Human body part recovered from collapsed mine pit in Antique

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—A human body part believed to be from one of the miners trapped in the landslide in Antique last week was recovered Monday, police said.

Chief Superintendent Agrimero Cruz Jr., Western Visayas regional director, said the left human arm was retrieved from the Panian pit around 9:30 a.m.

Thirteen miners were initially trapped when the mining pit of Semirara Coal and Mining Corp. collapsed Wednesday evening. Three were rescued alive, but five were killed.

Since then the five other miners have not been recovered. National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council identified the missing victims as Leovigildo Porras, Jan Riel Planca, Randy Tamparong, Richard Padernilla, and Junjie Gomez.

Cruz Jr. earlier said that operations were temporarily called off due to grim weather that triggered two fresh landslides in the area.

Authorities earlier sent sniffing dogs to help in the retrieval operations.