ITOGON, Benguet -- Personnel of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau have started diverting the water that accumulated inside a flooded mine tunnel here to hasten the search for 14 missing small-scale miners since Sept. 22.

Search operations resumed after strong rains in the town and rising water levels inside the Level 700 tunnel forced officials to stop search efforts on Saturday afternoon.

The bodies of two of the 16 missing miners were recovered and brought out of the tunnel on Thursday and Friday.

Felizardo Gacad Jr., chief of the MGB Cordillera’s mine environment and safety division, said at least 2 kilometers of pipes were used to drain the water from the tunnel and the pit where the missing miners were believed to have holed up.

“We’re also looking for other sources of water flowing into the pit [so we can plug them],” Gacad said.

Michael Bashan, a Philippine Navy diver, said rescuers had to bear with the stench of rotting flesh in the tunnel.

“The smell is unbearable and pieces of skin and flesh float on the water inside the tunnel,” he said.

Over the weekend, over 100 local miners, rescue workers and Navy divers entered the tunnel in shifts to search for the missing miners.

On Saturday, the rescuers were less than 150 feet from the possible location of Mario and Joseph Anayasan, two of the missing miners, when conditions inside the tunnel worsened. Strong rains fell and water levels started to rise. George Baywong, a government engineer leading the effort to find the miners, was forced to abort operations.

“The passageway to 264 Vein is submerged in water. It’s still too risky to proceed,” he said.

The team was also nearing the tunnel’s 426 Vein, where another miner, Jerry Munyobda, was believed to have sought refuge.

Baywong said the rescue teams were about 750 feet from 426 Vein but a waterfall was in the way of the vertical shaft leading to it.