Not another tragedy!

This was the first reaction I had at the very moment I learnt of the news. Last Friday, Guinsaugon, a village in the town of St. Bernard, Southern Leyte was said to be literally erased from the face of the earth (like the demolition of the “shabu flea market” in Pasig?).

Estimates of about 1,500 people were buried by an enormous landslide which is said to be caused by continuous rainfall.

This is another horrendous landslide-caused (read as wanton denudation of the forest due to logging activities) tragedy that has besieged Leyte for at least the 3rd time in the last two decades. Remember Ormoc in 1991, where at least 6,000 people were buried alive? Or flashback just three years ago, when the town of San Francisco, was also perished by a landslide killing 133 people? 

Blame it on the rain?

At about 10 a.m., without any warning, the avalanche of mud and rocks from the mountain engulfed the whole village of between 2,000 and 3,000 people, including the Guinsaugon Elementary School. Up to the moment, it was not clear how many were buried in the schoolhouse. This was followed by a mild 2.6 magnitude tremor half an hour later. What made matters worst was that the rescue efforts were made difficult because of the deep and unstable (waist-deep, according to reports) mud.

It is funny outrageous that a provincial government official (Pontius Pilate?) had readily denied that deforestation caused by illegal logging may have contributed to the disaster. Too many people died and just blame it on the rain?

According to local officials and eyewitnesses the area was well forested, and the governor's office reported that deforestation was not the causal factor this time, despite having admitted that was the case in a devastating landslide in Leyte in December 2003. Agay la tan.

Congressman Roger Mercado of Southern Leyte, however has blamed the disaster, to some extent, on mining and logging in the area three decades ago. Dave Petley, a professor at the International Landslide Centre, Durham University commented that it was a dangerous mix (mining and logging) even though the mining and logging activities happened 30 years ago. Experts agree that heavy and continuous rain was the immediate cause or the trigger. And blame the heavy torrent on La Nina - a natural cyclical meteorological phenomenon which strikes South East Asia in certain years, bringing heavy rainfall.

The Philippine Mines and Geosciences Bureau launched a geo-hazard mapping project on southern Leyte following a series of landslides in the adjacent tiny island of Panaon that claimed about 200 lives in December 2003. Their location on the edge of the highly unstable undersea Philippine Trench means the bedrock of southern Leyte and the northeast coast of the major southern island of Mindanao are "badly broken or fragmented" and are "prone to weathering and erosion," the study found.

On a good note, massive rescue and relief efforts are being undertaken by our government (a respite from the political bickering) and the kindhearted private sector- including the survivors (still covered in mud). Worldwide help came immediately too. In Geneva, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said it had released the equivalent of $152,000 to provide assistance to the ravaged village. The US military according to the US embassy, is diverting a naval vessel taking part in war games in the Philippines to help the landslide victims.

This is another painful lesson we have to learn. At the expense of many lives…

As a nation, we should contribute what we could- not just immediate aid (financial or in kind) but also a proactive commitment to end wanton destruction of forests.

And a offer a prayer for the dead and the hapless survivors. Silence