(Eagle News) — The death toll from the landslide in Barangay Ucab, Itogon, Benguet has reached to 113, the mayor of the mining town of Itogon, Benguet said in an interview.
Itogon Mayor Victorio Palangdan said that the although authorities continue to conduct rescue and retrieval operations in the landslide area, the chance of retrieving more survivors have lowered since it has been almost two weeks since the landslide happened on September 15 at the height of Typhoon Ompong’s rains.
Palagdan however assured that retrieval operation will continue until they found all the missing victims of the landslide in accordance with the directive of President Rodrigo Duterte.
The official said there are still 19 persons who are still missing.
Palangdan also asked the different agencies of the government to help the affected residents who work in the more than 10,000 registered small-scale mining companies.
He said that the livelihood of these small-scale miners will be affected if small-scale mining operations in the area will be prohibited.
“Yun po ang malaking problema, talagang mawawalan ng kabuhayan yung small-scale miners. Dito lang sa Itogon, nasa 10,154 ang registered small scale miners. Yun ang pinaghahandaan namin ngayon, na magtulungan. Tulungan ang mga ahensya ng gobyerno para mabigyan sila ng alternative source of income,” Palangdan said in an interview in Net 25’s Agila Balita Alas Dose.