LEGAZPI CITY, (PNA) — A 12-year-old boy died on Saturday afternoon when a portion of a hill suddenly collapsed and buried him alive in Barangay (village) Calomagon, Bulan, Sorsogon, an official of the Philippine National Police (PNP) in Bicol said Sunday.
Inspector Malu Calubaquid, PNP-Bicol spokesperson, identified the victim as Noel Hachero, a resident of Sitio Buntay, Barangay Calomagon and a Grade 5 pupil.
Hachero, the youngest of seven children of couple Ariel and Edna Hachero, was at that time seeking shelter from the sweltering heat of the sun when the landslide took place at about 1:45 p.m., Saturday, Calubaquid said in a phone interview.
She added that the victim was with five others collecting “baras”(a kind of soil aggregate) found at an ongoing village site development.
The group would sell the collected baras at P120 per sack.
Feeling the extreme heat of the sun, Calubaquid said, Hachero separated from the group to seek shelter in a shaded portion of the hill when the landslide occurred.
Responding rescuers arrived an hour later and rushed Hachero to the St. Jude Medical Clinic in Bulan town but the boy was declared dead on arrival by attending physicians.
The rescuers estimated that some three truckloads of debris collapsed down the slopes of the hill and buried the victim alive.
Calubaquid said the landslide happened near the site where a village eco-park is being constructed beside the town’s dump, some 120 kilometers from this city.
The rescuers also reported that there was no security guard manning the site.