Authorities continue to search for the missing residents of Barangay (village) Ucab in Itogon, Benguet, a mining town which suffered a massive landslide over the weekend due to typhoon Mangkhut (local name: Ompong).
According to ABS-CBN News, 43 bodies from the village have been recovered, while 30 are still missing.
Itogon mayor Victorio Palangdan told the Associated Press that the residents of the village rushed to a three-story chapel to seek shelter from the landslide, but the structure collapsed when it was buried by a nearby mountain slope.
Many of the residents were poor, according to Itogon, and had no other means of livelihood at a place where corporations have benefitted immensely from gold mines.
Meanwhile, President Rodrigo Duterte, a vocal critic of the Catholic Church, blamed the destruction of the chapel and the death of the villagers on the town’s priest.
During a press briefing yesterday in Tuguegarao, the president said he received reports about the landslide in Itogon.
Defying logic, he told reporters: “There is an evolving story in Itogon, Barangay Ucab… 43 persons died because the church [collapsed]… You know, if they changed their priest, that church would not have collapsed.”
GMA News reported that while the residents prepared for the typhoon, months-long rains may have caused the ground to soften, which eventually led to the landslide. The last time a landslide occurred in the village was in 2012.
Philippine Daily Inquirer reported that as of today, Mangkhut has left 64 people dead and 45 missing in the Northern Luzon provinces of Benguet, Mountain Province, Kalinga, and Nueva Vizcaya.
Government officials declared a state of calamity in the provinces of Cagayan, Kalinga, Abra, and Benguet. The town of Mayoyao in Ifugao province was also placed under a state of calamity.
Several schools have also been destroyed by the typhoon, reported CNN Philippines. The Department of Education reported 115 schools worth PHP106 million (more than US$1.956 million) have been damaged.
The Tuguegarao airport in Cagayan province is now in the midst of being repaired after it was damaged by the typhoon.
A total of 45 roads will remain impassable in the aftermath of the typhoon. According to Radyo Inquirer, this will include thoroughfares such as Kennon Road, Benguet – Nueva Vizcaya Road, Baguio – Bontoc Road, Abra – Ilocos Norte Road, Abra – Ilocos Sur Road, at Abra – Kalinga Road.
The roads were closed due to mudflows, rock slides, and landslides.
