Phil. Daily Inquirer, Oct. 27, 2005
DAVAO CITY – At least 18 miners were killed and dozens of others were feared dead following an explosion inside a gold mine in the southern Philippines, officials said Thursday.
Village chief Franco Tito held out little hope of finding more survivors among about 50 gold miners believed to have been trapped inside the tunnel "because this is an explosion, not a tunnel collapse."
"They could be dead," Tito told GMA Network's "24 Oras" evening newscast.
Tito said one survivor, who refused to be identified, told him that a cache of dynamite ignited inside the tunnel around 10:20 p.m. (1420 GMT) Wednesday in the gold rush area of Mt. Diwata in Compostela Valley province.
But the civil defense regional office later said it was a compressor supplying air and ventilation inside the tunnel that had exploded and dismissed the dynamite explanation as rumor.
The bodies of 18 miners have been recovered, said Tito. Two others were injured in the mine, one of the many small-scale operations in the mountainous area of Monkayo, where safety measures are often haphazardly applied.
Provincial police chief Senior Superintendent Nestor Quinsay said he could only confirm five fatalities and two injured. "But I have reports of people still trapped inside [the tunnel]."
Small-scale mining operations in Monkayo, which are tolerated by the government, usually employ people on an informal basis, making it difficult to keep track of the number of workers on site.
The Office of Civil Defense in Manila said at least 10 miners have been rescued following the blast inside the mine site operated by JB Management and Mining Corp.
Tito said mine officials had refused to let local villagers and even police and soldiers go inside the mine compound to help with the rescue. He said they counted 18 bodies of people brought out by vehicles from the compound.
Quinsay said police and soldiers were later allowed inside the area to help in the rescue effort, which was made more difficult by heavy rains and thick smoke from the explosion.
He said more rescuers from the regional disaster agency as well as extra troops and police were on their way to the site and expected to reach the area early Friday.? Antonio Cloma, operations officer of the Office of the Civil Defense in Southern Mindanao, said they were trying to get a helicopter to the blast site but the weather was bad.
"This is going to be a retrieval, no longer a rescue operation," Tito said, adding that he has sought the assistance of the Regional Disaster Coordinating Council (RDCC), but help is not expected to arrive until Friday.
The identities of the victims were not immediately known.
Tito said the gold rush site is operated by the family of the late Monkayo town mayor Joel Brillantes, who was gunned down in 2003.
No one at JB Management and Mining Corp. was available to comment.
Accidents are common in the mining areas on Mount Diwalwal, which is believe to sit atop a rich gold deposit, about 930 kilometers (580 miles) southeast of Manila.
Also, thousands have been killed in the intense rivalry between small-scale and big-scale miners in the gold rush site since the 1980s.
The government has occasionally stopped mining firms from operating due to the rash of violent incidents and environmental concerns.
