Philippine landslide victim's final SMS

Manila: A woman died in a landslide, but not before sending a text message to her boyfriend, following a 6.9 magnitude quake in central Philippines on Monday, two local papers reported.

Rescue efforts were ongoing on Wednesday to find survivors after the earthquake triggered landslides that buried houses in central Philippines.

At nine in the evening, nine hours after the quake hit under the sea 72 kilometres off Dumaguete City in Negros oriental, Cindy Lisondra, 21, sent a message to her boyfriend, the Visayan Daily Star said in a report that was also carried by the Inquirer.

Government soldiers found her body on Tuesday afternoon, under the rubbles of a landslide that buried 42 people in Solonggon village, La Libertad.

After the quake, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) listed 12 members of the Lisondra family, including Cindy, as missing.

The name of her boyfriend and her message to him were not revealed.

Manolo Magalso, 33, was planting in his field when he saw the earth move and covered his home in Solonggan, La Libertad, the same paper said.

“I looked at my house and saw the mountain above it slide and cover my house with my family inside it. I could only watch and cry,” Magalso told the Visayan Daily Star and the Inquirer.

The NDRRMC listed seven members of the Magalso family as missing, including Manolo’s wife Lorna, 32 and their children, John Mark, 8, Jira mae, 6, and Charity Joy, 8 month old.

His two other brothers Primitivo, 47, and Wilson, 45, also survived. It was not explained if they were also at the farm when the quake hit central Philippines.

Primitivo lost two daughters, Sheila May, 16, and Kristel Jane, 15, said the two papers.
Wilson was luckier because his family members were not buried in the landslide.

Sources said that 60 homes were buried in Solonngon, La Libertad.

Twenty nine people were also buried by a landslide at Block two, Planas subvillage, in Guiholngan village, Negros Oriental.

Many of the injured who were brought to Guihulngan hospital could not sleep and were in constant fear of another earthquake.

Many of the survivors also put up tents on the hills.

“We will stay here until we are told that it is safe to go home,” Councilor Carla Villarmente told the two papers.

“We are scared to go back because the tremors continue,” she added.

About 900 aftershocks occurred in the affected areas after the major quake, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said.