All Dead Victims Of Masara Landslide Identified

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 13 July) – All 88 casualties of the landslide in Barangay Masara in Maco, Davao de Oro have been identified and the municipal government had turned over the remains of the last eight of the 88 victims of the tragedy on July 5, a day short of five months after the tragedy that wiped out the entire village last February 6.

The turnover came 21 weeks and three days after the incident, with families able to bury their dead at the Maco Public Cemetery, the Management of the Dead and Missing Cluster of the Regional Disaster RRMC told MindaNews. 

Lea Añora, head of the Department of the Interior and Local Government – Region 11’s Management of the Dead and the Missing (DILG-MDM) cluster, shared the full list of names to MindaNews in a lunchtime interview at the Park Inn by Radisson, last July 12.

Investigators confirmed the identities of Leo B. Granaderos, Joesel V. Retiza, Romeo P. Pepito Jr., Edgar Geed Espinosa, Jerald Lorica, Roy C. Endrina, and Jerold L. Dayaday, all males, and Kristine Rose R. Cerenio, female.

MindaNews could not yet confirm the ages of the eight casualties, as the latest names in the documentation were yet to be consolidated. 

However, Añora said she was confident the investigation into the dead and missing was already “case closed.” 

Lorica was among the last members of the Raganet family, which lost 13 to the landslide, to be found and identified. In an interview with Nenita Raganet last February, Lorica was identified as nine-year-old boy Gerald. 

Gerald and his entire family of six was swept by the landslide. 

The name Cristin Joy matches the name of the missing daughter of Joey Sereño, whose family was also killed by the landslide. The spelling of the surname as Sereño, as opposed to MDM’s Cerenio, was based on an interview with the widower during the burial rites last February 14. 

With the eight bodies already found, the MDM concluded that everyone from the landslide was already accounted for.

Dr. Charina Labrador, NBI medico legal officer, said in a letter dated June 26 and sent on the same day to Maco Mayor Arthur Carlos Voltaire Rimando that the NBI’s Disaster Victim Identification Division has positively identified the last of the remains of the final eight.

Añora said the families received the remains of their loved ones after 10 days of social preparation, where government representatives assisted in helping out relatives who have been grieving since the night of the incident.

88, not 98

The number of victims has been trimmed to 88, from an initial list of 99 dead and 8 missing.

The total number of 99 dead was first trimmed to 98 when investigators from the NBI found out that two of the located body parts belonged to one person, through a DNA matching.

Until that time, the number 98 was a maximum figure based on the number of cadavers and body parts found onsite. At that point, government agencies were still waiting for blotters of more missing individuals to surface from police stations nearby. 

The initial list, which was previously not released to the media but recorded internally by the local government and investigators, included 99 confirmed and identified bodies, alongside 18 different body parts.

In its earlier release to the media, the MDM could not yet determine the identity of 18 body parts found onsite, aside from the others already identified from ground zero.

Through DNA testing, the rest of the 18 body parts were eventually determined to belong to the identified cadavers, reducing the number of confirmed and identified bodies to 80, which left 8 missing.

Last July 1, Rimando told reporters from MindaNews that the local government unit would provide them with the list, but officials from other departments did not issue the documents without a written instruction from the mayor first.

MindaNews visited the relocation camps in Elizalde and Malamodao last July 1 to check on the conditions of the residents there.

Last July 10, MindaNews returned to Kampo Dos to ask about the conditions of children from both camps, who were undergoing psychosocial therapy and counseling through a partnership between Apex Mining and a non-government organization (see related story).

While most of the cadavers and body parts have been reconciled and identified, Añora said there were a few remaining mysteries that further forensic investigations could solve.

For example, two separate body parts identified as LM-PM-24 45 and LM-PM-24 50 could possibly belong to the same person.

Initial findings show that the two sets of body parts were upper and lower extremities, but initial tests could not match their DNA. Investigators are still conducting tests, as of this story’s posting.

Naming the dead

Añora said the NBI determines the identity of casualties through one of three forensic tests.

If the cadaver is fresh, it is possible to determine the fingerprint of any body part found with hands or fingers.

Dental records could also provide answers to identity. Apex Mining’s records helped determine the identities of its employees and those of contractor MSGSI.

If the body is far too decomposed, families are asked whether they consent to the collection of DNA, through bone samples that are tagged from each of the bodies that are still unidentified. The DNA is preserved in the NBI’s head office, and matched with the samples collected from the bodies found at ground zero.

The investigators then reconcile this data with police blotters and available information from the funeral homes in Davao de Oro handling the remains.

At some point during the aftermath of the disaster, officials had to bury unidentified bodies in temporary graves, until their identities could be ascertained.

The youngest casualties are Brent Joseph Pillones and Chester Prime Raganet Cerenio, both one-year-old boys.

Aside from the two, there are 14 other minors:

The ages of the eight who were found have not been released. (MindaNews will update this story once the information becomes available.)

The rest of the casualties were listed as follows, from youngest to oldest. MindaNews re-spelled some names based on its own online search. This list will be updated once more official documents come in:

MindaNews will update this story once the full details of the deceased are complete and finalized. The DILG’s MDM said it will provide this data soon. (Yas D. Ocampo/MindaNews)