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Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Tuesday blamed years of deforestation for a deadly landslide that last week sparked a storm that killed more than 130 people across the country.
During an aerial inspection of the widespread devastation caused by Tropical Storm Nargay in southern Maguindanao province, the president said he pointed out to the governor how the mudslides had poured down the exposed slopes of Mount Minandal.
“I’ve noticed that where all the landslides happen, the mountains are bare. That’s the problem,” Marcos Jr. told the governor during a teleconference with key cabinet members on Maguindanao Island to discuss his efforts since June. The worst natural disaster since taking office.
“We have to incorporate tree planting into our flood protection measures,” he said. “We hear it over and over again, but we still cut down trees, so that’s what happens, these landslides.”
The storm’s massive rain clouds overwhelmed swathes of the Philippine archipelago, killing at least 132 people and battering another 2.4 million, including some who had to be rescued from the roofs of flooded houses. More than 6,500 homes were damaged, demolished or swept away by flash floods, according to disaster officials.
The storm made landfall in the eastern Philippines on Saturday and blew into the South China Sea on Sunday.
The hardest-hit area was the village of Kusun in Maguindanao, between the foothills of the Minandal Mountains and Moro Bay.
Officials said Thursday night’s downpours loosened the upper reaches of the mountainside, where boulders and trees flowed, inundating about 5 hectares (12 acres) of the community, which is mostly inhabited by the Teduray group.
Army Major General Roy Galido said 21 bodies, including children, had been found by more than 260 troops, police, firefighters, coast guard and civilian rescuers in excavators, two loaders and sniffers. Pull out under the dog’s support.
Only four people were missing, Galido quoted Kuson village leaders as saying. But other local officials feared the entire family could be buried and no one reported them missing.
Najib Sinarimbo, the interior minister of the Muslim autonomous region run by former separatist guerrillas that includes Maguindanao, told Marcos Jr. that there had been “massive deaths” in Kusun, possibly due to mudslides or flash floods that swept away houses and people. He did not elaborate, but told The Associated Press earlier that between 80 and 100 people may have been swept away by flash floods or hit by mudslides.
A video provided to the media by the Coast Guard on Monday showed some of its officers helping find Cuzon’s buried body by sticking long wooden sticks into the muddy light brown sludge.
Officials told the president that more unpredictable weather complicates disaster preparedness, including in Maguindanao, a mountainous region with swampy plains that has rarely been hit by storms in the past. Former governor Marcos Jr. agreed, saying it was difficult to decide where to deploy rescue boats and other earth-moving equipment as the typhoon approached.
“That’s the problem today, it’s really climate change right now. It’s undeniable,” he said.
About 20 typhoons and storms hit the Philippine Islands each year. It sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, which is much of the Pacific coast, where volcanic eruptions and earthquakes are frequent, making the country one of the most disaster-prone regions in the world.
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