Miners, not LGU, made Itogon site an evacuation center before landslide

It was the small-scale miners that Benguet Mining Corporation allowed on their abandoned mining site who allegedly made the area subsequently buried by a landslide as an evacuation center, Itogon Mayor Victorio Palangdan said Tuesday.

Palangdan stressed in an interview on Unang Balita that the miners had also refused to heed warnings to evacuate the area days before a landslide crashed into the miners' refuge and trapped at least 40 people.

"Before the coming of [Typhoon] Ompong, pumunta po doon ang kapulisan natin na hinihimok silang mag-preemptive evacuation. Pero ayaw nila," he said. "We tried to force, pero talagang pumapalag 'yung tao. Ang alam nila kasi, stable 'yung kanilang pinuntahan."

Palangdan noted that the people sent to this area even tried to pull the miners along physically, but they could not be moved.

Benguet Mining Corporation stated that they fulfilled their duty to rehabilitate the area and that it was the miners who insisted on continuing their trade.

For their part, Palangdan said they will hold a technical conference to identify the dangerous areas for miners around their area as small-scale mining is "one of the only source(s of income) of the people of Cordillera."

The death toll in Itogon, Benguet rose to 35 on Monday. Thirteen of the fatalities were from the Itogon mine site. Three have been rescued. About 60 persons were confirmed missing at the mine site by relatives days after Typhoon Ompong left. —Rie Takumi/KG, GMA News