La Trinidad, Philippines— A landslide buried a residential home in Benguet province on October 20, killing a family of four after saturated soil collapsed onto the house in the early morning hours.
The slide hit at around 4 a.m. in a hillside community in Tuba municipality. Heavy rains had soaked the mountain for two days. The family - a couple and their two children - were asleep inside a concrete and wood house built into the slope. A section of the hill above gave way. Mud, rocks, and uprooted trees slammed into the bedroom. Neighbors heard a loud thud, then silence.
Rescue teams from the Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office arrived at dawn. The house was almost completely covered. Only part of the roof was visible. Volunteers dug with shovels and bare hands. It took four hours to reach the victims. All four were dead on retrieval. Their bodies were taken to a funeral home in La Trinidad. Officials identified them as local farmers.
Benguet is prone to landslides. The province sits in the Cordillera Central mountain range, where roads and homes are carved into steep slopes. Deforestation and small-scale mining have weakened hillsides. During typhoon season, landslides are frequent. Last year, a similar slide in the same town killed three people.
The provincial government said the area had been flagged as high-risk. A geohazard map issued by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau marked the sitio as susceptible to landslides. Families had been advised to evacuate during heavy rains, but many stay to guard homes and livestock. The mayor said an evacuation order was issued Sunday night. The family did not leave.
"We told them the ground was moving," said a barangay official. "Cracks had appeared behind their house two days ago. But they said they had nowhere to go." The official said the family had lived in the house for more than 10 years. The soil behind it had been excavated to create a flat lot, removing natural support.
The Department of Social Welfare and Development said it will provide financial assistance and temporary shelter to affected neighbors. The Cordillera disaster office said it is monitoring 12 other landslide-prone sites in Benguet. More rain is forecast this week due to a low-pressure area east of Luzon.
By afternoon, the site was cordoned off. The house is gone. Only mud remains. Officials said retrieval operations are complete and the area remains dangerous.
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