‘Miracle’ rescue gives hope of more survivors

(UPDATE) THE rescue of a child on Friday, nearly 60 hours after a landslide hit a gold-mining village in the southern Philippines, has been hailed as a “miracle” after searchers had given up hope of finding anyone alive.

The girl, whose age has not been disclosed, had been among the more than 100 people missing after the rain-induced landslide hit the village, killing at least 15 people.

She was found as rescuers used their bare hands and shovels to look for survivors in Masara village on southern Mindanao island, disaster agency official Edward Macapili of Davao de Oro province told Agence France-Presse.

“It’s a miracle,” Macapili said, adding that searchers had believed the missing were probably dead.

“That gives hope to the rescuers. A child’s resilience is usually less than that of adults, yet the child survived.”

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Video of a rescuer carrying the crying, mud-caked child in his arms was shared on Facebook.

“We can see in the social media posts that the child did not have any visible injuries,” Macapili said.

He said the girl’s father saw his child before she was taken to a medical facility for a checkup.

The child’s father was quoted as saying that his wife and another daughter were still buried underneath the dirt and mud.

According to reports on the ground, a victim was able to make a call to friends from the area where the child was found, believing that more victims may still be alive.

Mayor Rupert Gonzaga of Mawab town, Davao de Oro, said the status of operations at the landslide remained in search and rescue mode.

Three more bodies recovered

Meanwhile, three more bodies — two males and a female — were recovered with the help of a highly trained dog of the Philippine Coast Guard K9 Search and Rescue Unit.

According to the Coast Guard District Southeastern Mindanao, Coast Guard Working Dog (CGWD) Appa also located a body part of an unidentified individual during the ongoing search and retrieval operations.

The CGWD said Appa’s keen sense of smell and agility in traversing the terrain have been invaluable in their operations.

It said that, as the retrieval and search and rescue operations continue, Appa remains an essential part of the Coast Guard’s efforts.

Most of those believed to have been buried in the landslide are workers of Apex Mining Corp., who were about to head home on board three buses and a jeepney when the landslide struck.

In a statement, Apex Mining said the company was still trying to locate at least 45 workers as of Thursday. At least 62 workers have so far been accounted for.

The landslide that struck Tuesday night killed at least 15 people and injured 31 others, while a hundred remained missing, official figures show.

Searchers were in a race against time and weather to find anyone else alive in the thick mud as rain fell over the area on Friday.

While rescuers were using heavy earth-moving equipment in places, they had to rely on their bare hands and shovels in areas where they believed there were bodies.

Landslides are a frequent hazard across much of the archipelago nation due to the mountainous terrain, heavy rainfall, and widespread deforestation from mining, slash-and-burn farming and illegal logging.

Rain has pounded parts of Mindanao on and off for weeks, triggering dozens of landslides and flooding that have forced tens of thousands of people into emergency shelters.

Massive earthquakes have also destabilized the region in recent months.

Hundreds of families from Masara and four nearby villages have had to evacuate from their homes and shelter in emergency centers for fear of further landslides.

Schools across the municipality have suspended classes.

The area hit by the landslide had been declared a “no build zone” after previous landslides in 2007 and 2008, Macapili said.

“People were asked to leave that place and they were given a resettlement area, but the people are so hard-headed, and they returned,” he said.

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