ONE year after the magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck northern Cebu on September 30, 2025, recovery is moving unevenly. Over P1 billion in infrastructure projects has been identified for funding or endorsement. Meanwhile, geologists and seismologists warn that the ground and the region's building practices both need attention before reconstruction can be considered safe.
The quake was caused by the previously unmapped Bogo Bay Fault, according to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs). It produced destructive shaking, landslides, liquefaction and a tsunami. Its epicenter was about 19 kilometers northeast offshore of Bogo City, at a depth of roughly five kilometers.
The Office of Civil Defense (OCD) 7 estimates infrastructure damage at P1.98 billion across 955 facilities, in line with the Cebu Provincial Government's Post-Disaster Needs Assessment of P1,977,837,212.21. The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) had initially put road and bridge damage in seven northern towns at P2 billion, excluding hospitals and schools.
Housing took the heaviest toll. Of 186,208 damaged houses in 17 local government units and one highly urbanized city, 10,551 were totally damaged and 175,657 partially. About 200 public schools were also hit, and early assessments cited around 500 destroyed classrooms, 700 with major damage and over 2,000 with minor damage, with losses approaching P4 billion.
The DPWH and the Provincial Government used available funds right away to assist affected local governments. Projects requested under the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund (NDRRMF) are still being processed and await approval.
Six projects worth P245.6 million have been endorsed to the OCD Central Office:
P60.6 million for a tent city in San Remigio, Medellin, Daanbantayan and Bogo City
P60 million to repair the DPWH Cebu 4th District Engineering Office buildings in Medellin
P15 million for a campus building and covered court at Cebu Normal University's Medellin campus
P55 million and P45 million for a four-storey and a two-storey building at Cebu Technological University in San Remigio
P10 million to repair a bridge in Barangay Luy-a, Medellin
Another P774 million in projects still awaits endorsement, pending documentary requirements from the local governments:
Tabogon: a P200-million multi-purpose building, a P150-million public market, two bridges (P50 million and P100 million), P18.5 million for slope protection and a box culvert on Labangon Road, and P7 million for the DRRM office
Sogod: P60 million for storm surge protection and P10 million for the water system
Catmon: P97.5 million for farm-to-market roads
Borbon: P81 million for building repairs and relocations, including multi-purpose buildings, the disaster risk management office and the Municipal Trial Court
The Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) 7 says reconstruction may proceed, but only with site-specific evaluation. Senior Geologist Russyl Bryile Anthony Lanzaderas said sinkholes can still develop a year after a quake, especially in limestone and other karst-forming rock. MGB 7 has recorded at least 74 sinkholes in northern Cebu since the quake. The most recent subsidence or collapse was reported on August 20 in Barangay Guadalupe, Bogo City.
The bureau recommends geotechnical investigations to check for large cavities or voids before building government offices, LGU facilities and school buildings near sinkholes, cave openings or areas prone to subsidence. Officials and property owners should consult geohazard susceptibility maps and MGB 7 findings, and engineering studies should determine suitable foundations.
MGB 7 has done karst subsidence hazard mapping in Daanbantayan (April) and Tabogon (August). Its assessments have covered Bogo City, San Remigio, Tabuelan and Tabogon. It urges LGUs to build its findings into zoning, permitting and infrastructure planning, and to report new cracks, depressions or collapses. The bureau says its work has been strained by a shortage of geologists, forcing it to defer some regular programs and borrow staff from other regions. It says it needs more personnel, equipment, vehicles and funding.
Phivolcs says most severely damaged structures were poorly built, citing poor craftsmanship, substandard materials and gaps in enforcement of the National Building Code. It called on local governments to be stricter about building permits.
The quake also challenged the assumption that areas with little recorded seismicity are low-risk. The Bogo Bay Fault was unmapped, northern Cebu's limestone poorly preserves evidence of past fault movement, and written history records no significant earthquakes there. Phivolcs stressed the importance of fault and hazard mapping even in low-seismicity regions.
Phivolcs has recommended a zone of avoidance of at least five meters on both sides of the fault's onland trace. Bogo City has adopted it and will install permanent markers. Communities hit by landslides in Bogo City, San Remigio, Medellin, Tabuelan, Tabogon and Sogod were advised to evacuate, monitor tension cracks and possible river damming, and clear sites, and the LGUs implemented these steps right away. Phivolcs also urges wider use of its hazard maps and the HazardHunterPH platform.
Its Quick Response Team assessed eight municipalities and cities from October 2 to 11, 2025. Preparedness work continues, including teacher training, drills, the "How Safe Is My House?" self-assessment guide, and 15 GeoRisk Philippines and local-level disaster risk reduction trainings across the Visayas since 2021, five of them in Cebu from 2025 to 2026.
The OCD says many residents have rebuilt or retrofitted their homes and businesses, but vulnerable sectors remain at risk. It names four key lessons: structural resilience, enforcing no-build zones, better baseline data for faster damage assessments, and safe, resilient evacuation centers. It stresses that resilience demands long, continuous disaster risk reduction and management work./DPC, JGS. CDF