DAVAO CITY -- Compostela Valley's chief executive recommended a 30-day suspension of small-scale mining operations in the province while rescuers scrambled Saturday to find survivors at the landslide-hit mining site in Pantukan town.
"We might suspend. I'm trying to recommend a suspension for a definite time, let's say 30 days. I'll wait for a few more details then we might announce the suspension, then reevaluate and reassess the situation," Governor Arturo Uy said in a television interview.
The assessment, he added, will be done by Mines and Geosciences Bureau, an attached agency of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
Hopes fading
Uy admitted Saturday that rescuers who dug by hand to save people buried by a landslide that hit Barangay Kingking in Pantukan were losing hope of finding 21 people who remain missing in the disaster.
The landslide, caused by heavy rains forecasted to last either Monday or Tuesday due to diffused tail-end of a cold front, killed at least three people, while 13 others were injured.
One of the fatalities was identified as Jun Rex Torrejos, 15, a resident of La Filipina in Tagum City. The other two fatalities remained unidentified as of Saturday evening.
