DAVAO ORIENTAL, Philippines – Search and rescue teams retrieved on Thursday afternoon, December 29, the body of 62-year-old farmer Restituto Paglanson, among four persons believed buried by a landslide in the mining village of Don Salvador Lopez, Mati City.

At least a hundred of rescuers from the Philippine National Police, the Philippine Army, and provincial and city disaster offices searched on Thursday until around 6 pm for three other persons, all relatives of Paglanson, the president of the sub-village of Sanghay.

The family is part of the Mandaya tribal group living in the area.

The landslide happened after a let-up on Thursday morning of days of heavy rain that caused flash floods and other landslides in Mati, the capital of Davao Oriental province.

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CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines — Office of Civil Defense (OCD) Administrator Raymundo Ferrer was supervising government relief operations in Northern Mindanao on Thursday, December 29 when news of his removal broke.

Ferrer, who was in Misamis Occidental, had to leave to attend the turnover ceremony at the Department of National Defense at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City.

Former Bureau of Customs executive Ariel Nepomuceno took over Ferrer’s post.

The relief of Ferrer did not sit well among the non-government organizations and civic clubs who have already coordinated their relief operations with the OCD in Misamis Occidental.

“The relief order was untimely because Ferrer have been doing a good job coordinating with us. Sayang,” Charlito Manlupig, president of the Balay Mindanao Foundation Inc., said.

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CAGAYAN DE ORO, Philippines – Oroquieta City in Misamis Occidental ordered its commercial district closed on Tuesday, December 27 as a second day of floodwaters breaching the banks of the Layawan River cut a swathe of destruction.

“The river rose by more than four feet and resulted in the closing down of the commercial district of Oroquieta City,” Misamis Occidental Governor Henry Oaminal said.

The death toll from floods caused by the shear line affecting a wide area of Mindanao, the Visayas, and Bicol rose to at least 18 with several persons still reported missing. A shear line is the point where warm air and cold air meet, and it often brings heavy rains.

In various provinces, local government officials urged flood evacuees – at least 20,000 families as of Tuesday noon – to stay put as rains are expected to continue until the New Year.

The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) on Tuesday morning said the shear line will continue to dump more rains over Palawan, Visayas and Mindanao in the following days.

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DAVAO ORIENTAL, Philippines — A serpent eagle that swooped in to snatch viands for sale in a small food store in Mati City on Tuesday, December 27 has been turned over to the City Environment and Natural Resources Office, police said.

Mati City police desk officer, staff sergeant Ireneo Repaso said Felix Galindo, owner of the food store near the police station in Purok Fair View Riverside, Barangay Sentral, turned over the eagle around 11 am after he caught the bird trying to snatch some of his wares.

Galindo said the juvenile serpent eagle was “obviously starving” and other residents said it was not the first time an eagle came looking for food in the community.

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The commercial district of Oroquieta City was ordered closed mid morning of Tuesday, December 27, as continuing heavy rain raised the level of Layawan River by four feet, almost to the level of its main bridge. 

“The water is still rising as of this moment,” Misamis Occidental Governor Henry Oaminal said.

The governor added that communication lines are down in Oroquieta, and the towns Oaminal of Aloran, Clarin, Tudela, and Jimenez.

The Coast Guard continued to evacuate residents to prevent additional loss of lives. 

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) office in Cagayan de Oro expressed worry about the low turnout of people registering as new voters in Northern Mindanao’s capital city.

At the rate things are moving, it’s either the Comelec office in Cagayan de Oro would fall short of its estimated 19,000 target population or its workers would end up getting overwhelmed by applicants rushing to beat the deadline on the last day of registration.

Cagayan de Oro elections officer Ramil Acol raised concerns as he noted that only an average of 100 people had been registering daily in the city ahead of the 2023 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections since the registration period started on December 12.

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A 15-year-old high school student from Misamis Oriental delivered the first gold medal in long jump for his province in the 2022 Batang Pinoy National Championships at the Quirino Stadium in Vigan City, Ilocos Sur, on Sunday, December 18.

It was the first gold for the Misamis Oriental team, and the second for Mindanao during the week-long national sports event in Ilocos Sur for athletes 15 years and younger.

For long jump gold medalist Marc Angelo Cabiluna, a student of the Villanueva National High School in Misamis Oriental, his Ilocos Sur feat was his ticket to becoming a member of the Philippines national athletics team.

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Mati City fisherman Felixberto Caponahan said he filled out a form in April to become a member of a group that promised aid the moment then-presidential candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr. wins and assumes office.

Eight months later, Caponohan is still hoping that the JTS-JE group would fulfill its promise to deliver the livelihood aid it promised from Marcos in exchange for his P300 membership fee.

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The Philippine National Police (PNP) in the Davao Region on Thursday, December 15, ordered a regionwide investigation into groups that allegedly recruited and collected fees from people with a promise that they would get shares of the Marcos family wealth.

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