Philex team recovers more bodies in Benguet landslide

ITOGON, Benguet --Two more bodies were recovered by a rescue team of Philex Mining Corp. from a mine shelter in Barangay Ucab in this town, which was hit by a landslide last Sept. 15.

The number of fatalities is now 62.

The Philex rescue team has been working long hours every day to ensure the speedy recovery of small-scale miners and their family members who were buried in the landslide.

“Our rescuers are first to arrive at ground zero at daybreak and last to leave before or at night,” Eduardo Aratas, Philex Padcal mine legal division head, said.

“They get to work even before the other rescue teams arrive,” Aratas added.

Philex had earlier constructed an access road from the Itogon provincial highway for easy and speedy movement of people and equipment involved in rescue efforts.

When asked how long the rescue operations will take, Aratas said the Philex team would continue “for as long as it takes.”

The Philex rescue team has a long history of volunteer search and rescue and search and recovery operations, including the earthquakes in Baguio in 1990 and Bohol in 2013 as well as Super Typhoon Yolanda.