PANTUKAN Gold and Copper Project sent an ambulance and a rescue helicopter to the landslide area in Pantukan Thursday after authorities requested assistance in the search, rescue and retrieval operation.
Mae Puyat, PGCP media coordinator, said the ambulance was sent to the landslide area in Diat 1, Barangay Napnapan while the company’s rescue helicopter was on standby in a nearby area ready to transport anyone needing immediate medical attention.
Lt. Gen. Arthur Tabaquero, commander of the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ Eastern Mindanao Command, earlier requested for assistance from the PGCP for the use of their heavy equipment in the search, rescue and retrieval operation.
In the April 2011 landslide, PGCP also lent its heavy equipment in similar operation in Barangay Panganason where 14 small-scale miners died.
Thursday’s landslide in Diat 1 reportedly buried 50 houses where more than a hundred miners were sleeping. As this was being written 25 bodies had been were retrieved while more than 100 were feared to be still unaccounted for. [BOT]
