With bare hands and shovels, rescuers frantically dig for buried quake victims

GOVERNMENT and civilian workers yesterday pressed their search for 71 people reported missing following the earthquake in Western Visayas that killed at least 15 and injured 52 others.

National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council chairman Benito Ramos said the 29 missing were reported to have been trapped in a landslide that struck Barangay Planas in Guilhungan City, Negros Oriental. At least 42 others were also reported missing in Bgy. Solongon in La Libertad municipality.

Ramos confirmed 15 fatalities as a result of Monday’s magnitude 6.8 earthquake, their bodies already recovered by authorities.

Local officials also appealed for food, water, tents and medicines in Guilhungan City where the water supply system was totally damaged and electricity was totally cut-off.

The dead were identified as Bernadeth Raidan, 9, a Grade 2 student of the Matuog Elementary School, and Ramon Ganti, 60, both from Tayasan, Negros Oriental. Raidan was pinned by a concrete wall of her school which collapsed during the earthquake while Ganti died in a landslide in Bgy. Suquib;

Anafe Estrabella, a Grade 6 pupil from Bgy. Mompong in Jimalalud, Negros Oriental died after being trapped under the wall of a local chapel which collapsed during the earthquake;

Manolita Corceiga, 10, also from Bgy. Mompong; Betty Manzano of Guilhungan City and her neighbor Cherry Pagao, 23, died after being struck by debris of their collapsed residence;

Gilbert Ubando, 13, and Eric Benigay, 7, both of Bgy. Magsaysay, Guilhungan City were pinned to death by the collapsed concrete wall of their school;  Maricar Narciso, 37, of Bgy. McKinley, Guilhungan City was killed by debris of her own house. Aljun Sabando, of Bgy. Poblacion, also died in the earthquake. 

A resident of Bindoy, Negros Oriental identified only as Bayloces was pinned by a concrete fence which collapsed during the quake. Acebes Palumar died of heart attack in Bais City, Negros Oriental. The fatalities included three still unidentified persons from Bgy. Poblacion in Guilhungan City.

Police Regional Office 7 director Chief Superintendent Marcelo P. Garbo Jr. said that as of 8 p.m. Monday, they have recorded 10 deaths and 13 injuries in Central Visayas. Six of the confirmed fatalities were from Guilhungan; one each from Jimalalud and Bais City; and two from Tayasan, Negros Oriental.

Department of Public Works and Highways engineers also stepped up their evaluation of damaged road, buildings, bridges and other infrastructures in the Visayas region.

The NDRRMC noted cracks on bridges, roads and buildings in Guilhungan City, Tayasan, Jimalalud and La Libertad, Negros Oriental as well as surface cracks on the RSB Building, the Abellana National School, the St. Vincente General Hospital and the Mangoto Bridge in Cebu City.

Infrastructure damage in Bohol, Siquihor and Dumaguete City were still being evaluated as of press time.

Philippine National Police chief Director General Nicanor A. Bartolome said all PNP resources and personnel in Central and Western Visayas have been mobilized to assist in government disaster response and mitigation efforts in the earthquake-affected areas.

Gen. Bartolome also directed PRO7 director, Chief Supt. Garbo and PRO6 director, Chief Supt. Cipriano E. Querol Jr. to fully supervise the ongoing search, rescue and relief operations.

Hands and shovels

“Heavy equipment we’ve requested from the provincial government has not arrived yet, because the roads and bridges are impassable,” said Senior Inspector Alvin Futalan, police chief of Guilhungan town on Negros, which was heavily damaged.

“We are using our hands and shovels to search in the rubble,” he told AFP.

Thirty-nine people were reported killed in Guihulngan, a coastal city of 100,000 people flanked by mountains that was close to the quake’s epicenter.

The city’s public market, court house and private homes in the area had collapsed or were damaged, while landslides buried some houses completely, according to Fatulan.

He said the city’s overwhelmed 42-man police rescue squad had been joined by hundreds of army troops and volunteers in clearing debris as they raced against time to find people still believed missing.

“The army (troops) had to walk about 50 kilometers from the last stop reachable by vehicle to reach us,” Fatulan said.

Guilhungan is about 90 kilometers to the north of Dumaguete, the capital of Negros Oriental province that covers the southeastern edge of Negros where the worst impacts of the quake were felt.

An AFP correspondent travelling to Guilhungan from Dumaguete witnessed families in makeshift tents standing in shock outside their homes and refusing to go back inside in fear of aftershocks.

State seismologists said more than 700 aftershocks battered Negros during the 20 hours following the initial quake, first measured by the US Geological Survey at 6.8.   With AFP