Wednesday, March 19, 2008 North Cotabato to help quake victims
THE Provincial Government of North Cotabato vowed to give assistance to the victims of the series of earthquakes that hit Makilala town last week.
In a meeting with the victims from Barangay Kisante, Governor Jesus Sacdalan assured the victims that the Provincial Government will assist in the repair of their homes damaged by a series of earthquakes that also hit the town of Magpet and Kidapawan City on Thursday night last week.
Sacdalan said the provincial government could provide construction materials needed for the repair of their damaged houses.
"Labor will be your counterpart," the governor told the affected residents.
Sacdalan thus ordered acting provincial engineer Peter Salac to conduct an ocular inspection in the area and come up with a damage assessment report. This will serve as the basis for the Provincial Government's assistance to those whose houses sustained damage.
A total of 48 tremors in the area were recorded by the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) Kidapawan substation last March 13. Two of the tremors were recorded at intensity 5 on the Richter scale while one was monitored at intensity 4. The rest of the quakes were relatively weak.
Engineer Hermes Daquipa of Phivolcs attributed the earthquakes to movement of the Malasila Valley fault, a local fault connected to the Mindanao fault.
The quakes resulted in a land crack in Barangay Malasila, which was measured at about 30 meters deep, according to Daquipa. Residents blamed the drilling operations of the Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC) in Mount Apo as the "culprit," but Phivolcs experts dismissed this as "baseless."
Daquipa said if there were indeed drilling operations, the movements could only be felt in areas near the site.
"That means, only those residents living in areas within at least a 10-kilometer radius could feel the quakes. But that was not the case here. The movements were felt as far as Cagayan de Oro City," Daquipa explained. (BOT)
