Mankayan, Benguet (CNN Philippines) — The body of a miner who went missing 26 days earlier was found on Wednesday afternoon (September 16) in Sitio Elizabeth, Barangay Taneg, Mankayan, Benguet
Ronaldo Angel from Aurora Province, a small-scale miner, went missing after a landslide during the height of Typhoon Ineng (internationally known as Goni).
Supt. Jonathan Calixto, chief of the Benguet Provincial Public Safety Company, was the one who identified Angel, reportedly a financier of small-scale mining operations in the area.
Over a hundred volunteers conducted the search
Meanwhile, on Tuesday (September 15), volunteers also recovered another missing miner, identified as Harold Baturi, who was also buried by the massive landslide that covered at least four shanties in a temporary mining camp in the area.
Calixto said they were able to retrieve 14 bodies shortly after they started the search operations amid rains last month and from August 21 to 31.
The dead were identified as :
Crispin Ablao
Felimon Adcapan
Armando Dayag
Jasper Olivarez
Nardo Mocnangan
Efren Balicdan
Crisanto Ablao
Jose Aluyan
Rocky Manrobang
Ronald Paul Angel
Marvin Collado Baturi
Mark Balicdan
Ronald Paul Angel
Paulita Angel
Calixto added they went on with the search despite the difficulties as relatives of the victims had pleaded to them to continue.
He also thanked those who helped an estimated 500 government troops and volunteers in Barangay Taneg who helped in the search operations.
It was only last September 15 that a glimmer of hope for recovering the bodies of the remaining two miners were reached when volunteers reached a portion of the camp where the miners were buried.
According to Gov. Nestor Fongwan reports that have reached him showed all the 16 dead were asleep when a portion of the mountain caved in at the height of the typhoon.
The Mines and Geosciences Bureau said the portion of that collapsed remains unstable and might cause another landslide.
It recommended the prohibition of small-scale mining activities in the area and the relocation of communities near the eroded portion of the mountain.
