangay in Calanasan town.
Apayao Governor Elias C. Bulut said they will call in the Philippine Army to help find the missing persons as the area is about a kilometer from the main road.
The terrain and the rains and wind brought by the tail of Typhoon Egay made it difficult for the province to do the rescue alone.
Police identified the missing as Bernard Dasilag, Silin Amlag, Paustino Amlag, Rodelia Amlag, and Rodelia Salbino and her unidentified child. They belong to three different homes that were buried by the landslide.
Police also said that another farmer disappeared from the Tumog River in Luna, Apayao at about the same time as the Calanasan landslide.
Joel Alvior Acosta Sr. was said to have crossed the Tumog River with a lighter as a torch. His neighbors witnessed the lighter being extinguished and tried to rescue him but up to now, his body has still to be found.
Meanwhile, the Benguet PDRRMC said that the four dead in the Buguias landslide all came from a single family, including a two-year-old child. Two others in the family were reported injured.The dead were identified as Jasmine Tumpap Dulot, 12; Marjorie Dolorito Tumpap, 20; Camille Tumpap Dulot, 5; and two-year-old Hosana Tumpap.
Last Wednesday morning, a 16-year-old boy in Kitma village in Baguio City was pinned in his room when their house was also buried in a landslide. His parents were rescued but he didn’t make it alive to the hospital.
At about ten o’clock in the morning of July 26, Angelina Domingo Apopot was cleaning her pigpen in Nangamlay sitio in Poblacion, Kibungan, Benguet when the mountainside fell and buried her.
Only her head was recovered a day later by the police one kilometer from the pigpen.
On the evening of July 27, a landslide buried the house of Bryner Balacdao at Besil sitio in Gumatdang, Itogon, Benguet.
Rescuers including Derrick Alfonso Balacdao were able to extricate Balacdao and his wife Garrete alive.
However, another landslide occurred and swept rescuer Balacdao. He was later taken out of the mountain of mud but was declared dead at the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center. – Frank Cimatu and Angel Castillo