Philippine villages at risk of landslides forcibly evacuated

The extent of a massive landslide is seen in Naga, central Philippines. Photo / AP

Philippine troops and police forcibly evacuated residents of five villages vulnerable to landslides after the collapse of a mountainside buried dozens of homes and killed at least 22 people in a central region.

Some residents left on their own, but the bulk of more than 1200 people in villages adjacent or near the landslide-hit area were forcibly moved by authorities, police Chief Superintendent Debold Sinas said yesterday.

Survivors heard a thunderous roar, crashing and banging when the mountainside fell onto rural houses and shanties in two villages in Naga city on Thursday. Some trapped in the sludge managed to send text messages pleading for help but the messages stopped within a few hours.

Distraught relatives begged for more backhoes to be brought to the mound of earth and debris, where they hoped loved ones could be pulled out alive, but there were far too few machines to dig for the dozens of people missing.

Resident Nimrod Parba said one of his trapped relatives called for help about three hours after the landslide hit, entombing 13 of his kin.

"They are still under the rubble, they are still there. They are covered in shallow earth, we need a backhoe," Parba said.

A man embracing a child in a house was dug out by rescuers using a backhoe in a poignant scene witnessed by journalists.

Authorities have limited the number of rescuers and other people inside the stricken villages, fearing heavy rains on the loose and soaked ground could cause new slides.

Thursday's landslide also covered part of a river, prompting officials to order a temporary canal to be dug.

About 270 government troops and policemen were deployed to prevent residents from returning to high-risk villages, Sinas said.

President Rodrigo Duterte was to visit Naga city in Cebu province yesterday as he faces his latest crisis.

The landslide in the central region occurred as parts of the far northern Philippines deal with damage from a typhoon that hit last weekend. At least 95 people were killed and more than 50 are missing, many in the gold-mining town of Itogon in the north where landslides hit houses and a chapel where people had gathered in the storm.

Cebu province was not directly hit by Typhoon Mangkhut but the storm intensified the seasonal monsoon rains that normally fall in tropical Asia.

It's not clear what set off the landslide, but some residents blamed limestone quarries, which they suspect may have caused cracks in the mountainside facing their villages.

The Philippines is one of the world's most disaster-prone countries.

- AP