By Florante S. Solmerin Posted on Feb. 16, 2013 at 12:01am
Western Visayas police director Chief Superintendent Agrimero Cruz Jr. on Friday said more diggers and equipment were sent to help in the rescue operations for the five miners who remained trapped inside the open-pit mining site in Barangay Semirara, Caluya, Antique.
“Efforts are still ongoing for search and rescue operations for the five missing miners,” Cruz said.
Interior and Local Government Secretary Manuel Roxas II, meanwhile, directed local government officials in Antique and Caluya town to exert more efforts to search and rescue the miners.
The victims had been trapped inside the pit since Wednesday night, when the western wall of the Panian pit mining site collapsed at around 11:30 p.m. The boulders and soil trapped the miners in a pit about 260 meters below ground level.
“Sinabihan natin ang mga lokal na pamahalaan doon na i-activate ang kani-kanilang disaster and risk management councils upang maibuhos nila ang kanilang pwersa para agad na mailigtas ang mga minero doon,” (We have already asked the local governments there to activate their disaster and risk management councils and focus their efforts to immediately rescue the miners).
Roxas said he has also coordinated with the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines to find available helicopters which can be used to airlift rescued miners to the nearest hospitals.
The Semirara Mining Corporation rescue and retrieval team recovered three bodies at around 11 a.m. Thursday. Two more bodies were retrieved later. They were identified as Abner Lim, Joven Hocate, Geroge Bragat, Efren Equiza and Anthony Siblet.
The three survivors who were pulled out from the pit were identified as Marjun Catoto, Adrian Celmar and Leonardo Sojor.
Still missing were Leovigildo Porras, Jan Riel Planca, Randy Tamparong, Richard Padernilla and Junjie Gomez.
Sen. Chiz Escudero, meanwhile, sought for an immediate and exhaustive probe into the collapse of the coal mine.
Escudero, chairman of the Senate committee on environment and natural resources, said government resources should be directed at locating the missing miners in the collapsed tunnel.
He also called on Semirara Mining Corp. to exhaust all efforts in the recovery of the trapped miners.
“I call on the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to investigate the unfortunate incident. We should find out its cause,” Escudero said.
He said that the probe should look into any possible violation of environmental and safety regulations which may have resulted in the accident.
Escudero said, however, that he was reserving judgment on the incident until after the agencies release the results of their investigation.
The senator nevertheless noted that disasters in mining sites were a recurring tragedy in the country.
Two accidents occurred last year in Paracale, Camarines Norte in 2012, a gold-rush community in Escudero’s native Bicol region where three miners died. source
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