THE National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) yesterday placed the death toll as a result of last Monday’s magnitude 6.9 earthquake in Central and Western Visayas at 22 with 71 others still missing and feared dead after being buried in landslides that destroyed their homes.

NDRRMC chair Undersecretary Benito Ramos said 52 others were also injured while 45 houses were totally damaged and 92 others were partially destroyed in the aftermath of the quake that hit Negros Oriental.

“It looks like there is no more hope of finding the missing alive,” said Ramos two days after the powerful earthquake devastated Negros Oriental leaving 29 persons missing after being trapped in a landslide that struck Bgy. Planas in Guihulngan City and 42 others in Bgy. Solongon in La Libertad municipality. The victims are residents of mountainside communities who were believed to have been trapped under tons of rocks that buried their houses Monday.

Aftershocks were reported to be hampering search-and-rescue operations in Bgys. Planas and Solongon.

There is still no official report on a actual extent of damage to private and public properties and other infrastructures even as government engineers continued examining cracks on main roads and concrete structures in all affected areas.

However, Police Regional Office 7 director  Chief Superintendent Marcelo P. Garbo Jr. said the earthquake totally damaged the Seventh Day Adventist Church and a Catholic Church in Guihulngan City and partially damaged the St. Francis College, the Hall of Justice, a public market, a Caltex building, the Plaza Lodge and the Philippine Independence Church.

Patients were also forced to stay outside the Guihulngan Hospital, patients for fear of another earthquake which crippled electricity in the town.

Soldiers and policemen are involved in the massive operation to search for the missing victims in La Libertad and Guihulngan City, the NDRRMC said.  

With a report from Zaida delos Reyes-Palanca