Body buried in landslide found after 22 days

By Jennifer P. Rendon

He was buried following a landslide brought by Typhoon Tino at Janiuay, Iloilo. Twenty-two days later, his body was unearthed by Typhoon Verbena.

The body of 29-year old Tommy Argaña was already in a state of decomposition when found more than three weeks after he was buried alive by a landslide on November 5, as Typhoon Tino pummeled Western Visayas.

Around 100 government personnel have come together to search and, eventually, retrieve his body at the landslide site at the boundary of barangays Quipot and Barasalon.

The retrieval efforts saw the presence of Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (MDRRMO), Bureau of Fire Protection (BPF), the PNP Regional Mobile Force Battalion (RMFB), Janiuay Municipal Police Station, employees of the Municipal Environment and Natural Resources Office (MENRO), and even barangay officials of both Quipot and Barangay Barasalon villages.

But days of digging through the area have yielded no positive efforts.

Some family members and villagers have continued to delve the place in the hope of finding Argaña’s body.

And as fate would have it, following the heavy rains brought by Typhoon Verbena, the soil loosened at the area where his body was found around 10:30 a.m. of November 27.

It can be noted that Argaña told his wife, Jessa, that he will fix his motorcycle when the landslide happened.

Jessa and the victim were married for three years and were expecting their first child in a month’s time.