Quake survivor: I kept calling out their names

When firefighters brought out the body of his four-year-old son in a bag from a budget hotel demolished by the recent earthquake in the Visayas, Isagani Gelig stooped down and gently stroked the black cadaver bag for several minutes, trying to feel his child's remains inside for the last time.

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A bag containing the body of Gelig’s wife, the Condor Pension House's receptionist, was carried out next. She had worked there at night while taking care of their son, John. A rescuer handed him a cell phone found with her body and he nodded that it was hers.

Gelig and his family had frantically called after the powerful earthquake shook the city of Bogo in Cebu province Tuesday night, but she never picked up.

"I went around the rubble and kept calling out their names," Gelig told The Associated Press beside the hotel ruins, where he and rescuers discovered their remains pinned together in the firstfloor rubble.

The death toll from the earthquake rose to at least 72 people on Thursday with nearly 300 injured. Disaster officials said there have not been reports of additional missing people. More than 170,000 people were affected, including many who have refused to return home because they were traumatized and fearful of aftershocks.