BAGUIO CITY– The search and retrieval operation in Natonin, Mountain Province to find 13 still missing bodies will continue, the mayor said on Friday.
“Ongoing. We are not stopping the search and retrieval operation,” said Mayor Mateo Chiyawan in a telephone interview with the Philippine News Agency (PNA).
“We are still doing our best in coordination with line agencies especially for the provisions needed by the operatives,” he added.
He revealed that one body was recovered Friday morning. “Kabirbiruk mi maysa (We just found one).”
The body remains to be unidentified but retrievers believe it belonged to a woman.
If confirmed, the four women who went missing after Typhoon “Rosita” (Yutu) battered the town and washed-away the building of the Department of Public Works and Highways Mountain Province second engineering district (DPWH-MPSDEO) in Barangay Banawel, Natonin, would be all accounted for.
“This may be the one from Besao,” Chiyawan said.
Based on the list of names of missing persons, the mayor could be referring to Esther Galong of Besao town in Mountain Province, the project engineer doing the construction for the expansion of the DPWH building, who went missing when the structure was engulfed by the landslide.
The mayor added that they have opted to have a “Day of Mourning” Friday but postponed it upon the request of the people of Besao and their volunteers– composed of 86 including the mayor, vice mayor and other municipal officials.
“Ag day of mourning kami kuma nga ditoy kuna mi agngilin ngem kuna dagitoy taga Besao to give them 2 to 3 days nga ipapass nga ag massive mapping (We were supposed to have a day of mourning as what we call it here but the people from Besao asked that they be given two to three days to do a massive mapping [of the area being searched]),” the mayor said.
He said that the mayors of Aguinaldo and Mayoyao towns, both in Ifugao, as well as Besao and their rescue teams remain at the site.
Lawyer Eduard Chumawar, head of the Mountain Province Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (PDRRMC), in a text message sent to the Philippine Information Agency Cordillera (PIA-CAR), said that personnel are mainly from the PNP and the BFP assigned in the province and the municipality. Also joining them are relatives and members of the community in Natonin.
“The regional and other national agencies have already pulled out,” he said.
Scouring ground zero
Chiyawan clarified that the operatives, now composed of the local policemen from Natonin and Paracelis, volunteers, local government personnel and those from other provinces of the region are still scouring the area below the “ground zero”.
He said the operation “is ongoing but concentrated”, after personnel from the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and other operatives from the national level have pulled out.
He added that volunteers who would still like to help in the search and retrieval operation are most welcome.
He said that a number of the operatives were about 500 meters away from ground zero, hoping to find something.
“Magna magna da laeng along river banks, baka adda naianud idi nagtudu nga mabirukan tayo habang magmagna da (they are walking on the river banks hoping that a body was washed toward it when it rained and they can find something while walking),” the mayor said.
In a post assessment and evaluation of all search and retrieval operation groups at 5:30 p.m. on November 8, the Incident Command Post decided to terminate the search and retrieval under the National and Regional levels effective 6 p.m. of November 8.
They set the final meeting with the relatives of the casualties Friday morning for the official turnover of the search and retrieval operation to the provincial and local government unit of Natonin, headed by Chiyawan. **PNA