Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 30, 1990 TAG: 9007300116
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BAGUIO, PHILIPPINES LENGTH: Medium
A total of three survivors have now been rescued from the ruins of the Hyatt Hotel since Friday. But the latest is one of the longest survivors of an earthquake on record.
Pedrito Dy was pulled out of the rubble about 3:45 a.m. Dy told Manila radio station DZRH that he was without food during his ordeal but drank his own urine to survive.
Dy, who also worked at the hotel as a gym instructor, was suffering from dehydration but doctors said that he seemed healthy otherwise.
Dy said he was among 12 people trapped in the basement of the hotel wing used to house employees, but all the others had died.
"I am calling for my wife and parents: I'm alive, I'm alive," Dy said in Ilocano, the dialect of northern Luzon island.
The July 16 earthquake measured 7.7 on the Richter scale. It left at least 1,653 people dead, 1,000 missing and presumed dead, 3,000 seriously injured and 110,000 homeless.
Foreign rescue teams in Baguio abandoned the search for more survivors more than a week ago because they said sensor instruments indicated there were no more people alive in the ruins of eight hotels which collapsed during the quake.
But Filipino crews, many of them volunteers, continued the search. There was renewed optimism after two survivors were pulled from the rubble of the Hyatt on Friday, where they had been trapped for 11 days.
The two survivors - Luisa Mallorca, 20, and Arnel Calabia, 26 - were reported in good condition and were flown Sunday from Baguio to Manila for medical treatment.
On Sunday, rescuers recovered four bodies from the Hyatt, including the sister of one of the miners who had volunteered to continue the search.
Floie Hora, spokeswoman for the Hyatt, said miners had thought they were searching on the third floor of the wrecked hotel, but later discovered they were in the hotel's basement.
After finding two bodies there, rescuers decided to dig further and found Dy.
Hector Castillo, one of the rescuers, said searchers heard cries of the latest survivor coming from the ruins.
"We believe up to this time there are still some survivors," said Castillo, a miner. "We are tired, but we will continue with our efforts."
More than 50 people, including 12 Americans of Filipino origin, are still believed buried beneath the Hyatt.
Rescue operations were terminated Sunday at the Baguio Park Hotel, where bodies of 15 guests and two employees were discovered. Officials said they believed no survivors or bodies remained/.
Also Sunday, Jose de Jesus, an adviser to President Corazon Aquino, said the government must restore public confidence following widespread criticism that it acted slowly and ineffectively to the earthquake.
by CNB