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22 bodies retrieved in Pantukan slide

Thursday, January 5, 2012
DAVAO CITY (Updated) — Rescuers retrieved Thursday night four more bodies in addition to the 18 victims earlier recovered from the landslide-hit gold mining area in the southern Philippines.
A landslide tore through a small-scale gold mining site in Sitio Palo Diat, Barangay Napnapan in Compostela Valley on Thursday, killing at least 25 people and burying dozens more, months after government officials warned miners that the mountain above them was guaranteed to crumble.
Barangay officials said out of the 25 reported dead, 22 bodies have been retrieved as of 7 p.m. Thursday.
The mountainside in Napnapan village in Pantukan township collapsed around 3 a.m., when most residents were asleep, sweeping away about 50 houses, shanties and other buildings, officials said.
Aside from those confirmed dead, more than 100 people were believed buried in the rubble, Compostela Valley Governor Arturo Uy said.
Scores of soldiers and volunteers were helping villagers dig for survivors and bodies, regional military spokesman Colonel Leopoldo Galon said. The bodies of two girls aged 6 and 14 were among those retrieved, he said.
Some of the fatalities were identified as Ivy Tolentino, Bea Tolentino, Susana Velasquez, Ruel Zamora, Arlene Señoron, and Romnick Diagdal.
Still missing are Ruperto Velasquez, Ramil Señoron, Reglyn Evangelio, Roger Diagdal, a certain Michael, Jennievie Baumbat, Man-ao Yogon and Kiko Señoron.
At least 16 people were taken to a hospital, with six in critical condition, Galon said.
Provincial Information Officer Fe Maestre said some of the injured miners that were brought to the Davao Regional Hospital in Tagum City were identified as Jimboy Andao, 24, of Marapat, Monkayo; Melvin Cuadrado, 19, of San Isidro, Davao Oriental; Clark Casera, 22, of Durian, Monkayo; Ronald Rey Sanchez, 22, of Poblacion, New Corella, Davao del Norte; Edgardo Cacho of Mangga, Tagum City; Lencio Baclayon, 40, of Mawab, Compostela Valley; Moito Recana, 44, of General Santos City; and Arnel Nicolas, 30, of Mangga Tagum City. One unconscious patient remains unidentified.
Major Jake Obligado, commander of the Army’s 10th Civil Military Operations Brigade, said the search and rescue operation was temporarily called off due to the bad weather condition and continuous earth movement in the landslide-hit area that may trigger yet another landslide.
Obligado said operations will resume as soon as the rain stops and the earth movement in the area stabilizes.
Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Ramon Paje said he had warned residents and local officials last year of a fissure on a ridge of the mountain that geologists said was “highly susceptible” to landslides that could occur anytime.
“We were absolute that it will give in,” Paje said. “It was a 100 percent warning. We told them it’s just a matter of time. This is it. This is what happened this morning.”
Photos of the village taken by the Army’s 10th Infantry Division after the landslide show a steep mountainside that looks like it was gouged by a giant shovel. Houses not buried by the rubble were lying on their sides while crumpled tin roofs and trees lay nearby.
One tunnel entrance appeared half covered by rocks and soil. It was unclear how many mine shafts have been blocked by debris.
Thousands of poor Filipinos dig and pan for gold in the area, hoping to strike it rich despite the dangers of largely unregulated mining. The tunnels are often unstable and landslides and accidents are common.
Saul Pingoy, a local resident, told dzMM radio that he was sleeping in a house about 50 yards (meters) away from the landslide when he felt the ground shake and heard rocks falling on roofs.
“The mountain itself was already sending a warning with falling rocks. That’s why we were woken up…and then it collapsed,” he said. “Big boulders and the ground from the mountain covered the area.”
Darwin Aguinawon, a 27-year-old logger, told reporters he heard what sounded like a “dump truck unloading gravel and sand” and seconds later his house tumbled down the slope. He saw a fellow miner tossed outside the house through where a wall once stood.
Compostela Valley province is on the main southern Philippine island of Mindanao, where flash floods triggered by a tropical storm killed more than 1,250 people in December.
Uy, the governor, said miners and their families had been warned that the heavy rains made the small tunnels and mine shafts that honeycomb the hills and mountains more dangerous.
He said authorities advised residents as early as December 16 when Tropical Storm Sendong (international codename: Washi) was sweeping across Mindanao to leave their tunnels, “but unfortunately some have not responded to our advisories.”
Hundreds of residents near the site of Thursday’s slide were forced to evacuate last April after a landslide killed about 20 people.
Uy said it was difficult to monitor the “extremely high risk area” because it is so remote and some residents who were evacuated in April may have “sneaked back.”
Paje said the April slide occurred in Kingking village beside Napnapan. Both villages are part of a 74,130-acre (30,000-hectare) watershed that has been scarred by landslides over the years.
He said the fissure discovered last year has been aggravated by rainwater saturation and continuous diggings by the miners.
He urged local officials to stop giving small-scale mining permits, now estimated to number about 3,000 all around the watershed.
He said the Environment department last April issued a suspension of the environmental compliance certificates (ECC) on small-scale mining but operations continued.

