LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines – The Office of Civil Defense (OCD) has deployed a team of divers to help the Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council of Paracale, Camarines Norte in retrieving the bodies of at least three small-scale miners who drowned when their tunnel collapsed due to a dynamite explosion on Tuesday afternoon.
Raffy Alejandro, OCD-Bicol regional director, said their personnel and divers from the Bureau of Fire Protection have been sent to Barangay Palanas in Paracale town to help in the ongoing operations.
Alejandro said they were checking if there are other miners trapped in the mining site.
There are about 100 mining pits and tunnels with a depth of 20 meters in the site, he said.
Alejandro said the body of one Julian Cabarubia, 23, was recovered as it floated at the mouth of one of the mine pits on Thursday.
The remains of Louis Sayson, 29, and Carlos Saler, 27, have yet to be retrieved.
“Our divers have to grapple with zero visibility inside the flooded mining shaft caused by low tide,” Alejandro said.
The mine site is about 200 meters from the shoreline and less than two kilometers from the Paracale town proper.
Gilbert Gonzales, Bicol regional director of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), said small-scale mining operations are under the jurisdiction of the provincial government.
Last year, two miners died in a dynamite explosion, resulting in a halt to mining operations in Paracale. But small-scale mining in the town resumed recently.
In a recent assessment done with stakeholders, local officials and residents, the DENR said one of the major hazards identified was the crisscrossing of tunnels, which endangers the lives of miners.
The DENR recommended an inventory of tunnels in the mine site.
Lydia Borboran, DENR research head, said residents are concerned about abandoned tunnels in Paracale and the towns of Labo and Joe Panganiban.