Hopes fade for 13 missing miners

MONKAYO, Compostela Valley — Hope faded for 13 people still trapped inside a collapsed gold mine tunnel in this town, officials said yesterday as they confirmed that the number of people killed has risen to 12.

Toxic fumes have hampered rescue efforts since the tunnel collapsed late Wednesday.

Mines and Geosciences Bureau Director Edilberto Areza said rescuers were still trying to clear away the fumes before teams could begin digging for the missing miners in earnest.

"No one could have possibly survived," local Army brigade commander Col. Arturo Amobia said as he waited for the actual rescue operations to begin.

The tunnel of the JB mining and Management Corp. mine collapsed Wednesday, apparently after a compressor exploded. Since then, the bodies of 11 dead miners were recovered, but as many as 13 miners remain inside the tunnel.

It was unclear when the deadly fumes would be cleared from the collapsed tunnel, though four blowers were installed in an effort to remove the fumes that prevent rescuers from digging deeper and reaching the trapped miners.

"It remains to be seen" when digging for the trapped miners can actually start, Office of Civil Defense spokesman Edgar Solano said.

President Arroyo said in a statement that the government "is conducting an in-depth probe into the incident to determine any culpabilities and violations of the law."

Small-scale mining operations in the Mt. Diwalwal town of Monkayo sometimes employ people on an informal basis, making it difficult to keep track of the number of workers on site at any given time.

The gold rush area in Mt. Diwalwal has also been the site of bloody conflicts over mining claims, with occasional cases of people sabotaging the mining tunnels used by their rivals.

Mt. Diwalwal is the site of one of the largest motherlodes of gold ore in the Philippines.

Meanwhile, thousands of small-scale miners vowed to defy the President’s order to stop illegal mining at Mt. Diwalwal.

"We are not afraid of the order. Even (former) President Estrada issued the same order and we defied it. We will fight it," barangay captain Franco Tito said as he led thousands of small-scale miners in a rally at the Monkayo village hall.

Mrs. Arroyo issued the order to put a stop to illegal mining activities after Wednesday’s explosion.

The small-scale miners have no fear of the consequences of defying the President’s order because they fear the threat of hunger even more, Tito said.

"The people here in Mt. Diwalwal are not afraid of dying in accidents — what they are afraid of is that the mining site will be closed (and) they would have nowhere else to go (for work). They cannot afford to see their families, their children, dying of hunger," the village chief said.

There are at least 40,000 small-scale miners eking out a living at the gold-rush site and most of them are long-time residents of the area, many of whom have lived there for 20 years or more.

The President was reportedly expected to visit Mt. Diwalwal today, but her trip was canceled for security reasons and because of the miners’ rally.

While the "government calls us illegal miners," Tito said, he asked, "if that is the case, how come government receives its 15 percent share from our operations as part of the existing 85-15 percent (profit) sharing scheme?"

The profit-sharing scheme is part of the mechanisms the President instituted in 2001 so the cash-strapped government would earn from Mt. Diwalwal’s gold mines.

Tito lamented that the Arroyo administration reneged on its promise to help small-scale miners operating in Mt. Diwalwal, reminding the government that it "promised a lot of things to help the plight of the miners — promises which, until now, have never materialized."

He cited the proposed establishment of a tailing pond in the area to catch toxic wastewater from the processing of gold from the mines — a P50-million project that was never implemented.

Tito was also quick to point out that he is willing to undergo any investigation into the explosion at the JB Mining tunnel.

"The investigation is normal," he said. "But let it also be known that the Arroyo administration should also be blamed for what is happening in Mt. Diwalwal because of the many (unfulfilled) promises (it made)." — AFP, Edith Regalado