Labor Dept., Semirara to help miners’ families

Manila Standard Today
By Vito Barcelo, Alena Mae Flores | Jul. 21, 2015 at 12:01am

The Department of Labor and Employment will provide emergency livelihood assistance to more 500 workers of Semirara Coal and Power Corporation after its operation was ordered stopped due a landslide on July 17 that killed seven miners, with two others still missing.

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said a team from the DoLE is now at the accident site and has joined the investigation being conducted by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau, Department of Energy, Philippine National Police, and the local government unit of Caluya.

“The Department of Energy is on top of the Semirara coal mine investigation,” Baldoz explained.

The DOLE, according to her, ensures that mining companies are compliant with general labor standards and occupational safety and health standards, including the anti-child labor law.

Baldoz said that the coal mining company had been assessed and certified compliant with standards in the first quarter of the year.

Meanwhile, Semirara it has been cooperating fully with government authorities investigating the accident.

The company said the needs of the victims’ families remain a priority. “We have sought the assistance of religious nuns and professional counsellors to help the bereaved cope with their loss,” it said.

“We are facilitating the life and accident insurance claims of the victims. On top of the immediate release of additional funds to cover their transportation costs and other incidental expenses, we are providing P1 million to each of the nine grieving families,” it added.

The company also said it would shoulder education expenses, up to college, of the children of the victims.

A portion of the open mine pit collapsed last July 18 due to heavy rains in the Semirara island. Semirara Island hosts the country’s biggest coal mine located within the Caluya group of islands off northern Antique.

Semirara Mining is a unit of Philippine conglomerate DMCI Holdings and supplies more than 90 percent of the total coal production in the country.

There were nine workers at the site when the accident happened.

In February 2013, the west wall of the open pit mine had also collapsed, burying under mud and debris 13 workers and seven mining equipment of the firm.

Semirara can be reached from the mainland of Antique by boat. source