TWO miners were trapped and feared dead as a tunnel of a coal mine collapsed in Zamboanga Sibugay, the police said Friday, October 05.
Senior Inspector Xyronne Padre Caronan, police chief of Imelda, Zamboanga Sibugay, identified them as Richard Campayan Atayde and Wilfredo Ogao-Ogao Fuentes, both residents of Butong village, Diplahan.
Caronan said the incident happened around 4:30 p.m. Thursday at Purok 1 in Gandiangan village, Imelda.
The police chief said investigation showed the tunnel collapsed after it was filled with water following a flash flood spawned by continuous downpour.
The two were already advised by fellow miners to get out of the tunnel but they ignored it due to unfinished work, Caronan added.
He said they have utilized submersible machines to pump out the water from the tunnel but to not avail since the area was a creek.
“The place (of the incident) was a creek that was closed to divert the flow of water,” he said.
He said efforts together with other concerned agencies to retrieve the two miners from the collapsed tunnel continue. (SunStar Philippines)