Two more dead miners recovered in Itogon
abs-cbnNEWS.com | 10/02/2008 7:06 AM
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Two decomposing bodies of the three remaining miners trapped in a gold mine's tunnel in Itogon, Benguet, were recovered by retrieval teams before dawn Thursday.
The bodies belonged to Marvin Himmayod and Joel Bulga. The latest recovery brought to six the number of fatalities in the landslide at the Goldfield Antamok in Itogon.
Himmayod's body was the first to be brought out from the gold mine around 2:42 a.m. Bulga was plucked out of the tunnel 15 minutes later.
Retrieval teams were still looking for one more miner trapped inside the tunnel. Hopes were still high for the safe recovery of the lone miner.
On Wednesday, Philippine Navy and miner divers recovered alive Gilbert Nattern Banaue, Mario Annayasan, and Rudy Boling Jr. The rescue was followed by the recovery of the bodies of Rudy and Juan, both surnamed Himmayod.
The bodies and the safely rescued miners were all recovered from the tunnel's level 700, the deepest part of the mine site.
Rescue leaders said it was a miracle to find majority of the trapped miners still alive.
“[It’s a] miracle... hindi rin kami makapaniwala biruin mo nine days na,” Von Laurel Cypress of the Philippine National Red Cross Response Unit.
The survivors told their rescuers that they were able to remain alive by drinking from a gallon of water and exchanging jokes.
The miners were trapped after the tunnel was blocked by a landslide that occurred at the height of Typhoon Nina last week. -- Maan Macapagal, ABS-CBN News
