DAVAO CITY (September 18) — President Duterte on Monday condoled with the bereaved families of landslide victims in Benguet at the Provincial Governors Office Conference Hall.
The families lost their loved ones during the landslides in Baguio City, Ucab, and Itogon, when Typhoon ‘Ompong’ hit their areas.
As of Monday afternoon, the confirmed death toll across the northern Philippines, reached 65 and was expected to rise further given the number of missing.
Members of the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces together with volunteers used shovels and bare hands to dig through mounds of rocky soil in the northern Philippine mountain town of Itogon, where 11 bodies have been pulled from the rubble and dozens more may still be trapped after a landslide buried an emergency shelter.
Retrieval operations is still ongoing.
Duterte told the families “Ang Diyos lang talaga ang makasagot ng lahat ng tanong na ito. Even if I make an attempt to blame somebody, to blame the weather, or maybe to blame the negligence of others, it won’t really help anymore.”
He advised the families to accept the tragic death of their loved one’s “Ang sikreto dito I think is just the acceptance, hindi ‘yung namatay, tapos na ‘yun eh. That we are born and we will die. Sa ayaw man natin at sa hindi… now, tomorrow, our appointment with… our earthly existence is handed by one creator.”
Aside from the assistance that the Department of Social Welfare and Development will provide them, Duterte said he will accommodate all the funeral expenses.
Duterte assured the families that the government will continue its search and retrieval operations.
Most of the victims worked in an abandoned mining site in Itogon when Typhoon Ompong (international name Mangkhut) hit their areas.-Editha Z, Caduaya/NewsLine.ph
