President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. facing his latest natural disaster after a recent deadly quake and back-to-back storms, said the potential damage was being assessed and rescue teams and relief operations were being prepared and would be deployed when it was safe to do so.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said that it was expecting damage and aftershocks from the temblor, which was centered at sea about 27 miles east of Manay town in Davao Oriental province and was caused by movement in the Philippine Trench at a depth of 14 miles.
At least five people were killed, including two patients who died of heart attacks at a hospital during the earthquake and a resident who was hit by debris in Mati city in Davao Oriental, Ednar Dayanghirang, regional director of the government's Office of Civil Defense, told The Associated Press by telephone.
Two villagers died and several others were rescued with injuries by army troops and civilian volunteers in a landslide set off by the quake in a remote gold-mining village in Pantukan town in Davao de Oro province near Davao Oriental, Dayanghirang said.
Office of Civil Defense deputy administrator Bernardo Rafaelito Alejandro IV said that several buildings sustained cracks in their walls, including an international airport in Davao city, but it remained operational without any flights being canceled, Alejandro said.
“I was driving my car when it suddenly swayed and I saw power lines swaying wildly. People darted out of houses and buildings as the ground shook and electricity came off,” Jun Saavedra, a disaster mitigation officer of Governor Generoso town in Davao Oriental, told The Associated Press by cellphone.
“We've had earthquakes in the past, but this was the strongest,” Saavedra said, adding that the intense ground swaying caused cracks in several buildings, including a high school, where about 50 students were brought to a hospital by ambulance after sustaining bruises, fainting or becoming dizzy because of the quake.
