Pantukan

(photo credit: diversityhuman.com)

TWENTY-FIVE people have been killed and 150 still missing in the year’s worst landslide in the country. Small scale miners who tunnel in Pantukan’s mines in Mindanao also have made their homes in the area which is unstable already due to tension cracks.

This instability plus the continuous rains saturated the land that cause the soil to shift.

This is not the first such disaster in the area. In April 2012, 14 were killed and in 2009, 26 also died from landslides.

In addition to the geological make up that has caused the accident, the tunneling by these miners in the mountains with little or no engineering expertise have made the said mountains unstable.

The loss of life is so large for such a small area that government responses have been insufficient at best, through no fault on the part of the rescuers who are armed only with hand-held tools and body bags.

Other rescuers don’t even have the tools. But more help is on the way.PssstCentro deeply sympathizes with the miners whose homes have been buried in the rubble and whose family are among the dead and wounded.

But even more, we sympathize with the poverty that has driven these miners to stake their lives on making a living in such a dangerous location and manner and in building homes in the area to house their families despite the clear hazards it poses.

Our prayers are with them and with the rescuers as they race to save more lives.

By: Atty. Trixie Cruz-Angeles
(Source : PSSST! Centro)






To know more about Trixie Cruz Angeles, check out: I AM TRIXIE CRUZ