Intensity 5 quake rocks Basco, Batanes

BASCO, Batanes — An intensity 5 tectonic earthquake shook this town at 3:35 a.m. yesterday but there was no immediate reports of casualties or damages, officials said.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said the earthquake, which registered a magnitude 5.6 on the Richter Scale, was triggered by a movement of a local fault and was centered 26 kilometers southeast of this town on Batan island.

Bob Hidalgo, officer-in-charge of the Phivolcs field office here, said the epicenter was only eight kilometers away from the epicenter of the earthquake that struck the province on July 16, 2000.

Since the initial shock was felt at 3:55 a.m. and until 2 p.m. yesterday, there were 128 aftershocks recorded. However, only 10 of these were felt.

Governor Vicente Gato, who is also chairman of the Provincial Disaster and Coordinating Council, said he has already dispatched a team from his office to assess damages caused by the tremor in the southern towns of Uyugan, Ivana and Sabtang. — With AP, AFP and Felix de los Santos