Death Toll from Philippine Floods Tops 100
8/7/99
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Title: Death Toll from Philippine Floods Tops 100
Source: Reuters
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: August 7, 1999
MANILA, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Philippine rescue teams pulled out more
bodies from the ruins of a collapsed housing estate in Manila on
Saturday, raising the official death toll from landslides, drowning
and electrocution caused by heavy rains to 107.
Disaster officials said latest reports show there were 37 confirmed
dead and 30 missing from the landslide disaster in the Cherry Hills
subdivision in eastern Manila.
But officials of Manila-based Phillipines-Japan Solidarity Corp
(Philjas), the estate owners, said there were 40 dead and 26 missing
as of 2 p.m. 0600 GMT on Saturday.
Philippine President Joseph Estrada said he had ordered the
suspension of all quarrying operations in Rizal province east of
Manila and called on Congress to pass the total log ban bill to
prevent similar disasters.
``The root cause of this problem is the denudation of our forests.
This is a sin of the past that we are paying for now,'' he said.
Estrada said the government had released 830 million pesos in
calamity funds so far.
The government, which has launched a probe into whether the accident
was caused by natural causes, also said it had placed a moratorium on
the housing loan payments of the victims.
``The important thing is for the victims not to worry about their
payments because there is a moratorium. They should leave their homes
for now and not worry about the payments,'' said Karina David,
chairman of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council.
Rescue teams expressed faint hope of finding survivors in the ruins
of the estate where 25 houses collapsed and 100 were severely
damaged.
``There is one structure which we suspect still has victims inside,''
Brigadier General Nestor Castillo, head of the military-led search
and rescue operations, told Reuters. The one house where there might
be survivors had not completely collapsed.
``There is no stop to this (rescue),'' Castillo said. ``This is a 24-
hour operation because we value time here...This should be quick
especially because some of the bodies are already in a state of
decomposition,'' he added.
But the victims' relatives, most of whom have waited at the scene for
the last three days, are losing hope of finding their loved ones
alive.
``I've given up hope. I know they are already dead. They could not
have survived this,'' Leticia Templo-Banal told Reuters Television as
she pointed to a mangled house in the estate where her 76-year old
mother and two sisters once lived. One sister managed to escape.
The search operation had also been made difficult by the stench of
decomposin bodies at the site.
Thirty five survivors were found hours after the landslide, but no
one has been found alive since.
More than 1.7 million people have been affected by rains and floods,
including 59,000 people still in evacuation centres.
Estimated losses to crops, fisheries and livestock amounted to 373.27
million pesos ($9.5 million), the Department of Agriculture said in
a report. It said some 117,900 hectares of ricelands were flooded.