• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
All the six foreigners reported as missing while trekking in the mountains in Negros Oriental last week were already accounted for.
On Saturday, the four remaining hikers were also rescued by joint police, military and search and rescue personnel in the vicinity of a hydropower plant in Sitio Hydro, Barangay Silab, Amlan town.
Police identified them as Germans Aldwin Fink, 60, and Wolfgang Schlenker, 67; Russian Anton Chernov, 38; and Canadian Terry de Gunten, 50.
A day earlier, their two companions, British Alexander Radvanyi, 63, and German Torsten Martin Groschupp, 50, were rescued in Barangay Blurry in the nearby Valencia town.
Brig. Gen. Joey Escanillas, 302nd Infantry Brigade commander, said in a statement that the success of the operation can be attributed to the effective collaboration between the Philippine Army, local government units, and supporting agencies.
They did not mind their own safety just to extend assistance in locating the missing persons, he added.
The six-man group of foreigners went for a trek to Balinsasayao Twin Lakes on March 19, but they failed to return home on the same day.
This prompted the family of one of the hikers to seek the help of the authorities.
Jose Lawrence Silorio, a rescue officer in Amlan, said the four foreigners, who suffered minor abrasions, survived by eating edible plants they found in the forest.
The hikers, who were found in a mountainous area thick with vegetation, told the Army rescuers they got lost due to the thick fog, police investigator Leo Gil Villafranca said.
Police earlier said that bad weather may have caused the group to get lost along the way, adding that there was also no mobile phone signal in the area. | GB
