Search for 4 missing in Rizal trash slide may be stopped Friday

MANILA, Philippines - Search and retrieval operations for the four people buried in a trash slide in Rodriguez, Rizal may be halted by Friday, an official said Wednesday.

Vicente Tomazar, head of the Office of Civil Defense in Mimaropa, said that search teams are having a hard time locating the four missing persons identified as Gary Balahibo, Pablito Esto, Eddie Malano and Rovidico Olod.

The four victims went missing after a trash slide at a landfill in Barangay San Isidro on Friday last week.

Tomazar said that the victims could be buried in different locations in the landfill.

He added that the search may be stopped because it is already hampering the daily operations at the landfill.

Authorities are not discounting the possibility that the bodies of the four victims may have already decomposed with the trash.