By FRANCIS T. WAKEFIELD
EIGHTEEN days after typhoon “Ompong” lashed northern Luzon with strong winds and heavy rains resulting in dozens of landslides, the Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (RDRRMC) of the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) recommended the termination of the Search, Rescue and Retrieval (SRR) operations in Barangay Ucab, Itogon, Benguet.
National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) Executive Director and Office of Civil Defense (OCD) Administrator Undersecretary Ricardo Jalad, said the termination of the SRR operations is based on the Mines and Geosciences Bureau’s (MGB) technical assessment that the excavation being undertaken at the landslide area endangers the lives of those working to retrieve the remains of those buried in the slide.
The MGB likewise recommended that the impassable Itogon-Antamok road – one of the critical zones – be isolated and secured.
Jalad said as of Wednesday, there are 955 barangays affected with 97,009 families (379,134 individuals). Out of the affected population, only 74 families (333 individuals) remain in eight evacuation centers.
A report of the Management of Dead and Missing (MDM) cluster headed by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) recorded 79 deaths.
