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Saturday, September 27, 2008
Body of second miner found
ITOGON, Benguet -- The second body of the 16 miners trapped in a mine site here was discovered Friday floating in Shaft 114 of the Antamok Goldfield mine.
Five Philippine Navy divers extracted the body identified as Vincent Himmayod around 4:20 p.m. Himmayod's wife and father confirmed the miner's identity.
The first body meantime was also identified Friday to be Vincent's older brother Jojo. Both hailed from San Dionisio Dos, Nagtipunan, Quirino province.
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Jojo was mistakenly identified Thursday night to be Joel Bulga, but the Himmayod relatives eventually corrected the error.
The Himmayod brothers are known to be always working together, according to Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) mine safety engineer George Dean Baywong.
The pocket miners may have given up of finding their colleagues still alive, as the mine remains flooded with murky water from the heavy downpour caused by Typhoon Nina (international codename: Hagupit) Monday.
But Navy frogmen are keeping their spirits alive as they untiringly continue to enter the mine while saying they came over to rescue miners.
The Navy divers came from San Fernando City, La Union when they heard of the tragedy. Alaminos City provided some scuba equipment in order to hasten retrieval operations.
The rescuers arrived around 1:30 p.m. and they immediately instructed the pocket miners how to use the scuba gears so they could act as guides for the frogmen while inside the mine.
They are still hopeful they could find some of the miners alive after four days.
Losing time
"It will still take some time," MGB assistant chief Felizardo Gacad said when asked how long it will take to rescue or retrieve the other miners.
Nature may not be kind as a new typhoon is slowly creeping towards northern Luzon from the Pacific.
Although Typhoon Ofel (international codename: Jangmi), just like Typhoon Nina, is expected to bring more rains over the northern Luzon, especially where the rescue operations are being conducted.
Ofel is expected to be at its nearest to Itogon this weekend.
But if weather cooperates, Boywong is confident that survivors can still be found.
"We still have high hopes of finding someone alive. Even without water or food, men have been known to survive up to three weeks based on our experience," he said.
He added that the Himmayod brothers might have noticed water levels in the Eureka shaft was already climbing, prompting them to retreat to the higher Shaft 114 where their bodies were extracted. The other miners may have done the same, said Boywong.
As of 6 p.m. Friday, another batch of 12 pocket miners went into the mine lugging along a 100-meter long rope to add to the already 200 meters inside. (ENO/With Rimaliza Opiña and Jonathan Llanes/Sun.Star Baguio/Sunnex)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro. (September 27, 2008 issue)
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