DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 10 February) – The three buses and a jeepney waiting for workers of Apex Mining Corp. were found buried in the landslide that hit Barangay Masara in Maco, Davao de Oro, the company said.
In a statement sent to MindaNews Saturday, Ma. Teresa Lopez Pacis, Apex Mining assistant vice president for corporate communications, said that another bus had left ground zero for Mawab town before the tragedy struck Tuesday night, February 6.
The three buses and a 36-person-capacity jeepney were waiting to shuttle the Apex employees when the landslide hit, she said.
Debris covered the “terminal,” Pacis said.
As of Wednesday afternoon, February 7, 62 Apex employees had been accounted for and considered safe, while 45 others had not been traced, the company said.
“Nabawasan na yan (The figure is lesser)… but we would rather not announce the numbers. We are, however, pulling all stops to account for our employees who we believe, based on our time keeping, were in that area at the time of the slide,” she said on Facebook Messenger on Saturday.
Apex Mining said the area where the landslide happened is outside its mine site.
But that area is where the buses that ferry company employees wait for their passengers, it said.
As of 12 p.m. Saturday, February 10, the Davao de Oro provincial government announced on its Facebook page that the landslide killed 28 individuals, injured 32 others while 77 persons remain missing.
At 12 p.m. Friday, February 9, the provincial government’s tally was 15 dead, 31 injured and 110 missing.
The company said it had set up an “Apex welfare desk” helpline at the Nueva Iloco National High School in Mawab to assist affected residents on information about their missing loved ones.
According to Pacis, the company would defer to the families of dead employees in announcing the deaths of their loved ones.
“The company is deeply saddened by this tragedy and we can only imagine the pain that the families of the missing and the dead are going through,” Luis R. Sarmiento, Apex Mining president and chief executive officer, said in a separate statement.
Sarmiento said “the company is currently focusing its manpower and resources on fully supporting the provincial government with its relief operations.”
According to Apex Mining, personnel from its emergency response teams have been coordinating with government rescuers and contractors to assist in the search and rescue efforts.
The company lent their heavy equipment and rescue gear to augment local government resources.
Apex added it was providing food packs, drinking water and medical services to the affected communities.
Speaking in an online press conference Saturday morning, Josephine Frasco, head of the Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office (PSWDO) in Davao de Oro, said the landslide affected 1,559 families composed of 5,290 individuals.
The evacuees were located in the following evacuation centers: Andili National High School, Bawani Elementary School, Nueva Iloco Elementary School, Nuevo Iloco National High School, Nueva Visayas Barangay Hall, Nueva Visayas Elementary School, Lorenzo Sarmiento High School, Central Elementary School, Elizalde Quasi Parish, Bucadan Tribal Hall, and Assembly of God.
According to PSWDO data, the Andili National High School houses the most number of evacuees at 259 families or 778 individuals.
The Lorenzo Sarmiento High School houses 735 individuals from 228 families.
There are at least 141 families (540 individuals) at the Nuevo Iloco Elementary School, 158 families (554 individuals) at the Nuevo Iloco National High School, and 80 families (306 individuals) at the Nueva Visayas Barangay Hall.
The rest sought refuge at the Bawani Nueva Visayas Elementary School, and Mawab Central Elementary School.
Outside the government evacuation centers, there are at least 577 families at the Elizalde Quasi Parish, Tribal Hall, and the Assembly of God in Andili. (Yas D. Ocampo / MindaNews)
