Benguet, Vizcaya miners help in ‘Yolanda’ retrieval

BAGUIO CITY—The Philippine Mine Safety and Environment Association (PMSEA) celebrated its 60th anniversary this week with action, not words.

As early as Nov. 18 after the onslaught of Supertyphoon “Yolanda,” miners from Benguet and Nueva Vizcaya provinces were already at  Villamor Air Base waiting to be deployed to the severely ravaged Tacloban City.

Among their equipment were ropes, pickaxes, water purifiers and even barges, which could not be planed in commercial flights so they had to take the Air Force planes. They were bumped off three times from the trips.

“By the time they were in Leyte province, eight days had passed,” Louie  Sarmiento, PMSEA president, said. “Time is important. They could have saved lives there. Instead of rescue operations, they were already there for retrieval,” he added.

Once they arrived in Tacloban City, the miners from Philex Mining Corp. proceeded to the Leyte coliseum, which was ravaged by the storm surge, and recovered 44 bodies in less than three hours, Sarmiento said.

Miners from Oceana Gold in Nueva Vizcaya, which brought in a barge, were retrieving bodies from the instant lakes of Tacloban City, he said.

These miners returned to Baguio on Friday and were already taking part in the mine safety competitions at Burnham Park here, one of the highlights of the annual conference.

The event this year reflected on the impact of disasters in the country.

“Sixty years is not enough,” said Cesar Lao-as, president of  Philippine Society of Mining Engineers, when he addressed the conference on Nov. 21.

He said PMSEA must be prepared to offer a lifetime of service to address the series of calamities that would strike the country in the future.

The conference also honored mining firms that helped in earthquake-hit Bohol province:  Philippine Mining Service Group,  Carmen Copper Group, MicroAsia Co. Inc., Philsaga Mining Corp.,  Bohol Limestone Corp., Oceanagold Philippines Inc. and Philex Mining Corp.

Some of the rescue teams that returned to the city helped in Leyte rescue and retrieval operations as well as those in Bohol following last month’s

7.2-magnitude earthquake.

“They have not finished their posttrauma debriefing and psychoanalysis for Bohol when Yolanda struck,” Sarmiento said.

He led the retrieval of the bodies of five children from the Bayong Falls in Barangay (village) Katipunan in Sagbayan town in Bohol.

Miners from Benguet and Nueva Vizcaya as well as those from the Visayas and Mindanao, all operating as the Pusong Minero SRR (search, rescue and retrieval operations), served in Bohol, but Sarmiento described the Bayong Falls operation as disheartening.

He was forced to conclude that efforts to brave the falls and recover the bodies of the children would be too dangerous, so the miners decided instead to help clear roads in the Bohol towns of Inabanga, San Isidro and Antequera.

In Leyte, mining companies from Cebu and other Visayan islands sent bulldozers, backhoes and barges to help in the clearing of the ravaged towns. Frank Cimatu with a report from Vincent Cabreza, Inquirer Northern Luzon