83 families evicted from landslide-prone areas in ComVal

A total of 83 families have been forced by authorities to leave their homes located in landslide-prone areas in Compostela Valley, where 42 people were killed in a landslide earlier this month, the head of the country’s disaster reduction body said Sunday.   National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) executive director Benito Ramos said the evictees have already been brought to temporary shelters in Pantukan town.   He added that militiamen have already been assigned to the landslide-prone areas to make sure that the evicted residents do not return to their original homes located in mining communities.   “[The residents] may return to the area if there are no guards… They [the militiamen] will patrol the area during the day to ensure no one returns,” Ramos said.   A total of 42 people were killed in a landslide at a gold panning community in Barangay Napnapan in Pantukan town last January 4.   Ramos said most of the evictees, who came from distant provinces such as Mountain Province, Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental, were asked to return to their hometowns and never return to the landslide-prone areas.   He also said search-and-retrieval operations are still ongoing at the site of the landslide to find the more than 40 people who remain missing due to the incident. — Andreo C. Calonzo/KBK, GMA News