By Rene Acosta & Manuel T. Cayon
National Police (PNP) chief Director General Oscar D. Albayalde expressed hope on Monday that rescuers could still find survivors from the tragic landslide in Naga City, Cebu, as search and retrieval teams have already recovered 49 dead bodies on site.
“The command group and quad staff is closely monitoring the situation in areas of operation where PNP search and rescue units continue to race against time to find more survivors of two landslides in Itogon, Benguet and Naga, Cebu,” Albayalde said during a news briefing on Monday.
“I have instructed the concerned staff officers to ensure that required provisions and resources to support these operations are adequately provided. We remain hopeful that we will be able to rescue more survivors as the search continues,” he said.
A survivor was retrieved by search and rescue personnel on Friday at Barangay Tinaan, the site of a massive landslide that police officials said buried at least 25 houses following intense rain on Thursday last week.
Prevention
A newly established research unit is asking government housing agencies to suspend all socialized housing projects areas that could be susceptible to environmental risks, like landslide and liquefaction, to avoid another episode of yet another tragic landslide like what had occurred in Itogon, Benguet and Naga City, Cebu.
“We are calling on all housing agencies led by the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council to suspend all housing projects situated in geo-hazard areas to prevent the unfortunate loss of lives, limb and property in the event natural disasters strike on areas already deemed as geo-hazard areas by our disaster agencies,” Terry Ridon, a former lawmaker and convener of Infrawatch PH, said.
Ridon, also a former urban poor chief of President Duterte, also bared he was privy to the construction of some housing projects undertaken in the past in risk areas but whose implementation were not suspended.
“One example is the Social Housing Finance Corp. housing project in Valenzuela, which was recently suspended by the new SHFC board due to issues related to flooding and liquefaction,” he said.
Ridon said the previous SHFC board approved the project before 2016 despite adverse geo-hazard findings made by environment agencies.
“Another is a National Housing Authority project in Compostela Valley, which the previous NHA board approved [within] a landslide-prone relocation site for survivors of Typhoon Pablo in 2012,” Ridon added.
Ridon recalled that he participated in meetings of housing agencies as then head of the Presidential Commission on Urban Poor chief and had known of projects situated in geo-hazard areas, adding several projects were allowed to proceed pending the implementation of engineering solutions to confront geo-hazard issues such as flooding.
“It should be noted that not all geo-hazard issues can be resolved by engineering solutions, particularly areas prone to landslide and liquefaction,” he said.
Search continues
Chief Insp. Roderick Ylan Gonzales, chief of police of Naga City, reported to Albayalde that 49 bodies have been pulled from the landslide as of 9 a.m. on Monday, and retrieval teams were continuing their search for bodies and even survivors.
The police chief said he was personally supervising the operation along with Councilor Junjie Cruz, chairman of the city disaster-risk reduction and management council, and other officials.
At least 10 people were also injured, and some of them are still confined in hospital.
A separate report from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said the landslide totally damaged 57 houses, while more than 4,000 individuals were also affected.
It also listed 29 dead, seven injured and 57 still missing.
The city government of Naga has declared a state of calamity.
Solutions
Ridon said that, among areas prone to landslide and liquefaction, engineering solutions may be insufficient to address inherent problems existing in such sites, Ridon said.
After the landslides in Itogon and Naga, he said, housing agencies should “absolutely take no chances in allowing socialized housing projects to proceed in geo-hazard areas.”
“Our housing agencies should find alternative sites for socialized housing, if several projects are found to be located in geo-hazard areas. If costs for land acquisition will rise due to alternative sites, we are certain the President and Congress will heed requests for higher subsidies if only to ensure the safety of our families,” Ridon said.
He said, however, that NHA General Manager Marcelino Escalada Jr. had a committed to all affected families that they will be transferred to safer housing resettlement sites.
“Moving forward, our housing agencies should take a second look at all the projects in their pipeline, and immediately suspend, if not cancel, all pending projects situated in danger areas. We cannot take chances on the lives of our marginalized families,” Ridon said.