The two miners were buried alive when part of the mountain range they were mining in the town of Paracale, Camarines Norte collapsed.
The victims were identified as Dante Cereno and Danilo Castelar. Two other miners survived because they took an early break from work for lunch.
According to Paracale Police Chief Police Major Elezaldy Calingacion on Monday, four men were conducting open-pit mining at the said mine in Purok 1, Barangay Casalugan on Friday when the accident occurred.
They were working in the lower part of the mountain range which is open-pit mining that uses a lot of water to separate the soil into small rocks that may contain gold.
“Ano ‘yun, naghahanap ng treasure sa canal na malalim. ‘Yan ang ano, na sa parteng mga bundok ng Paracale. Sige ang hanap nila sa mga canal ng mga sinisisig na mga lupa,” said Calingacion.
He added that the ground below softened, so the upper part of the mountain range collapsed.
“Nung nasa ilalim na sa canal, nagkukutkot, naghahanap ng treasure, eh biglang bumagsak yung lupa, eh di natabunan sila siyempre. May tubig hanggang nalunod na,” said Calingacion.
2 miners killed after mine collapsed in Camarines Norte
It is said that almost an hour passed before the rescuers of Paracale-MDRRMO dug the victims in ten feet of rubble, so they were not revived at the hospital.
Last month, after nine years, the new mining agreements are now allowed in the Philippines after President Rodrigo Duterte lifted the ban implemented by his predecessor, Benigno Aquino III, in 2012.
Duterte issued Executive Order (EO) 130, which states that the government “may enter into new mineral agreements, subject to compliance with the Philippine Mining Act of 1995 and other applicable laws, rules, and regulations.”
According to the EO, Duterte said the Philippines so far has utilized less than 5% of its mineral resources endowment.
The EO assigned the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to “formulate the terms and conditions in the new mineral agreements that will maximize government revenues and share from production, including the possibility of declaring these areas as mineral reservations to obtain appropriate royalties, in accordance with existing laws, rules, and regulations.”
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