KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews / 18 Oct) – Eighty percent of government structures in at least nine barangays in Tulunan, North Cotabato were severely damaged as a result of the magnitude 6.3 earthquake on Wednesday night and the more than a hundred aftershocks that followed, the mayor of Tulunan said.
Mayor Reuel Limbongan said the damaged structures in Tulunan include barangay halls, health centers, and senior citizens’ halls.
The quake’s epicenter was 22 kilometers southeast of Tulunan.
At least 10 persons were injured – six of them rushed to hospitals.
Thirty percent of the other structures in different barangays are slightly damaged, he said
Tulunan has 29 barangays. Barangays Bituan and Paraiso are among the hardest hit.
Limbongan said a six-year old girl from neighboring Datu Paglas town in Maguindanao, was rushed to the Tulunan District Hospital after a debris from a destroyed wall hit her.
He said the local government unit is set to declare a state of calamity but explained the Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction Management (MDRRM) has yet to complete its report on the damages due to the quake.
In Makilala town, 25 residents were injured while at least a hundred houses and structures were badly damaed.
Of those injured, one was transferred to the Southern Philippines Medical Center in Davao City, according to M’lang acting administrator Shirley Orbita.
In its emergency session on Thursday, the Sangguniang Bayan of Makilala declared the town under a state of calamity.
Orbita said the legislative body deemed it timely to approve the release of Quick Response Funds as initial financial assistance to hundreds of quake victims.
The Makilala LGU is set to release at least P2.5 million from its QRF.
In M’lang, an elderly named Tony Pananggulong, a resident of Barangay Gaunan, died when his blood pressure shot up during the quake.
M’lang municipal mayor Russel Abonado said 34 houses and structures in his town were badly damaged, including the second floor of the legislative building located near the town hall.
Abonado said he monitored four injured – three in Barangay Inac and one in Barangay Langkong – who were rushed to hospitals in M’lang.
In Kidapawan City, more than a thousand individuals, mostly Manobos, from Barangay Ilomavis and at least 35 families from Sitio Lapan, Barangay Perez were forced to vacate Wednesday night after they monitored a rockslide.
They stayed in at least four evacuation sites but returned to their villages on Thursday afternoon.
Kidapawan City Mayor Joseph Evangelista ordered the forced evacuation of residents in Barangays Ilomavis and Perez but lifted it the next day even if strong aftershocks were still felt from Thursday night up to Friday dawn.
On Thursday, around 11pm, Phivolcs Kidapawan sub-station said it recorded a magnitude 4.6 quake. At 1 a.m. Friday, a magnitude 4.1 quake struck with epicenter between the fault line of Makilala and Tulunan in North Cotbato. (Malu Cadelina-Manar / MindaNews)