MALAYBALAY CITY (BukidnonNews.net/ 22 October 2024)–The bodies of the Cortez couple and their three-year-old daughter who got buried in the rubble from last week’s landslide in Purok Minalong, Kitaotao have been found.
The town’s Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council announced Monday that the body of Elizabeth Cortez, 3, was found along the creek in Bolocbocan village. This concluded the team’s search and retrieval operations immediately launched following the heavy rain-induced landslide in the evening of October 15. Several other villagers were injured.
The bodies of the parents were found earlier. Echel Cortez, 33, was seen in Kabacan river in the neighboring North Cotabato province on Oct. 17 while her husband Ryan Cortez, 42, was retrieved in barangay Kitubo in Kitaotao on Oct. 18.
Their 14-year-old son Razel is currently recovering at a hospital in Quezon.
Due to tropical storm Kristine and Pagasa’s heavy rainfall warning, Kitaotao Mayor Edwin Abucayan suspended classes on all levels on Tuesday, Oct. 22. Last August 13, the same sitio in Kahusayan village was hit by a landslide, which caused heavy traffic and stranded thousands of travelers along the Bukidnon-Davao road.