2 bodies found in flooded tunnel
By Elmer Kristian Dauigoy
Northern Luzon Bureau
First Posted 23:40:00 09/25/2008
ITOGON, Benguet -- Rescuers carrying body bags and a stretcher recovered two bodies on Thursday, three days after 16 small-scale miners were trapped in a flooded mining tunnel here.
The rescue team of 15 to 20 local miners found the bodies at 3:30 p.m. in Shaft 114, about 270 feet from the tunnel opening, said Fred Jacinto, former president of the Gold Field Saranay Community Miners Association Inc. (Gosacmai) here.
He said the bodies, which were bloated, had yet to be identified.
As of late Thursday afternoon, the rescue team had yet to get the bodies out of the tunnel.
A team of rescue workers from Baguio City entered the tunnel at about 3 p.m. They went out after 20 minutes without the bodies as the first set of rescue workers was still trying to pull the cadavers out using ropes.
Jacinto said the bodies surfaced when the water inside the tunnel receded.
"Itutuloy namin ang paghahanap [We will continue searching for the others]," he said.
Jacinto said the rescue teams had not located the larger group of missing miners as of Thursday afternoon.
George Baywong, an engineer of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau's mine environment and safety division and coordinator of the rescue efforts, said the number of trapped miners rose to 16 on Thursday.
He said two others, Ngitit Pagulayan and Jose Panio Jr., also entered the tunnel on Monday as typhoon "Nina" crossed the Cordillera.
Teams from the Philippine National Red Cross and Baguio City's 911 rescue group were on standby to help in the search and rescue efforts.
According to their work logbook, the trapped miners were Robert Buway of Itogon; Gilbert Nattem, Rudy Boling Jr. and Jerry Munyobda of Ifugao; Garry Ganu and Joel Bulga of Quirino; and Mario and Joseph Anayasan. Also missing were Jayson, Rudy, Jojo, Juan, Marvin and Vincent, all surnamed Himmayod, from Quirino.
The portal and its branches of tunnels were flooded when a landslide at the other side of the mountain in the Antamok area here diverted creek water down to the tunnel depths.
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