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Friday, October 03, 2008
Gov't ends search for missing miner
BAGUIO CITY -- Navy frogmen returned Thursday to all the flooded tunnels of Goldfields mining firm in Itogon, Benguet to search for the last trapped miner reported as "still missing" Wednesday night.
Paeng Valencia, president of the Rescue 911, the overall medical rescue team in the 10-day operations, said the only missing trapped miner was earlier identified as Joseph Anayasan.
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"We are set to terminate the search and rescue operations Thursday. The navy men are now the only rescue group left in the site. As of the moment, we officially declare that we have rescued nine alive, retrieved six dead and only one yet missing," he said.
Valencia admitted that due to pressures Wednesday in the frantic efforts to reach for all the trapped miners alive, several unconfirmed accounts of the rescuers were taken into consideration like seeing the "still missing" Anayasan.
"The navy men's desire to clear all doubts on the final outcome of our rescue operations is to see all the tunnels in three levels before finally terminating the operations this day," he said.
However, navy men failed to locate Anayasan Thursday.
The final search is being conducted by the navy men because the former rescuers from various mining firms in the area have started to complain of ailments brought about by the alleged contaminated waters of the tunnel.
Reports reaching Sun.Star revealed that Anayasan was convicted for robbery with violence and is wanted by law for the last four years.
Police suspect that Anayasan have already escaped from the mine site to avoid arrest.
Meanwhile, two pocket miners were found dead at the mine site before Thursday dawn.
Valencia identified the fatalities as Marvin Himmayod, who was retrieved at 2:45 a.m., and Joel Bulga, who was taken out at 3:05 a.m.
The dead miners were found inside the flooded mine site, but were only moved above the water level inside the gradient shafts in the meantime due to the expected arrival of another typhoon.
The two other remains retrieved from the mine site on Wednesday were Juan Himmayod, 35, and Rudy Himmayod, 37.
Those who were rescued alive from the abandoned gold mine tunnel were identified as Gilbert Nattem, Mario Anayasan, Rudy Boling Jr., Jose Panio Jr., Antonio Pagulayan, Jerry Monyubda, Jeyson Himmayod, Robert Buhway and Garry Gano.
Senator Manuel "Lito" Lapid visited some of the rescued miners at the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center and facilitated the payment of their hospital bills by the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO). (ENO/Sun.Star Baguio/Sunnex)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Davao. (October 3, 2008 issue)
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