By Rachel Magday

 

NUEVA VIZVAYA, Philippines — The death toll in Nueva Vizcaya from Super Typhoon Uwan rose to four after rescuers on Tuesday morning recovered the body of a 10-year-old boy in Kasibu who was buried by a landslide.

The child’s 12-year-old sibling survived the incident in Barangay Alloy. An initial police report said the brothers were asleep when the slope gave way. Responders from the Bureau of Fire Protection, the Philippine National Police and the Kasibu Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office launched a rescue but were able to save only the older child; the younger was declared dead on arrival.

Kasibu police said the site was remote, reachable only after about an hour of trekking, with no mobile phone or internet signal. The town remains isolated at all entry and exit points because of multiple landslides, along with downed trees and toppled power poles blocking roads, authorities added.

In a separate incident yesterday afternoon, the body of a man in his 30s was recovered in Barangay Maasin, Quezon town, after he was also buried by a landslide, according to the PNP. Police said the victim’s father traced him to a mountain hut where he had gone to secure belongings as the storm neared; when the son failed to return, the father searched the area and found the structure had been buried.

Last Monday, authorities reported that 5-year-old twins from Barangay Balangabang in Kayapa died in a landslide at the height of the typhoon.