ITOGON, BENGUET, Philippines -- Seventy-one small-scale miners were rescued over the weekend after trapped inside a private mine tunnel in Itogon town.
Sixty-eight men and three women with the Dalicno Miners Association were trapped inside the collapsed mine tunnel for over eight hours.
Residents of Barangay Dalicno called on nearby Benguet Corporation to help rescue the miners.
BC resident manager Antonio Buenavista deployed rescue teams as well as volunteer miners from the company’s Acupan contract mining project.
The rescue team had to open a plug-up area connecting the underground working area to reach the trapped miners.
Lawyer Froilan Roger Lawilao, BC administration department head, said the rescue team had to dig for over five hours.
“We were elated that the trapped miners were safe when our rescue teams were able to reach them. We express our gratitude to the concerned members of the Council of Elders and citizens in Dalicno who informed the company of the incident so that we were able to timely deploy our rescue teams in the area to spare the trapped miners from danger.”
Lawilao said the rescued miners were escorted out of the underground working area through the Level 1500 portal and were immediately brought by BC vehicles to the Balatoc clinic for medical examination.