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By RAFFY TIMA, GMA News
November 12, 2018
JR AMON WAS A MERE 20 METERS away from the Department of Public Works and Highways´ 2nd Engineering District Office in Natonin, Mountain Province, when he saw what he could only describe as a scene straight out of a movie.
A boulder the size of a small car came tumbling down the mountain, heading directly toward the four-story building he had come out of minutes before.
It happaned at about 4:30 p.m. on October 30, a date he says he will never forget.
JR was a laborer, a member of a construction firm working on an extension of the DPWH building in Barangay Banawel, in the outskirts of the town.
All work came to a halt as they waited for Typhoon Rosita to pass. Days prior, local authorities have already warned that Rosita will be a strong typhoon. JR and his co-workers decided it will be safer to stay at the building rather than their bunk house.
Being a huge structure, the DPWH office was also the refuge of choice for laborers from other laborers from another construction firm working on another part of the building.
Several civilians from four neighboring houses also chose to stay at the building.
On that fateful day, JR decided to go out of the building to help a neighboring store owner, who was having trouble dealing with rainwater that was going inside her store. That small moment of neighborly kindness ended up saving his life.
JR watched as the steady stream of water from the mountain in front of the building slowly turned murky. Then came small loose rocks, followed by bigger ones. All these started piling up outside the DPWH building, with some water going into the first floor.
A fellow laborer helping him out in the store realized something was wrong and headed back to the building.
At that same instance, another laborer inside the DPWH office, alarmed at the increasing rumble of rocks outside, decided to run out.
The two men crossed paths, neither knowing that one was running to his safety, the other to his death.
JR saw it all.
Seconds later, he heard what he described as an explosion, followed by the crashing sound of the car-sized boulder.
It hit right between the main building and the annex structure that they were working on, the impact causing the DPWH building to split in two.
Then came the wall of mud that swept away what remained of the building complex.
ANOTHER SURVIVOR TELLS a similar story.
Ryan Polic-ew was outside the DPWH building when the boulder hit.
He was so close he could hear the cries for help of those inside the building while it was being swept away.
The last time he saw his brother, a fellow security guard, he was still inside.
He saw two men running out just as the boulder hit, but the dust and smoke obscured his view.
When the smoke settled, his brother was standing right next to him.
It was the tightest hug they´ve ever done, but the other security guard was nowhere to be found.
In a matter of seconds, the whole DPWH building complex was gone. So were four other houses that used to stand nearby.
The highway in front of the building was likewise gone, buried in a two-story thick mix of mud, stone, tree trunks, and branches.
It had just happened at past 5 in the afternoon. In less than half an hour, the whole landscape changed. Their whole lives changed.
HAVING HEARD OF THE INCIDENT at Barangay Banawel, a group of young men including several employees of the DPWH Natonin office immediately headed for the landslide area.
It was getting dark, but they knew they were the only ones near enough to help.
From the town proper, the DPWH office is about three kilometers away.
Among the rescuers was Florencio Caison, a security guard at the DPWH office. He was off duty at that time. Mike Saleo-on, a friend, was with him.
Florencio was trailing behind Mike, half-running going down the paved road. They were already halfway toward the DPWH building when out of the corner of his eye, Florencio saw small rocks falling from the steep side of the mountain to his left.
He paused. Mike continued.
In a split second, an avalanche of mud and stone came down, sweeping Mike off his feet. They were less than five meters apart, but Florencio couldn’t do anything to help.
It was so fast and frightening, Florencio recalls, that they immediately turned back and ran as fast as they can, fearful the next landslide would hit them, all the while shouting Mike's name. He never answered.
His body was found the next day.
FLORENCIO WOULD LATER JOIN other volunteers from Natonin and began looking for possible survivors at the DPWH office — or what is left of it.
The basement was intact, but they found no one.
While others followed the debris field going down the mountain, Florencio decided to go up toward the main road.
He thought he heard a faint sound in that direction.
Looking around, he saw a tube jutting from the side of the mountain. It was moving.
It was coming out of a drainage pipe, the same direction he thought he heard a sound.
As he neared, he shouted if anyone was inside. It was a faint answer, but he heard it loud and clear. A survivor.
Digging frantically with his shovel, Florencio shouted to other rescuers for help.
Moments later, Joventino Lammawen, also a security guard at the DPWH emerged from what he thought would be his tomb.
He was the same man running with Ryan Polic-ew´s brother when the landslide hit. A slower runner, he decided to jump and quickly clambered up the drainage pipe.
He spent a night and a day inside, cold, wet and his air depleting by the hour. He was using the tube to breathe.
Florencio says his fellow security guard was in such a state of shock that he wanted to run as soon as he was freed from the rubble.
It was a happy moment for the volunteer rescuers as they ended a whole day of digging.
THAT SAME NIGHT, we arrived after walking for eight hours.
The place was eerily quite. Only the crickets and the sound of rushing water from numerous streams near the landslide area can be heard.
We were greeted by the police officer in charge in Natonin.
Asked why there were no ongoing rescue operation considering a survivor was found alive hours before we arrived, Insp. Eduardo Bigwel, Jr. says the volunteer rescuers had to rest. They’ve been digging the whole day. It has also become too dangerous to dig at night, he tells us.
A contingent of PNP personnel from neighboring Kalinga Province arrived ahead of us. But with neither equipment nor powerful lights, the digging had to wait until the next day.
Most of the rescuers were still on their way, slowed down by more than 40 landslides we also had to navigate to reach ground zero.
Joventino Lammawen was the last person rescued alive.
The survivors JR, Ryan, and Florencio all wondered how such a monstrous thing could happen. Nearly two weeks after the incident, at least 18 bodies have been recovered from the wreckage, with more still missing.
Natonin is mountainous, but it is heavily forested. There is no mining in the area. They’ve had far bigger storms pass through the place but nothing happened.
Why now? they ask me. I had no answer.
JR admits he is afraid to go back to their place in Ifugao. He says it is also a mountainous forested area.
Ryan, on the other hand, says, he is thankful he and his brother survived.
Florencio, for his part, says the image of Mike being swept away by the landslide might take a while to forget.
But he is glad he survived and happy he was able to save another person’s life.
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