MANILA, Philippines Two miners died while another one was injured after a landslide, triggered by a three-day downpour, hit a town in Sultan Kudarat province on Wednesday afternoon.
The local police told GMANews.TV in a phone interview on Thursday that the landslide happened at a mountain slope in Bai Sarifinang village in Bagumbayan town about 3 p.m. Wednesday.
Senior Inspector Crisostomo Solarte, chief of the Bagumbayan police, identified the fatalities as Silverio Iwag, 39, a resident of the said town; and Ernesto Abisado, a 44-year-old resident of Tagum City, Davao del Norte.
Solarte said another miner, who was not immediately identified, was injured in the incident and was rushed to the nearby Tamondong Memorial Hospital to undergo treatment. A fourth miner, also unnamed, emerged from the landslide unhurt.
All four miners are employees of a small-scale copper mining company owned by one Virgilio Tolentino. The owner has already vowed to shoulder the burial and hospital expenses of the victims' families, according to Solarte.
Investigation showed the four victims were taking a break from work at a bunk house near the mining site when the heavy downpour loosened the soil above it.
Solarte said that the town has been drenched in heavy downpour during the last three days but it was the rain on Wednesday that caused the soil to give way. On that day, the rain continued to pour hard until the evening.
"Water must have accumulated in creek lines on the mountain. And there must have been pocket of landslides that caused loose soil to also gather up. Then when it rained continuously, the landslide happened," Solarte said in Filipino.
The bodies of the two victims buried beneath the collapsed soil were recovered early Thursday afternoon.
State of calamity
Save for a few houses erected at the foot of the hill, the site of the landslide is far from any residential areas, Solarte said.
The affected families living at the foothill are currently seeking refuge at the Bai Sarifinang village hall.
Solarte said that aside from Wednesday afternoon's landslide, a number of other landslides had also been reported in neighboring villages in the town but no one was reported hurt.
The municipal government of Bagumbayan has already distributed sacks of rice to the affected families.
"Based on our actual survey this (Thursday) morning, agricultural products like corn and rice were also destroyed due to the rains. But we will only be able to know the real extent of the damage once the Agriculture Department conducts its own survey," Solarte said.
Typhoon "Frank," which ravaged the country two weeks ago, had prompted 10 local governments, including that of Sultan Kudarat, to declare a state of calamity.
Bagumbayan is a third class municipality in Sultan Kudarat, with 53,444 people living in 10,368 households. The town is known for its gold and copper deposits. - GMANews.TV