Rescuers Hear Signs of Life Beneath Rubble of Quake : Philippines: Knocking from hotel’s ruins seen as a response. Rebels call a cease-fire as toll hits 767.

Filipino miners burrowed beneath the ruins of a hotel Saturday in hopes of rescuing people who may be alive five days after a massive earthquake struck, killing at least 767 people.

But rescue efforts were delayed after small aftershocks rattled Baguio and Manila, 130 miles to the south. The tremors cracked the walls of the Baguio cathedral.

The official death toll from Monday’s magnitude 7.7 quake rose to 767 as more bodies were discovered Saturday. Officials said the toll may approach 1,000 because hundreds are feared dead in an industrial park and a remote farming area in Nueva Vizcaya province.

Also Saturday, Communist rebels declared a unilateral cease-fire in Manila and the quake-ravaged north. Right-wing military dissidents offered to declare a cease-fire if the government suspended efforts to capture them.

Miner Quilino Bagimbin said he crawled through a tunnel beneath the wrecked Hyatt Hotel in Baguio and knocked four times against debris blocking access to the basement gymnasium, where about 10 people are believed trapped.

Bagimbin said he heard four distinctive knocks in response. About 40 people remain unaccounted for at the Hyatt.

Recovery efforts were temporarily suspended Saturday following the aftershocks. The miners resumed their desperate bid to reach survivors later in the day after strengthening the tunnel.

“We are knocking every so often to let whoever is inside know that somebody is nearby,” said Dave Kemp, a volunteer from Norfolk, England. “That could be the edge to keep survivors alive longer.”

Jose de Jesus, presidential relief coordinator for Baguio, said 135 people are believed trapped inside eight factories in the Baguio Export Processing Zone, but all are believed dead.

De Jesus said information on deaths and damage is still trickling in from remote areas. He said there are unconfirmed reports that 108 people were killed in landslides in one village in Nueva Vizcaya. The official tally showed 83 dead in Nueva Vizcaya.

Presidential spokesman Horacio Paredes said experts believe trapped survivors will not be able to survive past Tuesday and officials will soon have to decide when to abandon rescue efforts.

Radio station DZRH said a group of village chiefs from the Baguio area complained Saturday that food supplies flown to the city had not been distributed to them, and people were suffering from hunger.

Armed gangs were reportedly looting at night in Baguio, and witnesses there said they feared an outbreak of disease if the government did not increase relief efforts.