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Wednesday, November 16, 2005
5 still missing miners buried under boulders
By Ben O. Tesiorna
DAVAO CITY -- At least 500 tons of boulders still cover the bodies of five remaining miners trapped inside the Sunshine tunnel in Diwalwal.
The bodies of Rey Hugo, Erinie Francisco, Raymundo Nisperos, Tirso Miguel, and Allan Poe Eraso were not retrieved. It has been 21 days after the cave-in accident last October 26.
Office of Civil Defense 11 director Carmelito Lupo said they could not say for sure how long it would take them to unearth the bodies from the huge volume of debris.
He estimated that it would take them about 20,000 sacks of debris before they could clear the area where the cave-in happened.
Lupo said miners from the JB Management and Mining Corporation (JBMMC) are now conducting clearing operations inside the tunnel.
But he assured the relatives of the miners they are doing their best to hasten the retrieval operation.
The Police Regional Office had formed a probe team composed of the Scene of the Crime Operation, Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, and the Regional Intelligence, and Investigation Division to investigate the real cause of the incident.
Conflicting theories surfaced from the Diwalwal incident. One theory claimed an explosion happened before the cave-in and a smoking miner who went inside an ammo dump in the tunnel allegedly triggered it.
JBMMC officials, however, believed a cave-in occurred first and it caused an air blast inside that affected acetylene tanks or the electric transformer and caused the explosion.
Mindanao Affairs Secretary Jesus Dureza said he would convene the Task Force Diwalwal come November 18 and the investigating team is expected to come up with a report on the real cause of the accident. (Sun.Star Davao/Sunnex)
(November 16, 2005 issue)
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