CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/15 October)—Cries of “Allah Hu Akbar” (God is great in Arabic) rang out among a big Muslim crowd gathered at the Don Gregorio Pelaez Sports Center here after an Intensity 4 earthquake rattled infrastructure and swayed electric poles Tuesday morning as they celebrated Eid-ul-Adha or the Feast of Sacrifice.
“Let us praise Allah until the earthquake will stop. Earthquakes are afraid of Allah. It will eventually stop,” Shiek Abdulmalik Maulana Fatani told the crowd.
Marcial Labininay, officer-in-charge of the Phivolcs Cagayan de Oro Seismic Station, said the quake registered at Intensity four in Cagayan de Oro, 5 in Camiguin Island and 3 in Bukidnon province.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) and the United States Geological Service reported that the epicenter of the magnitude 7.2 quake was located at two kilometers south of Carmen, Bohol in the Visayas. It has a depth of 33 kilometers.
Intensity 3 was reported in the Davao region, Phivolcs said.
Mario Vernes Monsanto, head of the Cagayan de Oro Disaster Risk Reduction Management office, said the quake sent people out from high-rise buildings and hotels in downtown Cagayan de Oro.
“But all of our buildings and bridges are safe. Our teams reported that they did not find cracks in the buildings [due to the quake],” he said.
Monsanto said the city’s various inspection teams quickly fanned out to check on buildings and bridges soon after the earthquake struck this morning.
Photos of collapsed churches and damaged infrastructures in the provinces of Bohol and Cebu City went viral on social media sites after the quake.
The quake reportedly killed 20 persons as of noon Tuesday in the Visayas. It also triggered brownouts there. (Froilan Gallardo/MindaNews)