Davao City (CNN Philippines) — Three miners were killed when they were swept away by an underground flash flood over the weekend in Compostela Valley.
Local disaster management officials identified the fatalities on Tuesday (March 1) as Reymart Pegaret, Gilbert Bayot, Reynate Gemino – who were working at a small-scale mining site at Mt. Diwalwal in Monkayo town.
A fourth fatality, Ernesto Loquina, perished while helping in the rescue effort.
Three other miners remained missing, namely: Bryan Monsoon, Roel Dacaldacal, and Richard Monsoon.
Rescuers, however, were optimistic that they survived the incident as there could have been possible areas with air pockets to allow them to breathe underground.
Since the flash flood happened on Saturday (February 27), rescue operation had been ongoing – carried out the Australian Tunnel Management, which owned the mining tunnel.
Meanwhile, six miners had already been rescued since Sunday (February 28). They were identified as:
Aljun Dumalaga
Oliver Uganap
Carlito Morado
Alberto Agyang
Angelito Tonio
Pepe Mendoza
Davao City-based journalist Ben O. Tesiorna contributed to this report.
