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Thursday, December 15, 2005
Mayor disgusted over energy office work
CEBU CITY -- Dalaguete Mayor Ronald Cesante is "disgusted" with the way the Department of Energy (DOE) has been handling the rescue operations for the six trapped miners in Barangay Dumalan.
He said people have observed that the DOE has no sense of urgency in its task, which is making the victims' families "apprehensive and restless."
"We can't control the emotions of the people now. Ipasagang unya na nilang mga pinuti nga gibaid (They will have to shield themselves from the people's sharpened bolos)," he said.
Upset with the delay, Cesante said he told DOE 7 Director Antonio Labios that he could no longer guarantee the safety of his people in the area, which is some 20 kilometers from the town proper.
In a separate interview Wednesday night, Labios said he understands the sentiment of the mayor and the townsfolk, but he also does not want to compromise the safety of the rescuers.
"I explained to him (mayor) that we have an SOP to follow. We don't want to put more lives at risk. The gas inside that tunnel could burst anytime and we want to make sure it is safe to go inside," Labios said.
Lack of proper equipment has also hampered the rescue-retrieval operations, which were suspended since Tuesday.
Ill-equipped
"Blowers and vent tubes are expected to arrive today from Zamboanga. We had to ask for help from other agencies, including the Philippine National Oil Corp. (PNOC), because we are ill-equipped," Labios said.
The bodies of two miners, which were in the entrance of the tunnel in Sitio Maantod Canlawilao, were pulled out some hours after the methane gas explosion at 7:10 p.m. last Saturday.
Six other miners are believed trapped 70 meters inside the tunnel.
This is the second fatal accident for the Taiwanese-owned Ibalong Resources and Development Corp., which had acquired the mining rights from the Manguerra family.
A miner died and two of his co-workers were injured while doing repair work in another part of the mining site last July.
Ibalong's mining operations have been suspended pending the retrieval of the trapped miners and the results of the investigation on the recent accident.
Dalaguete Police Station Chief Claro Benatiro told Sun.Star Cebu Wednesday that rescue teams from the PNOC in Zamboanga Sibugay and Ormoc City and DOE engineers and those from Ibalong Resources are waiting for further advice from the DOE 7 to continue the rescue work.
No advice
As of Wednesday afternoon, Benatiro said there was no advisory from the DOE.
Mayor Cesante narrated that the DOE team arrived in Cebu City early evening of Monday and yet left Cebu City for the town only at 3 p.m. They arrived at the site almost 8 p.m. the next day.
Dalaguete is about 85 kilometers south of Cebu City.
Cesante had high hopes, but then the DOE suspended the operations because of the level of methane gas in the tunnel and went back to the town proper.
The mayor said the rescue team even stayed in a resort.
The Municipal Government put up a temporary shelter near the site to protect the families of the victims, who include children, from the cold.
"Is this the kind of rescue operation they can give? We can't wait until Christmas," said the mayor.
Cesante did not go to the site Wednesday because the operation was suspended also due to power interruption. Power was restored past 5 p.m. Wednesday.
He plans to visit the area today with Argao Mayor Wilfredo Caminero, who is also into coal mining.
Progress
Cesante pointed out that the local rescuers are really itching to continue the operations because they have even made progress without the DOE's equipment.
Determined to get their relatives out of the tunnel, a councilor of Barangay Ablayan even signed a waiver that no one will be held responsible if anything happens to him.
They wondered why they were able to get inside the tunnel before the team from the energy department arrived.
"We have to look at the other side of this problem, which is the human factor. The families want to continue with their lives. They tell me that all they want is to find the bodies. That's a very simple need, and it hit me really hard," Cesante said.
The social welfare offices of the municipality and that of the Provincial Government are giving financial and food assistance to the miners' families.
The amount of monetary aid that the Ibalong Resources will give has yet to be known, although the company has taken care of the burial expenses of the two miners whose bodies were already recovered. (JPM/With JST of Sun.Star Cebu/Sunnex)
(December 15, 2005 issue)
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