TWO bodies were recovered Monday, December 16, from the collapsed three-story commercial building in Padada town in Davao del Sur, bringing to four the number of fatalities from the latest tectonic quake to strike Mindanao.
A Facebook post by the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) Davao, quoting Davao del Sur Provincial Information Officer Hiru Gustavo Undalok, said the first body was retrieved at about 2 a.m. and the second was recovered around 8 a.m. Monday.
Search and retrieval operations continue at the Southern Trade store, where shoppers and employees are believed to be trapped.
The building collapsed when the ground shook at 2:11 p.m. Sunday, December 15.
The magnitude 6.9 quake was centered about five kilometers north of Matanao town at a depth of only three kilometers. Shallow earthquakes are more destructive.
A six-year-old girl, identified as Cherbelchen Imgador, was confirmed to have died in Matanao after her family’s house collapsed.
The Mines and Geosciences Bureau regional office in Davao also reported one fatality in Hagonoy town Sunday evening, the PIA said.
In Matanao, the PIA said Mayor Vincent Fernandez lamented over the devastation brought by the earthquake.
Fernandez told the PIA that almost all 33 barangays reported that their barangay halls, gyms, health centers and some houses collapsed.
The mayor also reported major damage to government facilities such as the municipal hall, ABC hall, senior citizens’ building and the Land Bank satellite building.
Roads cracked and landslides were reported in the upland barangays. Some barangay officials also complained that their water systems were damaged.
The mayor also said that some concrete roads sustained cracks, and that there were landslides occurrences in the hinterland barangays.
In its update on the latest quake, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said 13 government facilities were affected.
Two of these, the Magsaysay Municipal Hall in Davao del Sur and the Malandang Public Market in Cotabato, were totally wrecked while 11 were damaged.
Other structures that were damaged included three schools in Padada, Kiblawan and Hagonoy in Davao del Sur, a place of worship, a grocery store, and four other buildings.
Some 315 houses in the municipality of Hagonoy were also damaged.
The quake occurred 45 days after the series of tremors that struck Cotabato in late October - magnitude 6.3 on October 16, magnitude 6.6 on October 29 and magnitude 6.5 on October 31.
Meanwhile, PNP deputy chief for operations Lieutenant General Camilo Cascolan said he has already ordered the reactivation of crisis incident management committees in the affected areas as well as in the neighboring areas to ensure continued assistance to the affected population and local government units.
“So that we would be able to resolve any kind of issue that will happen next most especially in thi natural disasters. Meron na po silang na-prepare while neighboring provinces were also directed to prepare their response teams so that they would be able to help other regions and provinces in this kind of incidents lalo na ‘yung mga earthquake,” he said. (MVI and TAPM/SunStar Philippines)