WOMAN KILLED IN ROCKSLIDE

Part of landslide-prone Manipis Road in Talisay city closed to traffic

A 43-year-old woman was killed but her husband and two grandchildren survived when rocks crashed down on them from landslide-prone Manipis Road in Talisay City at dawn yesterday.
The four were riding a motorbike about 4:30 a.m. on the way to a fiesta in north Cebu.
Signs and barricades were later put up to warn motorists to watch out for more falling rocks.

Mila Dablo and her husband Eric, 45, were travelling with two grandsons aged 2 and 3.
The rockfall occured as they passed Sitio Campo 5. Mila was thrown off the motorcycle, and killed on the spot.
The husband and the two boys were taken to a hospital for treatment of their injuries.
“It was a miracle that nothing happened to the children. Their grandmother held onto them tightly. That’s why they were unharmed,” said Emmie Cabiluna, barangay captain of Campo 5.
The victims came from the mountain barangay of Sinsin in Cebu City and were passing through the area on their way to Bantayan Island in northern Cebu to attend a fiesta.
Part of Manipis Road was immediately closed to all traffic afterward. Motorists were diverted to the Naga-Uling Road.
Last week’s rains brought by tropical depression Queenie and the 2013 earthquake may have loosened rocks and soil in the mountains in barangay Manipis, said Councilor Danny Caballero, who heads the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office,.

“We immediately conducted clearing operation, but the rockslide continues,” said Caballero. He went to the site to oversee the installation of warning signs and barriers.
Eddie Llamedo, information officer of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in Central Visayas (DENR-7), has asked Talisay City Hall to shut down the five kilometer stretch of the Manipis Road from Campo 4 to Campo 6 which is prone to landslides and rockfalls until safety precautions are in place.
Llamedo said that before Monday’s incident, the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) issued several geohazard threat advisories declaring the Manipis Road a “very critical zone.”
The most recent advisory was issued on Aug. 28, he told Cebu Daily News.
He said rocks in the area are already “weathered” and “highly fractured”.
Enineering interventions are needed such as removal of unstable rocks and overhangs. Slope stabilization measures like retaining walls or riprap are needed.
Talisay can ask the help of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) if they can’t afford to remedy this.
“It’s going to be costly but it will ensure the safety of the motorists if implemented,” he said.
Caballero said he will have the area checked again by the MGB.
He said Talisay City already implemented some of the MGB recommendations such as installing warning signs along the Manipis Road.
Ongoing work for a riprap project is being undertaken by QM Builders, the same contractor extracting limestone in the Ili Rock in Boljoon municipality as part of “slope benching” to reduce the risk of landslides.
Caballero said these measures would help secure road users but this will not stop rockfalls in the area.
“The falling rocks come from the top of the mountain and we can’t put a riprap in the entire area,” he said. /Chief of Reporters Doris C. Bongcac and Correspondents Edison A. delos Angeles and Gabriel C. Bonjoc