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Thursday, February 16, 2006
Landslide threatens 2 Davao Oriental villages
By Ben O. Tesiorna
DAVAO CITY -- A major landslide will hit two barangays in Tarragona, Davao Oriental in "just a matter of time," the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) warned, pointing to fissures on the ground now two meters deep running across the two places.
Rusty Villamor, of the regional mining bureau, and teams from the Office of Civil Defense, Philippine Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs), and weather bureau visited the area last Tuesday and found huge cracks stretching for several kilometers.
Villamor estimated the affected area to be around 100 hectares.
Data from the regional mines office identified the affected place as a "landslide deposit area." This means that years back, a landslide already hit the adjacent area and the cascading soil was deposited in the place where the two barangays are situated.
Villamor said this indicates that the barangays sit on very unstable ground that could move anytime soon, especially so with the above average rainfall since November last year.
He said the presence of cracks in the surface ground indicate that pressure is building up underneath and that the soil is loosening up.
Villamor said they could not tell exactly when the ground would give in to the pressure and slide down the slope. He said the only thing that's preventing this from happening is the two mounds in the lower slope of the two barangays that are serving as buffers.
He said once these buffers give way, it would cause a domino effect and cause a major landslide that might cause the destruction of lives and properties. As of the latest report, P6 million worth of infrastructures had been damaged by the cracks and about P22 million of crops have been affected.
It was learned that the 1,008 residents in the two barangays still haven't completely abandoned their houses in the area. Tubaon village chief Romeo Roberto said this is because many of the residents there have their farms and other livelihood in the area.
He said if they will completely leave the area, then they will die of hunger.
Tarragona Mayor Samuel Uy already suspended classes in Tubaon for at least one week until such time when they could find a better alternative for the hundreds of schoolchildren.
In a meeting Tuesday afternoon, Uy pleaded with the residents to vacate the area immediately. Uy expressed fear upon discovering huge cracks on the ground last Tuesday, which he said were not present during his visit to the area last Sunday.
Residents said they are more than willing to vacate the area provided they would be resettled nearby.
Uy requested the mines bureau to help them identify an area that is safe for relocation. Villamor said it would take them about two weeks to find such a place. In the meantime residents in the two barangays still visit the area during daytime and leave at nighttime. (Sun.Star Davao/Sunnex)
(February 16, 2006 issue)
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