MANILA, Nov 19 (Reuters) - A landslide triggered by heavy rain killed five people after it buried a housing facility for miners in the southern Philippines on Monday, an army commander said.

Lieutenant-Colonel Leouel Santos, a battalion commander in Surigao del Norte province, said five bodies had been dug out of the collapsed building at the Bayugo gold and copper exploration site run by Manila Mining <MA.PS>.

"We've recovered all the bodies but we're still checking if there were still some missing miners," Santos told reporters, adding people staying in the mine site had been advised to move to higher and safer ground.

Santos said the men, who worked at the exploration site, were staying at a rented house close to where Manila Mining kept equipment when rampaging flood waters and mud swept through the area at about 6 a.m. (2300 GMT) on Monday.

"Luckily, only one house was buried," he said, adding a larger community of miners was spared.

Manila Mining is conducting a feasibility study at the copper-gold site in partnership with a unit of Anglo American <AAL.L><AGLJ.J>, the world's third-biggest miner.

Across the Philippines, communities are at risk from landslides during the rainy season, which usually starts in May and lasts until October.

Last year, at least 1,850 were killed or declared missing and tens of thousands left homeless after a slew of typhoons crashed into the centre of the country. (Reporting by Manny Mogato, editing by Carmel Crimmins)

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