Police: 4 not 3 miners rescued Wednesday
One with robbery charges fled
By Abigail Kwok
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 13:36:00 10/02/2008
Filed Under: Flood, Mining and quarrying, Weather
MANILA, Philippines – (UPDATE) Believe it or not.
Police are claiming that four not three miners were rescued Wednesday from the mine in Itogon, Benguet where 12 of their peers were trapped with them after floodwaters rushed through the shafts as a result of the rains spawned by typhoon Nina last week.
Joseph Anayasan was one of the four who was successfully rescued Wednesday but allegedly “fled” after spotting police in the accident site, Chief Superintendent Eugene Martin, Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) police director, told INQUIRER.net.
Annayasan is facing charges of robbery and has a warrant of arrest issued against him, Martin said.
“Tumakas siya, tumakbo papaloob at tumakas [He ran away, he went back inside and fled],” Martin added, after Anayasan supposedly helped rescuers find four bodies.
Police, rescue teams, and even family members are now looking for Anayasan, but Martin said there was a possibility that the suspect was no longer inside the tunnel.
“Pwede tumakas siya [He could have fled], lumabas [gone out] on the other side of the tunnel on his own,” he added.
But Martin said they would “attempt” to look for Anayasan “the whole day.”
In a separate interview, Lieutenant Col. Edgard Arevalo, Navy spokesman, said Navy personnel in the area would end rescue operations 5 p.m.
Six people died and 10 others were successfully rescued by joint teams of the Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC), the Philippine Navy, local police.
Survivors were given first aid treatment by the PNRC and were rushed to the Baguio General Hospital for further treatment.
Survivors claimed that they lived by drinking water for more than a week.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Mines and Geoscienses Bureau (DENR-MGB) and Benguet Mining Corporation have stressed that the miners entered the gold field “illegally” as they failed to secure permits from both agencies in the region.
Benguet Mining has also issued a statement denying negligence on its part with respect to the maintenance of either its working or abandoned mines.
The DENR-MGB has said that they would leave it to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to investigate the incident.
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