Headlines
  • False or misleading informations are spread by organizations posing as legitimate media outlets in an attempt to twist public opinion in favor of a certain ideology.
  • On social media,watch out for fake messages,pictures,Videos and news.
  • Always Check Independent Fact Checking Sites if You Have Some Doubts About the Authenticity of Any Information or Picture or video.
  • Check Google Images for AuthThe Google Reverse Images search can helps you.
  • It Would Be Better to Ignore Social Media Messages that are forwarded from Unknown or Little-Known Sources.
  • If a fake message asks you to share something, you can quickly recognize it as fake messege.
  • It is a heinous crime and punishable offence to post obscene, morphed images of women on social media networks, sometimes even in pornographic websites, as retaliation.
  • Deepfakes use artificial intelligence (AI)-driven deep learning software to manipulate preexisting photographs, videos, or audio recordings of a person to create new, fake images, videos, and audio recordings.
  • AI technology has the ability to manipulate media and swap out a genuine person's voice and likeness for similar counter parts.
  • Deepfake creators use this fake substance to spread misinformation and other illegal activities.Deepfakes are frequently used on social networking sites to elicit heated responses or defame opponents.
  • One can identify AI created fake videos by identifying abnormal eye movement, Unnatural facial expressions, a lack of feeling, awkward-looking hand,body or posture,unnatural physical movement or form, unnatural coloring, Unreal-looking hair,teeth that don't appear natural, Blurring, inconsistent audio or noise, images that appear unnatural when slowed down, differences between hashtags blockchain-based digital fingerprints, reverse image searches.
  • Look for details,like stange background,orientation of teeth,handsclothing,asymmetrical facial features,use reverse image search tools.

More Details

Hopes Dim for Finding Survivors Trapped Under Southern Philippine Landslide

Jeoffrey Maitem and Mark Navales,Maco,Philippines

Hopes of finding more survivors are fading two days after a mudslide engulfed buses carrying dozens of miners in a gold-mining community in the southern Philippines, with unstable ground posing an added danger for rescuers. 

As of late Thursday afternoon, the official number of those missing was 49, 10 dead and more than 30 injured from the landslide in this mountainous section of Davao de Oro province, according to disaster officials. Two buses used for transporting mine workers were buried in the moving mud, along with some buildings. Heavy rain had unleashed the landslide. 

Edward Macapili, a spokesman for the local disaster unit in the town of Maco where the landslide occurred at 7 p.m. Tuesday, announced 49 as the official number of people missing. National police, meanwhile, said there could be more than twice as many. 

Macapili said rescuers were trying to remain optimistic, noting that one survivor was pulled from rubble on Wednesday after being trapped for 11 hours. 

“We are not losing hope that there could still be people alive,” he said when reporters asked him about this, but he added that efforts had already shifted to “search and retrieval.” 

“We have 10 dead so far,” he said, noting that rescuers were rushing against time because “every second counts when it comes to human life.”

Rescuers reach a bus that was buried by the landslide, Feb. 8, 2024.Credit: Mark Navales/BenarNews

BenarNews reporters who accompanied rescuers said they were advised to tread carefully because the ground was shifting. While earth moving equipment had been dispatched to the area, workers had to first dig with their hands and shovels.

Tears at mountain site  

For miner Julius Santolan, 36, each passing second was critical. His wife, Meeryniza, and their three children between the ages of 4 and 9 were missing. He broke down in tears while recalling the moments before his family disappeared.  

He said he was at a neighbor’s house when the dirt crashed into the community with “a thunderous sound from the mountain.” 

That was followed by eerie quiet and when he turned to look at his house, all he could see was brown sludge.  

“I have had no sleep and no appetite for three days now. From where I stand, our house was here but was covered with mud,” he said, as he accompanied rescuers on the second day of operations.  

“I hope they are all together now in heaven,” Santolan said even as he held out hope that they had survived.

Miner Julius Santolan sheds tears as he joins search efforts to find his wife and three children, Feb. 8, 2024.Credit: Mark Navales/BenarNews

Nearby, Jenny Cano, 35, widow of a mini-bus driver contracted by the Apex Mining Co. whose body was recovered on Wednesday, said her husband used to call her minutes before he returned home from work.

