A mass grave and muted grief in the land of gold

ON a sad day early this month, torrents of mud from denuded mountain areas buried entire villages, three buses carrying mining workers and a packed passenger jeepney in the remote village of Masara, Maco town, Davao de Oro province. Eighty-five people have been confirmed dead while scores remain missing, with rescuers suffocating from the stench of death in the mud-swept areas, still hoping against hope that they can pull out a few more survivors. Some in the rescue teams are digging due to the lack of modern tools, with only their bare hands and nonstop prayers.

By any reckoning and by any metric, the nightmarish scenes of mine workers buried alive and whole villages swallowed whole by loose, wet and heavy soil from logged-over mountainsides fall under the category of a national tragedy. What society can be cavalier about 85 lives lost and scores reported missing and presumed dead in an area literally named Davao of Gold, where gold can be panned the crude way or commercially mined? Theoretically, both can lead to literal riches, even with their attendant risks.