Philippine landslide village buries bodies and hope
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-02-20 11:01

Hunting for bodies and burying the dead resumed in the central Philippines on Monday, with rescuers holding out little hope for survivors in a village of 1,800 entombed by a collapsed mountainside.

Rescuers search for survivors amidst the debris caused by a landslide in Guinsaugon in the Philippine province of Leyte in this February 19, 2006 video grab. Rescue workers launched a last-ditch search on Sunday for schoolchildren buried under a torrent of mud in the landslide in the central Philippines that officials fear has wiped out a village of 1,800 people. Unconfirmed reports that some of the 253 children and staff at the elementary school in Guinsaugon, a remote farming community, had sent desperate text messages on Friday, the day the mud engulfed the village, drove the emergency services on. [Reuters]

Battling deep, shifting mud and steady rain, search teams continued to focus on a school packed with more than 250 children and staff when Friday's landslide engulfed Guinsaugon, a farming community in Southern Leyte province.

"They can see the roof but so far there is no sign of life," Congressman Roger Mercado told Reuters on Monday.

Unconfirmed reports that some pupils sent desperate mobile phone text messages on Friday had spurred on rescuers. But now hope has all but disappeared.

The National Disaster Coordinating Council said 72 bodies had been pulled from the mud, with 913 villagers still missing.

Bloated and decomposing, 50 recovered bodies were buried on Sunday in mass graves sprinkled with holy water and lime powder -- a measure Health Secretary Francisco Duque said was necessary to prevent disease from spreading in the hot, fetid conditions.

"They are being buried in such a way that they can be exhumed later," Duque told Reuters.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo viewed relief goods and dog teams being flown from a military airbase in Manila on Monday. She plans to visit the scene of the disaster, about 675 km (420 miles) southeast of Manila, on Wednesday or Thursday.

International agencies have also sent supplies, but many of the emergency goods must be trucked to the area on bad roads and around washed-out bridges.

Although the president had pledged to recover all of the bodies for burial, Mercado said a decision was likely within days about closing off the devastated area.

"We will put up a memorial symbol and we will say holy mass for the bereaved victims of the landslide," he said.

In hospital, survivors told of jumping from roofs to escape the torrent of mud, which was set off by two weeks of heavy rain. One six-year-old girl survived by clinging to a coconut tree.

MORE LANDSLIDES

The Philippines is usually hit by about 20 typhoons each year, with residents and environmental groups often blaming illegal logging or mining for compounding the damage.

But in a country where most of the 86 million people are Roman Catholic, commentators, officials and even survivors said the landslide was God's will.

Leyte island itself is no stranger to disaster. In 1991, more than 5,000 people died in floods triggered by a typhoon.

Around 2,000 people from villages near Guinsaugon were evacuated over the weekend as Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz warned of more potential catastrophes because rains triggered by the La Nina weather pattern were expected to last until June.

A warning was issued to people living near mountain slopes on the southerly tip of Mindanao, another island where a landslide killed five people on Saturday night. A small landslide hit the eastern island of Negros Oriental but no deaths were reported.

In Guinsaugon, hundreds of rescuers, backed by U.S. marines sent from annual exercises with Philippine troops, were warned to tread gingerly or risk sinking to their deaths.

With little evidence of where the village once stood, search teams relied on sketches from survivors to pinpoint the school and other buildings.

"It's a total disaster, just horrendous," said Lieutenant Joel Coots, a medical officer with the U.S. Marines. "It's very difficult to get to the site because there are just acres and acres of mud and debris."