Baguio City – The Cordillera Regional Disaster Coordinating Council (CRDCC) here dispatched 13 search, rescue, and retrieval teams to look for the bodies of the six pocket miners who were part of a big group of small-scale miners whose nine makeshift camps were buried by two huge landslides at the tri-boundaries of Kias, Baguio City, and the towns of Itogon and Tuba, Benguet, last Friday.

The teams were sent to strategic areas in the Emirald Mountain, which is part of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) reservation, along the Bued River on Kennon Road and all the way to Rosario, La Union, and San Fabian, Pangasinan in a bid to retrieve the bodies of the missing miners and put an end to the anxiety of their relatives who had been patiently waiting for the outcome of the  earch, retrival and rescue operations over the past two days.

Chief Supt. Orlando Pestano, regional director of the Police Regional Office (PRO) in the Cordillera and RDCC chairman, said the continuous downpour prevailing in this mountain resort city is a big setback to the success of the operations. Several rescue teams were tasked to follow the flow of the Emerald creek and the Liwliw Creek which connects to the Bued River to look for traces of the missing pocket miners.

Confusion over the number of fatalities and their identities occurred when several concerned residents along Kennon Road reported to the CRDCC that they have recovered the bodies of three individuals alongt the river bank of the Bued Rriver for the rescue teams to pick up.

However, when the retrieval teams arrived in the described sites at Camp 4, Camp 2, and Camp 1, Tuba, Benguet, they did not find anybody secured in safe places along the banks of the river.

The fatalities in the tragedy were identified by the authorities as Roger Dulnuan, Philip Bugnadon, Eddie Dulawan, Pollen Buhong, Bryan Bay-ong, Cary Chaluyen, Eusebio Colingan, Jobie Pascua, Dexter Cudiamat, and Gilbert Nardo.

Dulnuan died while undergoing medical treatment at the Baguio City General Hospital and Medical Center (BGHMC). The bodies of Chaluyen, Colingan and Pascua were found along the Emerald Creek below their makeshift camps, while Buhong and Daluen were unearthed from the buried makeshift camps. On the other hand, Bugnadon, Bay-ong and Cudiamat were recovered by rescuers in Camp 2, Camp 1, Tuba, Benguet and Saytan, Rosario, La Union, respectively late Saturday night. Nardo’s body was retrieved from the upper portion of the Liwliw Creek by rescuers around lunchtime, Sunday.

Senior Superintendent Samuel Diciano, PRO-COR deputy regional director for administration, identified the missing miners as Joel Caligtan, Dexter, John Guinoban, Cipriano Millet, and Garciano Langtawan.

Diciano named the rescued pocket miners as Gerard Farnican, 30, a resident of Km. 3, La Trinidad, Benguet; Dennis Gomatin; Benjamin Daulayan, 20; Steve Chaloyen, 24; Napoleon Dimanga, 45; Dennis Dulnuan, 31; Nestor Puguoen, 19; Edgar Daulayan and Dominique Bumanghat, all pocket miners and residents of Kias, Baguio City.

The affected pocket miners are members of the so-called Emerald Mountain Explorers Association, Inc. who are reportedly conducting small-scale mining activities in the area allegedly without a permit from the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) in the Cordillera and the municipal mining regulatory board.

Geologists described the features of the Emerald Mountain as critical because it has fractured rock and soil formations which loosened up during the five days of heavy rains that prevailed over the city.

The Office of Civil Defense (OCD) in the Cordillera advised relatives of the fatalities and the injured miners to process the assistance to be given to them by the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) which amounts to P10,000 each for those who died, and P5,000 each for those who were confined in hospitals for at least three days.

Pestano alerted Bued River residents on floating bodies that might pass through their area and immediately inform the RDCC so that it could exert extra efforts to recover them and possibly identify them for their relatives who are anxiously waiting for their safe return.

Initially, five pocket miners, who were reportedly working at the mill site were the ones buried by the first avalanche of debris from the mountain that buried their makeshift camps.

When some of their colleagues saw the incident, Pestano said he tried to rescue them from the debris but a second avalanche of rocks and mud, which was allegedly much bigger than the first one, eventually buried them, pushing some of them into the Emirald and Liwliw Creeks.

Relatives of the fatalities have already taken the bodies of their loved ones and will take them to their hometowns in Ifugao and Mountain province in the coming days.

Pestano cited the active involvement of various search- and- rescue teams in Baguio and Benguet, citing that it was an instinct on their part to voluntarily rush to the accident site and help in the operations for the rescue and retrieval of the missing miners.

The rescue teams were headed by the team of the Philex Mining Corporation, Philippine Military Academy (PMA), Philippine National Police (PNP), members of the Emeirald Mountain Explorers Association and their relatives; Kias barangay officials, Baguio fire station, Benguet provincial government, Baguio-Benguet Public Information and Civic Action Group (BBPICAG), Baguio Emergency Medical Service, Cordillera regional mobile group, and volunteers from the various communities along Kennon Road.