Local News: 400 Soldiers, Reservists, CAFGUs, Lead Retrieval Ops in Oriental Negros

Col. Francisco Patrimonio, commanding officer, 302nd Infantry Brigade, Philippine Army has dispatched 400 soldiers, CAFGUs and reservists from the 11th Infantry Battalion, 79th Infantry Battalion, 32nd Reconnaissance Company, CAFGUs from 12th Infantry Battalion and Reservist personnel from 1st Negros Oriental Ready Reserve Battalion of 703rd Community Defense Center to conduct the search, rescue and retrieval operations in different places of Negros Oriental affected by the 6.9 magnitude earthquake that hit the province at around 11:45 a.m., Monday.

The earthquakes resulted to road cracks, damaged bridges along national road, collapse of some buildings and landslides. Severely affected were Guihulngan City and Municipalities of La Libertad and Jimalalud. Likewise, the Tinayunan Bridge in Guihulngan City, Martillo Bridge in La Libertad and Pangaluan Bridge in Jimalalud were damaged and still not passable as of this report.

Based on the report of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council as of 2:30 P.M. of February 7, 22 persons were confirmed dead broken down into: 12 persons in Guihulngan City, 3 persons in Jimalalud, 3 in Bindoy, 3 in Tayasan and 1 in Bais City. The number of dead was based on the actual body count. Likewise, 82 persons were still missing and 70 families were affected in two different landslides at Barangay Planas, Guihulngan City and in Barangay Solonggon in La Libertad.

Almost 11, 576 families were affected by the earthquake, 34 houses were totally damaged and 89 partially damaged. It is estimated that almost P632 million cost of damage to infrastructures were brought by the earthquake.

Col. Patrimonio said, the soldiers including reservists and CAFGUs were deployed in the severely affected areas and in the landslide areas to conduct search, rescue and retrieval operations to locate the missing persons.

Relief operations are also ongoing with a navy vessel having arrived in Amlan and a coastguard vessel in Dumaguete pier to ferry relief goods donated by other provinces to Guihulngan City for distribution to people in the isolated and affected areas needing basic survival support to alleviate their living condition.* (EBColmo)