Anxious residents slept outside after hundreds of aftershocks rattled the earthquake-hit northern Philippines, locals said, as President Ferdinand Marcos Jr inspected damage in the region.
Five people were killed and more than 150 injured when a 7.0-magnitude quake struck the lightly populated province of Abra on Wednesday morning, authorities said.
The powerful quake rippled across the mountainous area, toppling buildings, triggering landslides and shaking high-rise towers hundreds of kilometres away in the capital Manila.
“Aftershocks happen almost every 20 minutes, 15 minutes since yesterday,” said Reggi Tolentino, a restaurant owner in Abra’s provincial capital Bangued yesterday.
“Many slept outside last night, almost every family.”
Some families have been given modular tents to stay in.
Marcos Jr has urged people to wait for their homes to be inspected before moving back.
Hundreds of buildings were damaged or destroyed, roads were blocked by landslides and power was knocked out in affected areas.
But in Abra, which felt the full force of the quake, overall damage had been “very minimal”, said police chief Colonel Maly Cula.
“We don’t have a lot of people in evacuation sites, although many people are staying in the streets because of the aftershocks,” he said.
“Abra is back to normal.”
Marcos Jr, who took office last month, arrived in Bangued yesterday to inspect the damage and discuss the response effort with government, military and disaster officials.
More than 800 aftershocks have been recorded since the quake hit, including 24 that were strong enough to feel, the local seismological agency said.
Aftershocks were expected to continue for “several weeks”, Renato Solidum, director of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, told a briefing presided over by Marcos Jr.
There would be “a lot” in the first three days, then “hopefully it will decline afterwards”, he said.
In Vigan City, a Unesco World Heritage site and tourist destination in Ilocos Sur province, centuries-old structures built during the Spanish colonial period were damaged.
Governor Jeremias Singson told TV broadcaster Teleradyo that 460 buildings in the province had been affected, including the Bantay Bell Tower, which partially crumbled.
“Our tourism industry and small business owners were really affected,” Singson said.
After visiting Vigan yesterday, Senator Imee Marcos, the president’s elder sister, said the damage to old churches in the city was “overwhelming”.
Wednesday’s quake was one of the strongest recorded in the Philippines in recent years and was felt across swathes of Luzon island, the most populous in the archipelago. — AFP
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