Search for missing miners in Compostela Valley halted

Nearly two weeks after the tragedy, search-and-retrieval operations ended for at least eight miners still "missing" in the wake of a landslide that buried a miners' village in Compostela Valley province in Mindanao last April 22. Pantukan town health officer Arnulfo Lantaya said this was upon the recommendation of the Environment Department's Mines and Geosciences Bureau, radio dzBB reported early Thursday. Lantaya said the conditions there are no longer safe for the search-and-retrieval teams. Besides, he said the bodies of the "missing" may already be in a state of decomposition and may pose health hazards to the search teams. The report quoted Lantaya as saying that the relatives of the eight were amenable to the halt in search operations. The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said that as of Wednesday, at least 14 had been killed while eight remain missing, while 112 families or 560 people had been evacuated from the site of the landslide at Kingking village in Pantukan town. In its May 3 update posted Wednesday afternoon on its website, the NDRRMC identified the 14 fatalities as: