Miners cheat death inside tunnel

Itogon, Benguet, Philippines  – Two miners cheated death here Friday after they were rescued alive in a harrowing five-hour ordeal inside a small scale mine tunnel at Sitio Garrizon, Barangay Ucab here. 

Gerry Acloben, 20, a native of Barangay Dalican in Bontoc, Mountain Province and John Bas-ang, 23, also from Bontoc, were trapped inside the tunnel.

Itogon policemen said the rains for days now have weakend the soil and caused landslides inside the tunnel at around 11 a.m. Friday.

Their miner-colleagues helped each other bringing out the two and after continuous digging, they found the duo alive at around 4 p.m. on that same day, police said.

Both miners are now safe.

“Benguet’s Death Chambers”

This as supposedly abandoned mine tunnels of the Benguet Corporation here, fast earning the monicker as “Benguet’s Death Chambers” for numerous accidents, claimed another life more than a week ago on November 2.

Jeffrey Forayan, 19, and 22 year old Roy Tanacio were taken out by rescuers at level 1000 after poisonous gas reportedly suffocated them.

Forayan died at the hospital while Tanacio recovered.

Both “camote miners” (small scale on-contract miners) who are natives of Sadanga town, also in Mountain Province, reportedly entered the mine tunnel Tuesday morning and met the harrowing suffocation.

Both reportedly passed out inside the tunnel alarming their co-workers who alerted emergency and rescue personnel.

“Benguet Death Chambers”

The accidents continue to cite the still unchecked situation at abandoned mine tunnels here.

Mid October, rescuers gave up on small scale miner Antonio Ambonjon, 29, who for almost two weeks remained inside another mine tunnel in the same area where at least 9 miners were killed in 2009 after they were also trapped.

Government engineer George Baywong of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau who ended the joint government and private rescue efforts in freezing 100-meter ground water at 114 shaft at the 700 meter level because of hazardous and beyond subhuman conditions even for experienced Phil. Navy frogmen said, accidents of the same nature continue to occur in these tunnels which are supposedly “closed after all”.

Operation below level 400 was earlier banned after authorities declared it as a danger zone after last year’s incident where more than two dozen miners were trapped for more than a week. Nine miners were killed and 8 were rescued from the tunnel mishap.

Engr. Baywong blamed the apparent “gold rush” in Itogon that even the government remains helpless.  “You close them but when they go (inside the tunnel) when you are away.”  Sometimes, guards are overpowered with thousands of miners, he added.

The best way to solve the apparent problem is regulation, Baywong said, “although efforts is being ditched as actions even by the mining firm are too slow to mitigate the problem.”

Baywong however admitted that the moratorium on small scale mining after last year’s disaster has failed to even stop the “gold rush” in Itogon. –Artemio Dumlao (The Philippine Star)