MANILA, Philippines - The shanties and tents where miners and some of their family members slept were buried under about 30 metres of mud, soil, rocks and other debris after a landslide that struck before dawn on Friday, Compostela Valey Governor Arturo Uy told The Associated Press by telephone.Rescuers who used their bare hands to dig into the rubble to save people buried by a landslide were losing hope of finding 21 still missing in the disaster that killed at least three people in a remote gold mining village, officials said on Saturday.
Only Jun Rex Torrejos, 15, of Tagum City, was identified among the fatalities in the landslide on Kingking village, Pantukan town, Compostela Valley, said Benito Ramos, head of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC). Two more were confirmed dead, with the retrieval of their bodies, but their names were not released, he added.
Two of Torrejos' relatives were reported missing, together with 19 others, on NDRRMC's latest update, said Ramos, who added that about seven families of transient miners who came from nearby provinces in the southern Philippines were eaten up by mud.- The overwhelming incident was the reason why there were conflicting reports on the numbers of bodies recovered so far.
Military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Camilo Ligayo told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that 15 bodies were found on Saturday. Pantukan Mayor Celso Sarenas on Saturday retracted an earlier statement that said 27 bodies were recovered from the disaster's belly.Officially, ten people were rescued by volunteers, policemen and soldiers, said Ramos, adding that four other miners were also found alive on Saturday.
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