But on Tuesday, the call from Jundie, 32, never came.  

“His mobile phone couldn’t be reached already. Then I was just informed by his relative that he’s gone and it was confirmed that his body was here,” Cano said. 

Crews carried victims’ remains to a tent covered with black tarpaulin to offer survivors a sense of privacy.

Lt. Col. Wildemar Tiu, Davao del Norte provincial mobile police force commander, said Philippine Coast Guard dogs were scouring the mound of earth that used to be homes.  

“We are doing everything to locate all the missing miners and residents,” he said. 

Jon Bonifacio, national coordinator of the environmental group Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (KPNE), has called for an investigation of APEX mining operations.  

“Once again, we’re seeing how the worsening impacts of climate change are intersecting with corporate negligence and impunity in the Philippines,” he said. 

“We call for immediate and adequate aid for the affected families and for a swift and thorough investigation to be conducted to determine the full extent of accountability of Apex Mining and other large-scale mining operations, … in relation to the landslide and the massive floods affecting the region,” Bonifacio said. 

Police and rescue volunteers carry a corpse recovered from the landslide, Feb. 8, 2024.Credit: Mark Navales/BenarNews

APEX issued a statement that it was working with the government to locate and rescue those missing, the state-run Philippine News Agency reported. The statement noted that the landslide occurred at an area where buses ferry employees to the mine site and not at the site itself.

“Just before the landslide, there were four 60-seater buses and one 36 pax-capacity jeep waiting for the outgoing employees. One bus had left for Mawab while the rest were still waiting when the landslide occurred, its debris covering the terminal,” it said, according to PNA.

The Philippines, located along the Pacific Ring of Fire and in the Pacific typhoon belt, is one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world.

A combination of mountainous terrain and heavy rainfall also makes the archipelago particularly susceptible to landslides. 

In September 2018, more than 70 people in the northern mining town of Itogon died as a result of a mudslide caused by Typhoon Mangkhut. 

The nation’s deadliest landslide occurred on Feb. 17, 2006, following a 10-day downpour in the province of Southern Leyte. It buried the entire community of Guinsaugon village there, killing more than 1,000 people.

Copyright ©2015-2024, BenarNews. Used with the permission of BenarNews.

Related Article

Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipina on…

Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipina who has spent 14 years on death row in Indonesia, will be coming home b ...
November 21, 2024

Myanmar Junta Airstrike Kills Vhildren Playing…

Myanmar’s air force bombed a church where displaced people were sheltering near the border with Ch ...
November 18, 2024

Bangkok Court Clears Thai Woman of…

A Bangkok court on Thursday acquitted a Thai woman accused of supporting two Chinese ethnic Uyghur m ...
November 8, 2024

Residents of Kamala Harris’s Ancestral Indian…

At the Hindu temple in Thulasendrapuram, the ancestral village of Kamala Harris, in Tamil Nadu, Indi ...
November 7, 2024

TikTok Deletes Videos Related to Uyghur…

Authorities in Xinjiang have banned Uyghurs from using social media apps, including Chinese-owned ...
November 6, 2024

In Post-Hasina Bangladesh,Awami League Faces Uncertain…

With its leaders in jail or fleeing from justice, the party that led Bangladesh to independence and ...
October 29, 2024

Other Article

Video Report

Despite Risks,Unaccompanied Child Migrants Keep Crossing…

One of the top entry points for migrants under the age of eighteen who enter the United States witho ...
November 22, 2024
News & Views

Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipina on…

Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipina who has spent 14 years on death row in Indonesia, will be coming home b ...
November 21, 2024
Video Report

Trapped in Lebanon, African Migrants Face…

Many of the estimated 176,000 migrants living in Lebanon are African women who are working menial jo ...
Pick of the Day

Permanent Representative of France Briefs Press…

Nicolas de Rivière,Permanent Representative of France to the United Nations, briefs reporters after ...
November 20, 2024
Video Report

The Impact on a Ukrainian Family…

This week marks 1,000 days of fighting in Ukraine.For millions of Ukrainians, including 32-year-old ...
Pick of the Day

UN Security Council Meets to Discuss…

James Kariuki,Deputy Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the United Nations and Presid ...
November 19, 2024

[wp-rss-aggregator feeds="crime-more-world"]
Top