GENERAL SANTOS CITY, Philippines: Doctors had to treat patients, including a young mother giving birth, in tents set up under a scorching sun on Tuesday (June 9), as the number of reported deaths rose past 40 after Monday’s magnitude 7.8 earthquake in southern Mindanao.
Thousands remained displaced and the number of injured reached more than 450 following the quake that struck off Maasim town in Sarangani province, the hardest hit area according to the Office of Civil Defence (OCD) in Region 12 (Soccsksargen).
Some areas in the province were accessible only by helicopter as fears of aftershocks slowed down rescue efforts, local officials said.
“The rescuers are very cautious in their approach. That’s a challenge,” said Rodrigo Sosmeña, the OCD chief in the region.
A series of powerful aftershocks rocked the area within two hours after the first quake, while hundreds of weaker quakes followed.
The damage to local roads and the collapse of a bridge may keep some communities isolated for at least a week.
The OCD-12 reported on Tuesday that at least 33 people died in the earthquake, while 456 others were injured and four individuals remained missing. An Agence France-Presse (AFP) report citing provincial sources placed the death toll at 41.
A teen's death
At least 13 people were killed by landslides in Sarangani. Among them was a 13-year-old student in Malapatan town who, after initially escaping harm from the first quake, died on his way home from school.
Loregen Segafu, the boy’s mother, said that despite his teachers’ advice to their pupils to wait for their parents to fetch them, her son, nicknamed Pao-pao, decided to go home alone on his motorbike after the main tremor that struck at 7:37 a.m. had subsided.
While on his way, aftershocks triggered landslides along his route. Pao-pao escaped unharmed from the first wave of debris, which partially buried his motorcycle. But as he tried to retrieve the vehicle, a second wave of rocks and soil came crashing down on him.
'Like an apocalypse'
Sosmeña said the tourist town of Glan was left isolated, with landslides and severely damaged roads rendering highways impassable to all types of vehicles.
The town, which recorded 17 fatalities, was also hit by a powerful earthquake in November 2023, making Monday’s disaster even more traumatic for many residents.
Scenes of devastation greeted residents across several parts of the town on Tuesday—a collapsed school, damaged commercial buildings, a public market in disarray and houses reduced to rubble.
“The earthquake was so strong, it felt like an apocalypse I had only seen in movies,” resident Bobby Saya-ang said. The wall of the dining area of his house was torn down by the tremor.
During the 2023 quake, the Glan municipal building sustained major structural damage but remained standing, forcing local government offices to relocate.
Monday’s quake further weakened the building, tilting it closer to the verge of collapse, said Antonio Acharon, head of the Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office.
Isolated by damage
Several kilometers before the entry to Glan, a bridge at Barangay Sapu Masla in Malapatan was dismantled by workers from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) after inspectors found structural defects. Authorities had the bridge demolished for public safety after motorists still tried to cross despite the obvious risks.
Nor-ann Edza, a resident of Buluan, Maguindanao del Sur, said she and 27 other people, including a four-month-old baby, had checked into one of Glan’s high-end resorts and tried to leave through Jose Abad Santos after the earthquake struck on Monday. They were forced to turn back.
“There’s a huge landslide that neither people nor horses can pass through,” she told the Inquirer, referring to an area in Barangay Baliton.
The group was forced to set up tents by the road on Monday night, cooking and eating their meals in the dark since the quake had also cut off power.
They were traveling in three vehicles and were among dozens of tourists stranded along different sections of the highway.
“I hope the government can hasten the repair of the road. Our food supplies are running low,” Edza said.
Acharon said the local government had already informed the DPWH of the situation and was hoping, like Edza, that repairs could be expedited.
Several stranded tourists from Polomolok, South Cotabato, said left their vehicle in Glan and walked to the bridge in Sapu Masla, Malapatan, where they waited to be picked up.
On Tuesday, a team from the Bureau of Fire Protection was airlifted to Glan by helicopter to assist in search-and-rescue operations. The flight also delivered around 200 food packs for immediate distribution.
The tremor affected 17,689 families across the region, with about 8,160 people displaced and currently staying in evacuation centers.
President to check site
Also on Tuesday, Palace press officer Claire Castro said President Marcos will fly to Mindanao this week, with the date yet to be set, to personally see the affected areas.
In a Palace situation briefing on Tuesday, the President ordered concerned government agencies to ensure the safety and welfare of patients in hospitals affected by the earthquake.
Castro said some patients refused to return to the hospitals after discovering some cracks in the structures.
The President directed the health and public works departments to assess the hospitals’ structural integrity as soon as possible, and the energy department to prioritise power restoration in these buildings.
Power situation
The Department of Energy (DOE) said it had ramped up power restoration efforts across Southern Mindanao. Its personnel and those of the National Electrification Administration have been deployed to work with electric cooperatives and distribution utilities in the affected communities.
In a statement, the DOE said power had been restored in several areas deemed safe for “reenergisation,” but other facilities were still being assessed as this reporting.
In southern Mindanao, additional crews from Dasureco and Cotabato Electric Cooperative-PPALMA have also been mobilised. - Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN
