Families buried alive as Philippines mudslide deaths rise to 119

THE death toll from devastating mudslides in the Philippines rose to at least 119 yesterday, with searchers saying they have dug up the bodies of entire families huddled together in their buried village homes.

Of those killed, at least 102 were in the central province of Southern Leyte.

Casualty figures were expected to rise, because rescuers had still not reached all of the devastated villages.

The National Disaster Coordinating Council also reported four people drowned in floodwaters and 13 were killed in landslides in the northeastern part of the main southern island of Mindanao, close to Leyte, over the weekend.

Close to 20,000 people were evacuated. "We were expecting some Christmas parties, but now all we should do is to make life a little better for those who were left behind," said Leyte governor Rosette Lerias.

Some blamed years of illegal logging for the landslides, triggered by six days of pounding rains and winds in six provinces near the Pacific Ocean, late on Friday to early on Saturday.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said most of the affected areas were near over-logged hills and mountains.

Bad weather, blocked roads and downed power and phone lines hampered efforts to reach survivors.

TV footage showed bodies of a family of five mother, father and their children aged five, 12 and 14 lying in the mud and rain of their collapsed house in Liloan.

Rescuers used ropes to pull out the bodies, which were later washed, wrapped in plastic sheets and buried in wooden coffins.

"We found families huddled together, other families were scattered," a rescuer told ABS-CBN TV.

One survivor, a woman identified as Teresita, said she was buried briefly in her home, where rescuers retrieved the body of her 15-year-old daughter Irene last night. "If my daughter is dead, then I want to die too," the woman said, weeping.

In one rural, candlelit mortuary, wooden coffins bearing pieces of paper with the scrawled names of the dead lay side by side.

In other villages, survivors were opening coffins to see if they contained missing relatives.

The governor said the mountainside village of Punta, with 360 people, was a scene of mayhem.

More than half of its 83 houses were destroyed or were buried under huge mounds of debris and coconut trees.

About 20 typhoons lash the Philippines each year but Friday's landslides were set off by week-long rainstorms caused by low-pressure areas moving from the Pacific toward the archipelago.