Posted on July 19, 2015 09:26:00 PM
By Louine Hope Conserva, Correspondent
ILOILO CITY -- A provincial disaster risk reduction and management office will meet this week to identify forms of assistance that agencies can provide to families of miners who were affected by the collapse of an open-pit mine of Semirara Mining and Power Corp. in Caluya town last July 17.
The Antique provincial government will soon release financial aid of P20,000 to families of the dead miners and P10,000 for the survivors.
“They just have to complete the requirements. The province is also willing to provide augmentation for other social needs of the victims,” said Provincial Social Welfare and Development Officer Lazaro G. Petinglay.
As of Sunday, the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office of Antique said that six have been confirmed dead, five have survived, and three remain missing.
Survivors are currently under treatment in a Semirara hospital owned by the mining company.
Retrieval operations led by the company, with officials of the Philippine National Police and Philippine Army, are ongoing.
Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Region 9 (DENR-6) Director Jim O. Sampulna said the Antique office has already been ordered to investigate the incident.
“The initial report was that it was due to a landslide. I instructed them to determine the cause of landslide whether it is part of the excavation activity. As of now, it is hard to speculate whether it is caused by the rain or if it is within the excavation area,” Mr. Sampulna said.
Another study will be conducted to determine how the mining operation is affecting surrounding communities.
“If it affects (the communities), we will have to conduct a study again and we will order to stop the operation,” the DENR-6 official said.
At the same time, Mr. Sampulna stressed that the immediate surrounding area has already been declared as a coal-mining site and “there’s supposed to be no people there.”
A task force has also been formed by the national government through the Department of Energy (DoE) to look into the incident.
DoE-Visayas Director Antonio E. Labios said it is premature to speculate on the possible liabilities over what happened.
“There are incidents which may have technical or natural cause,” Mr. Labios said.
The DoE issued a suspension on the firm’s mining operations following the incident last Friday. source
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