- 93 bodies recovered with nine still missing from Masara landslide
THE LOCAL government of Maco officially terminated the search and retrieval operations at ground zero of the Barangay Masara landslide in Maco, Davao de Oro.
Maco Municipal Mayor Arthur Carlos Rimando signed Executive Order 17 on Feb. 22 directing the pull out of all rescuers and assets as the search for bodies ended effective 5 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 22.
Rimando acted on the recommendation of the incident management team, consisting of the Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, Bureau of Fire Protection, Davao de Oro Provincial Police Office, and APEX Mining.
The team recommended the termination considering the “completion of retrieval and debris clearing at ground zero, covering the whole landslide area until its ground level.”
As of 7 p.m. on Feb. 22, the search and retrieval teams recovered 93 bodies with nine still missing.
The search and rescue operation started on Feb. 7 after a landslide buried the mining village on Feb. 6. The incident command ordered a shift to search and retrieval on Feb. 14, after losing all hopes of finding more survivors.
