7 dead in landslide in Davao de Oro

SEVEN persons, five of them children, died yesterday while two others were injured after a rain-induced landslide buried a house in Monkayo town in Davao de Oro.

About 10 more persons are missing but search and rescue operations have been called off because of continuous rains, said Ednar Dayanghirang, director of the Office of Civil Defense in the Davao region

Dayanghirang said search and rescue personnel mission “are at risk” and may end up dead if the operations continued.

The landslide, he said, occurred at Purok 20 in Mt. Diwata, a known mining area. He said the place is a residential area where small-scale miners live.

He said mining operation in the area was ordered suspended by the local government three days ago due to rains.

Dayanghirang also said there were many people in the house buried by the landslide because there was a religious activity in the area at that time.

He named one of the fatalities as one-year-old Rommel Gumatin. Two were critically injured — a one-year-old and an adult, he added.

Dayanghirang also said five other rain-induced landslides were recorded in Davao de Oro. He said there were no casualties in those incidents.

Dayanghirang said 1,489 families from Davao de Oro, 294 families from Davao Oriental and 267 families from Davao del Norte have been displaced by the flooding.

Overall, Dayanghirang said over 200,000 people in the region were affected by the calamity which authorities earlier attributed to the shearline.

Data from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, however, said 44,888 families or 187,108 individuals were affected in Davao de Oro, Davao del Norte, Davao Occidental and Davao Oriental.

Of the number, 2,595 families or 9,307 individuals were displaced, though the number was down to 2,515 families or 8,907 individuals as of yesterday.