3 more miners rescued from flooded tunnel

Manila: Three more miners were pulled out alive from a flooded tunnel in northern Luzon on Tuesday, increasing the number of survivors to nine and raising hopes that 5 others might still be alive 11 days after 16 of them remained underground when Typhoon Hagupit hit the north on September 21.

Relatives, officials, and divers clapped and cheered as three emaciated, hungry, pale, and weakened miners on stretchers were rushed to Baguio General Hospital and Medical Centre, seconds after rescue teams got them out from two shallower shafts of a two-metre deep tunnel of Baguio Mines in Itogon Province.

"At 2.20pm Wednesday afternoon, miner Gilbert Natten was found alive at shaft 90, Mario Anayasan and Rudy Buling, at shaft 70, all of which branched into the so-called level 700, where they were trapped," announced Engineer George Baywong, of the government's Mines and Geosciences Bureau and head of the rescue operation.

Narrating his harrowing days and night in the dark, Natten, 26, said, "I was in a shaft where the water was chest-deep."

"I sipped water from a two-litre container that I had brought with me when I went into the tunnel on September 21. While waiting for rescuers, I gave myself up to the Lord," said Natten.

Sister's statement

Natten's sister Helen Badao vowed, "We will not allow him to go back to the mine tunnel again."

Buling, 32, said, "I managed to sleep while sitting down on a dry area. I survived because of the clean water that I brought down with me. It was impossible to drink from the murky rain water that flooded the tunnel."

"Deep in my heart, I knew that I and my companions would live. Why? We prayed. We had enough supply of water and air, although we had little of both in the underground," said Anayasan, 32.

Rescue miner Eliseo Ballitok said, "We used neon torch and neon sticks in looking for survivors in the dark tunnel. When we saw them, they responded to our yells. We went inside and brought them out on stretchers."

The three miners jumped out of the stretchers when reunited with fellow survivors at the hospital.

With inputs by Barbara Mae Dacanay, Bureau Chief