(Eagle News) — The Department of the Interior and Local Government will probe ten municipal mayors for possible negligence after they were alleged to be missing in action even as Typhoon “Ompong” battered their areas of jurisdiction over the weekend.
Jonathan Malaya, DILG spokesperson, did not name the mayors but said they were from the Cordillera Administrative Region and Cagayan Valley.
“Ompong” made landfall in northern Luzon.
“We are now doing a review of their performance and we are determining if there were indeed absent mayors when the typhoon came,” Malaya said.
According to Malaya, those who will be found negligent “will be held accountable.”
Of the 74 reported killed due to “Ompong,” 60 were from CAR, 10 from Cagayan Valley, two from Central Luzon, and one each from National Capital Region and Ilocos.
Among those killed were at least 30 people who were buried in a landslide in Itogon, Benguet.
Itogon Mayor Victorio Palangdan said they tried to evacuate the miners even before the typhoon arrived, but a DILG official said there were no reports that they implemented a forced evacuation.