Team probes RP mine deaths claim

Team probes RP mine deaths claim

ZAMBOANGA CITY (DPA): An eight-member team from the Philippine
environment department started an investigation yesterday into
claims that 80 gold miners were killed in a tunnel collapse --
not six as the government maintains.

"The team will do a geological hazard assessment and check all
the landslide-prone areas of Mount Diwalwal," said engineer
Constancio Paye, chief of the department's Mines and Geo-Sciences
Bureau in the southern island of Mindanao. "We would like to know
the truth."

The probe was triggered by lawyer and tribal leader Melanio
Andresan, who said in a letter to President Fidel Ramos that the
low casualty figure of mostly tribal mine workers stemmed from a
deliberate code of silence imposed by the operators.

Makeshift shafts and tunnels collapsed in a landslide on Dec.
26. Initial reports said rescue workers who frantically cleared
the rubble, boulders and timber saved 28 injured men while six
died. The search for other survivors was terminated last week.