80 dead as landslides hit Philippines

Landslides and floods have killed about 80 people in the southern and central Philippines, following several days of rain, officials said today.

Health chiefs in Southern Leyte province in the central Philippines reported that landslides during heavy rains last night killed 50 people in San Francisco town and 20 in Liloan town, said Governor Rosette Lerias.

“There are landslides all over the province,” she said, adding that 80 houses were reported to have been buried in the San Francisco landslides. “It has been raining for several days and the ground has become so saturated.”

Allen Olayvar, co-ordinator of the Office of Civil Defence in Southern Leyte, said local officials received mobile phone text messages early today reporting the casualties.

“Emergency!” one text message said. “There are so many dead from landslide here … Please inform the governor to get help here. There are no medicines at the [Regional Health Unit].”

Lorene Sia, duty officer at the regional civil defence office in Butuan city on the southern island of Mindanao, said nine people, including two infants and a five-year-old girl, were killed in separate landslides in Surigao city. No other details were immediately available.

Roads to San Francisco were blocked by landslides, and disaster officers planned to go to the town by boat later today, Olayvar said.

Several buses bound for a port in Liloan have also been stranded, he added.

The rains began to pour on Monday over eastern parts of the central Philippines and Mindanao.