Habagat claims 3 lives in Benguet

BAGUIO, Philippines – Three persons – a man and two women – were killed in different parts of Benguet as the Cordillera remained at risk of landslides and flooding with torrential rains and wind raging for the past 4 days spawned by the southwest monsoon or habagat. 

Tuba, Benguet, police was able to locate the body of a woman thought to be that of 19-year-old Krystel Martin who apparently fell on an open-box culvert at Badiwan, Marcos Highway in front of Ever Lodge. 

At 10 am Tuesday, August 14, the Tuba police found Martin, who came from Samar but was residing at Loakan, Baguio City, along the bank of Agaynec River in Poblacion, Tuba. 

According to police, Martin had an argument with her partner, a 46-year-old resident from Binalonan, Pangasinan, and decided to walk up from the lodge to the road at about 8 pm last Monday, August 13. On her way up, she lost her balance and fell into the canal which has turned into a gushing rivulet. 

This was almost in the same area and the same manner that happened to Mencio Abol Amitem Friday night, August 10. The 57-year-old driver was carrying boxes of groceries when he fell into the canal also along Marcos Highway. His body has yet to be found. 

Last Monday at 1 pm, Luvina Julian Kidkid, the barangay secretary of Bedbed, Mankayan, was with her companions clearing the footpath towards their area when a massive landslide occurred.

Her companions were able to run but Kidkid was caught by the landslide. Mankayan police said that they have not yet found her body. – Rappler.com