DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 20 January) – It is not true that miners were trapped in a wooded mining site operated by Hallmark Mining Company in Mati City, around noon on Friday, January 19, an official said.

“Dili po tinuod na trapped ang mga miners, na-isolate lang to sila sa mining area kay naa landslides sa mga kalsada (It’s not true that the miners were trapped, they were isolated from the mining area due to the landslides affecting the roads),” Office of Civil Defense (OCD) – XI Operations Officer Franz Irag said in a Viber message Saturday.

The online news outfit Rappler reported that rescuers conducted search and rescue operations for the supposedly 300 trapped miners Friday.

The article quoted Jude Corpuz, spokesperson for Mati City’s Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, as saying that rescuers had been forced to halt their operations due to the threat of flash floods and landslides at the mining site.

It also quoted Nathaniel Quinonez, a council member of Barangay Sentral in Mati City, as saying that the last communication he had with the miners was their request for re scue, and that none of them could be contacted after that.

However, Irag said the miners were “isolated from the mining area because of the landslides along the road,” and were not really trapped. He clarified that the mining site is an “open pit”.

OCD-XI meanwhile reported that 30,848 families or 145,586 individuals were affected by the heavy rains caused by a shear line since Monday.

As of 8:00 a.m. Saturday, the Mati City local government unit Facebook page posted that Banahaw Road, Mamali Road, Badas, and Muñoz roads are already passable while Macambol road was being cleared. (Ian Carl Espinosa/MindaNews)