Two men were killed when a portion of a limestone quarry caved in and fell on them Friday morning in barangay Cagcagan, Poro town in Camotes Island, Cebu.
Police identified the fatalities as Eliseo Tindog, 59, of sitio Tugas, Barangay Cagcagan, and Nandy Estrera, 30, of sitio Kapasanan, barangay San Jose.
It took rescuers more than 30 minutes to retrieve the bodies of the victims
The victims were with two others who were quarrying for limestone to be used in the construction of the house of Tindog’s daughter.
SPO2 David Sotto said Tindog and Estrera did not notice debris was starting to slide down a shallow portion of the cliff where they were working. He said the two failed to run to safety when the area collapsed. Their two companions, who were two meters away from them, managed to escape.
Sotto said continuous rain could have caused the soil to loosen.
Sotto said the cliff in sitio Libas was a known quarry site for limestone but the Poro municipal government had stopped the practice because the area was prone to landslides. People nonetheless continue to defy the ban, Sotto added.
In a separate interview, Insp. Edgar Awe, chief of Poro police, said a payloader was used to retrieve the bodies.
He said four truckloads of limestone were extracted before the bodies were found./CORRESPONDENTS JOY CHERY S. QUITO AND JHUNNEX NAPALLACAN AND INQUIRER