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Wednesday, December 14, 2005
Boulders fall on, kill town couple
CEBU CITY -- A couple quarrying limestone died when boulders fell on them in Barangay Kal-anan, Tabogon, northern Cebu shortly before noon last Monday, two days after a fatal mining accident in the southern town of Dalaguete.
The couple left 11 children behind.
Democrito Pelayo, 58, and his wife Angeles, 44, were quarrying a portion of a hill made of limestone when the boulders buried them at 11:30 a.m.
The hill is about 40 meters away from their house, which is some three kilometers away from the town proper.
The Tabogon tragedy happened two days after Dalaguete’s mining accident that killed two miners and trapped six others, who are now feared dead.
Senior Police Officer 3 Anecito Manloloyo of the Tabogon Police Station said that prior to the incident, neighbors warned the spouses to be careful in quarrying the area because a portion of a boulder started to crack.
It took the neighbors three hours to retrieve the bodies. The limestone boulders were estimated to weigh 15 tons.
Manloloyo said the victims were buried in the cemetery last Monday afternoon, with the assistance of Tabogon Mayor Eusebio Dungog Sr., who sent social welfare personnel to aid in the burial and to assist in the children’s needs.
“Gilubong ra sad sila dayon kagahapon kay nangagupok man gud ang ilang mga lawas (They were buried immediately because their bodies were already decomposed),” Manloloyo said.
He said the spouses, who went back to Tabogon from Manila last February, resorted to quarrying the limestone, their only source of income.
They sold the limestone to a local buyer based in the town proper at P5 per sack.
Democrito used to work as a bus driver in Manila and had long been trying to land a job in Cebu but failed.
The children that the spouses left behind are ages two to 20 years old.
One of the children appealed Tuesday for help in a report over TV-Patrol Cebu.
Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office Chief Glenn Baricuatro, for his part, said Tuesday night that his office did not receive information that the incident in Tabogon was due to quarrying.
He learned of what happened from the Provincial Social Welfare Office, which went to the town to see what help the Capitol can extend to the victims.
Baricuatro, in a telephone interview, said what he knew so far of the incident was that it was a landslide.
“I was in my office the whole day, but no one reported to me that this was quarrying,” he said.
However, he plans to send a team to Tabogon Wednesday to check on the area and investigate. (JST/With JPM)
(December 14, 2005 issue)
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