A third survivor was dug from the rubble of a collapsed hotel Monday, two weeks after an earthquake devastated the northern Philippines and killed more than 1,600 people.
The man, a physical fitness instructor, said he survived by drinking rainwater and his own urine, but twice during his 14-day ordeal had tried to kill himself by banging his head on a wall."I lost hope several times. I just waited for death to come, but then a vision of Virgin Mary would appear, as if she wanted to say something," a weeping Pedrito Dy, 27, said hours after he was retrieved from the crumbled Hyatt Terraces Hotel in Baguio.
"I have a mission in life and that's probably the reason why I survived," he said. He did not elaborate.
Miners burrowing through the ruins of the hotel - which was crushed like an accordion by a July 16 temblor that measured 7.7 on the open-ended Richter scale - found the muscular Dy in the basement gymnasium before dawn Monday.
They yelled, asking if anyone was alive, and Dy signaled them by raising his hand, officials said. He was rushed to the Baguio General Hospital in the mountain resort and later flown to the Makati Medical Center in Manila, 120 miles to the south.
Doctors said Dy was in fine shape despite a full two weeks under the rubble. They said he was suffering only from dehydration and minor bruises.
The recovery of the gym instructor and part-time cook followed the rescue Friday night of Arnel Calabia, 27, and Luisa Mallorca, 20, after 11 days under the Hyatt Terraces, where they had worked for a state-run casino.
President Corazon Aquino visited Calabia and Mallorca earlier Monday at the Manila Doctors Hospital and later told reporters, "They are OK." The two were flown to Manila Sunday.
The military Office of Civil Defense said the quake's confirmed death toll as of Monday was 1,641. Another 969 were listed as missing and presumed dead and 3,441 were injured.
Some 1.1 million Filipinos lost their jobs or their homes in wake of the temblor, the worst disaster in the island nation since a quake and tidal wave killed more than 3,000 people in the southern Philippines in August 1976.
Like Calabia and Mallorca, Dy said he survived by drinking his urine, scooping it with his hand. He said he also drank rainwater he found dripping through the debris.
A devout Roman Catholic, Dy said he prayed to the Virgin Mary, but at times lost hope, banging his head twice on the wall in an attempt to commit suicide.
"I tried to stop breathing, but it proved useless," he said.
Dr. Ryan Mirano, one of the doctors treating Dy, said urine could be life-sustaining for a person suffering from dehydration.