Evac, demolition in ComVal mining site to continue - Army

Despite being met with some resistance from several villagers, government authorities in Compostela Valley insisted that evacuation and demolition operations will continue near a mining site eroded by a landslide that left 13 people killed. On Wednesday, Lt. Col. Leopoldo Galon, spokesman of the military's Eastern Mindanao Command, revealed that at least two families in Pantukan town "have resisted" a government order for a voluntary evacuation and demolition of structures in the area. "A demolition team from the municipal engineering [office] proceeded to the site at 8 a.m. to enforce evacuation and demolition of structures in risk areas... The municipal disaster risk reduction council will see to it that the law will be enforced," Galon stressed. Of the 112 families living near the mining site, 60 have so far voluntarily dismantled their homes with the help of a government demolition team. Relief goods have already been distributed to evacuation centers, Galon said. The local government issued the evacuation and demolition order after an inspection of the collapsed mining site showed that another landlside could be triggered at the nearby area where retrieval operations for trapped miners were being undertaken.

Retrieval operations have since been halted and would only resume once government authorities get a go signal from experts that soil in the area is no longer in danger of collapsing and once the weather in the province has improved. Galon said once retrieval operations resume, at least 14 volunteers will be deployed to scour a specific area near the mining site where the missing miners are believed to have been trapped. As of posting time, 13 people have died from last week's landslide, 13 have been rescued, and 10 remain missing. — with Mark Merueñas/RSJ, GMA News