BY ZEA CAPISTRANO
DAVAO CITY – Four alleged treasure hunters were trapped in a 96-foot deep tunnel in Barangay Kinamayan, Santo Tomas, Davao del Norte on Sunday after its portion collapsed on Sunday morning.
On Monday morning, the municipal government of Santo Tomas in Davao del Norte said the rescue effort was turned into a retrieval operation after the rescuers failed to get signs of life from the four victims.
“The individuals are believed to be conducting a treasure hunt when part of the tunnel collapsed on Sunday morning,” the municipal government said.
The four were identified as Kayl Castañares, 18; Jerick Marquez, 23; Dindo Pañares, 18; and Rustom Racho, 18.
Municipal information officer Mart Sambalud said the four have been “presumed dead” as they have been buried for almost 24 hours and with water and mud blocking any air passageway.
“The retrieval operations will continue 6 a.m. today with heavy equipment digging close to where the four men are believed to have been buried,” he added.
Sambalud said Hernan Castañares, cousin of one of those trapped, alerted the Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office through the radio about the incident at around 1 p.m.
He said another person, identified as Ho Ang, 43, also went down the tunnel but was able to get out before it collapsed. Ang sustained injuries.
Sambalud added that the four went down the tunnel around 9 a.m., an hour before it collapsed.
Mayor Ernesto Evangelista along with a team of rescuers led the retrieval operation.
Meanwhile, the parents of the four had thought their sons left home to work as farm workers in a banana plantation in the province of Davao del Norte.
“What the parents of these men knew was that they were working in a banana plantation,” Sto. Tomas Municipal information officer Mart Sambalud said in a phone interview on Monday.
The private property is owned by Hernan Castañares – a relative of one of the victims. (with a report from Antonio Colina 1V)
