Semirara mining firm assures financial support to victims’ families

Business Mirror

Published on Wednesday, 20 February 2013 19:02

Written by Zaff Solmerin / Correspondent

VICTOR Consuji, president of Semirara Mining Corp., on Tuesday assured the families of the 13 miners killed or still missing that they will get financial assistance and educational benefits for their children through college, and jobs.

The incident happened late February 13 at the open-pit mining site in Barangay Semirara, Caluya, Antique.

“We will also help facilitate the release of their benefits from insurance and from the Social Security System, and pay for all the burial expenses,” Consunji said in a statement.

He said the families on Tuesday were given P1 million each to help them meet their immediate basic needs.

“They will be given guidance on how to make this amount go a long way. The company will also employ any qualified member of the families,” Consunji said.

The cause of last week’s landslide is still being determined by both the company and the government.

Of the 13 personnel trapped, three were rescued and five were confirmed dead. Search-and-retrieval operations for the five miners still missing are ongoing.

“For the survivors, the company is paying for the all the needed medical expenses of a victim who remains confined. The company is looking at other ways to help them and their families, as well. We are doing our best to help them cope with their loss,” Consunji said.

Semirara is the country’s largest coal producer, supplying about 90 percent of the needs of local coal-fired power plants and about one-fifth of the needs of cement plants.

Earlier, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council handed P10,000 cash to families of the survivors and the fatalities. The local government unit of Caluya also gave the families P30,000 each as financial assistance.

At around 11:30 p.m. on Wednesday last week, the miners were working inside the “Panian pit” when it caved in. Three miners were rescued and the bodies of five fatalities were retrieved several hours after the incident.

Meanwhile, Western Visayas police director Chief Supt. Agrimero Cruz Jr. said search-and-retrieval operations were ongoing for the missing five miners.

The Department of National Defense had also sent five K-9 sniffing dogs to locate the missing.

A severed human arm was so far the only thing the search and retrieval teams found from the collapsed open pit.  Authorities have not yet identified the owner of the severed arm.   source