Death toll in Leyte landslide rises to 6

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines–The number of fatalities in last week’s landslide at the Energy Development Corp. geothermal complex in Kananga town, Leyte has risen to six with eight more workers still missing.

Kananga Mayor Elmer Codilla in an interview Monday said the body of Marlon Boanghog was retrieved from the site at 8:10 p.m. Sunday by a search and rescue team.

The body, which was already in a state of decomposition, was found at 5 p.m. Sunday but bad weather had hampered retrieval.

Boanghog, a native of Barangay Aguiting, Kananga, was buried by debris of at least four meters deep and one of his feet was pinned down by a rock.

Boanghog was one of the nine workers of JE Arradaza–the subcontractor of First Balfour, which is the project contractor of EDC–declared missing after the March 1 landslide in Upper Mahiao, Barangay Lim-ao, 10 km away from the town proper of Kananga.

The other fatalities are Bonifacio Polinio, Edgardo Cabarsi Sr., Belly Abella, Joel Milay and Etchield de la Austria.

Still missing were Abelardo Permanghel, Uldarico Taboranza, Salvador Yabana, Jorden Salcedo, Romeo Yazar, Salvador Lascañas, Jr., Alfredo Arabis and Danilo Mabatis.

Mayor Codilla said Boanghog’s wife, whose name he could not recall, identified the cadaver after it arrived at the Kananga Municipal Hospital.

“She was able to identify him through his belt and the casing of his mobile phone,” Codilla said.

The body was then taken Saint Peter’s Funeral Home in Ormoc City for embalming before being transferred to the family residence in Barangay Aguiting.

Codilla said the search and rescue team–composed of EDC’s safety and rescue group, Ormoc City government personnel and members of the 19th Infantry Battalion based in Kananga–would continue to look for the missing men. The rescue team resumed its search at 6:30 a.m. Monday and would continue to do so, weather permitting. –Joey Gabieta, Inquirer Visayas