Miner rescued after 11 days in Philippine mine
07-OCT-2008 Intellasia | AP
Oct 7, 2008 - 7:00:00 AM
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The last of 16 miners trapped in a flooded gold mine in the northern Philippines was rescued after 11 days _ and then arrested by police.
George Baywong, a Mines and Geosciences Bureau officer who supervised the rescue efforts, said on Saturday that Joseph Anayasan was pulled out of the mine in Itogon township in Benguet province late Friday.
"It was miraculous," he said of the miner's survival.
Anayasan was immediately whisked away by his relatives to evade police, who had a warrant for his arrest on unrelated theft and robbery charges, Baywong said.
Police arrested Anayasan on Saturday at the home of one of his relatives in Baguio city near Itogon, said provincial police Chief Danilo Pelisco.
The rescued miner had earlier been on trial for alleged robbery but jumped bail and disappeared. He was sentenced in absentia to six years in 2002, Pelisco said.
Anayasan was one of 10 survivors among 16 people who were inside the mine when floodwaters rushed in during a typhoon on Sept. 22. The bodies of the six others were recovered days earlier. Anayasan's brother, Mario, was among three men rescued Wednesday.
Baywong said Anayasan's "hard-life upbringing" and his physical fitness contributed to his survival. "He may have prayed to God to let him live, promising to change," Baywong said.
He said Anayasan was located by former miners who volunteered to rescue him in a tight spot where navy frogmen who had helped save the other miners could not reach him with their equipment.
Baywong said rescuers helped move Anayasan about 1,500 feet along a horizontal shaft. They then gave him a little food and water so he could regain some strength to climb 300 feet on ladders along a vertical shaft and negotiate another 700 feet in a horizontal tunnel to get out on the side of a mountain.
He said Anayasan's family took him away Friday night because they were worried about how police would treat him right after coming out of the mine.
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