“There’s always the problem with small-scale mining. Not only do they degrade the environment — and this is what the situation is — they do not use safe means of mining. Part of the effort previously was to cancel their ECC. When you suspend the ECC, local government units are not supposed to issue mining permits anymore because that is a requisite of an issuance of a mining permit,” he said.
“Had they listened to us and stopped the entry (of miners), there would have been no casualty,” he said.
Uy said the Philippine National Red Cross, Provincial DRRMC Rescue Team, 71st Infantry Battalion, groups of small scale miners and the Philippine National Police are helping in the search and retrieval operations.
Mining firm Pantukan Gold and Copper Project (PGCP) also immediately sent ambulance and a rescue helicopter to the landslide area to assist in the search and rescue and retrieval operation.
Lieutenant General Arthur Tabaquero, commander of the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ Eastern Mindanao Command, requested assistance from the PGCP, especially on the use of the firm’s heavy equipments for the search, rescue and retrieval operation.
Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (MDRRMC) spokesperson Dr. Arnulfo Lantaya said the Municipal Government had been warning residents in the landslide area, through the barangay local government, to heed the warning of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB), which declared Sitio Diat Uno and Diat Dos as high risk areas.
Aside from sitios Diat, other identified landslide prone areas in Barangay Napnapan include puroks Lit-ag, Boringot, Lantawan, Saro, Pulang Lupa, Puring Sayaw, Sapa, Tipga, Niliputan; Barangay Proper, Puroks 7, Caimito, puroks 2 and 5, sitios Binaaba and Saro.
Other high-risk landslide areas in Pantukan are puroks Sarayon and Alimyon, Purok Lanipao in Barangay Araibo; Sitios Arog and Til-asan; Barangay Proper, Puroks 1, 7, 8, Sitio Bukana in Barangay P. Fuentes; puroks Pinanan A, Catarangan, Puntod, Maligaya, Pamarilan and Onor in Barangay Tagugpo; in sitios Panangason and Gumayan; sitios Mauswagon, Mendoza and Lawaan in Barangay Kingking; puroks Kawagis, Tango, Ilwan and Talabugnugan in Barangay Magnaga; Sitio Tapis and Purok 5 in Barangay Tambongon.
Based on MGB data, Davao Region has a total of 402 landslide-prone areas. Compostela Valley has the most number with a total of 124; Davao Oriental and Davao del Sur, each has 104 landslide-prone areas while Davao del Norte has 40.
The MGB data also show that of the 56 high-risk to landslide areas in Compostela Valley, seven are in Pantukan; 12 in Monkayo where the gold-rush Mt. Diwata is located; 10 in Maragusan; seven in Maco; six in New Bataan; two each in Nabunturan, Mawab and Compostela towns.
President Benigno Aquino III, meanwhile, ordered Thursday an investigation on the landslide.
Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo will go to Compostela Valley on Friday to personally assess the damage and meet with the local government officials.
Lacierda said the incident is “unacceptable” for the Palace and an investigation will be conducted to determine who’s accountable for the tragedy.

In the wake of the incident, the DENR will provide geohazard maps to all local government units and the media to educate the public on hazardous areas in the country.
President Aquino will also meet with the Climate Change cluster to discuss geohazard mapping and ensure that evacuations in areas declared as hazardous are properly and strictly executed. (Ben O. Tesiorna/AP/Jill Beltran/Jereco Paloma/Sun.Star Davao/PIA/Sunnex)
Published in the Sun.Star Davao newspaper on January 06, 2012.

http://www.sunstar.com.ph/davao/local-news/2012/01/05/22-bodies-retrieved-pantukan-slide-199016

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