Rains hamper clearing of 6 Cordillera roads, big mining firms help rescue trapped miner

FILE PHOTO OF CLOSED CORDILLERA ROAD BY BERNARD TESTA

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InterAksyon.com
The online news portal of TV5

BAGUIO CITY - Continuous monsoon rains in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) continue to slow down the re-opening of a vital road and at least five sections of other routes in the area which have been closed due to landslides since August 6.

Alexander Uy, operations officer of the Office of the Civil Defense (OCD) office here said the Benguet-Nueva Vizcaya road remains totally closed due to numerous landslides.

Since August 3, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) clearing crews have started to clear various roads in the area from debris caused by the southwest monsoon and typhoon "Gener."

Other sections of provincial roads connected to the main artery of the Halsema Highway (Baguio-Bontoc Road) like those in the areas of Mountain Province and northern part of Benguet and eastern part of Ilocos Sur remain closed.

Mining rescue

Meanwhile, Uy confirmed that Lepanto and Philex mining companies' trained rescue teams have responded to the earlier call of Benguet Governor Nestor Fongwan to help in the rescue of a trapped miner in Bokod, Benguet.

The lone victim remains alive through food and water being supplied by rescuers who never left him since he was trapped last August 3 inside a collapsed gold mining tunnel.

As of Wednesday, the rescuers started to reinforce the collapsed tunnel with timber to make sure that there would be no further earth movement within the accident site while miners try to reach their comrade in distress.

Meanwhile, all mining operations have been suspended since July 31 due to bad weather which prevailed in the area over the past 10 days.

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