Mild quake jolts Caraga

BUTUAN CITY — An Intensity 2.5 earthquake jolted this city at around 7:45 p.m. Sunday night.

Bislig City also experienced the jolt at Intensity 1 and Tandag, the capital town of Surigao del Sur, at Intensity 3 simultaneously.

The office of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) in Surigao City said the earthquake was tectonic in origin and the center was found 35 miles southeast of Tandag.

No damage were reported.

Geologist Reynaldo Javelosa of the Mines and Geo-Sciences Bureau (MGB) urged local government officials of Butuan City to come up with a disaster plan that will help city residents prepare for earthquakes, flashfloods and landslides.

In an environmental symposium held at the Urios College Audio Visual Center here, sponsored by the Global Foundation Inc., Javelosa stressed the need for a Disaster Preparedness Planning and Management System.

He said that Butuan City is located in a "water delta" or soil underground. With an intensity 5 to 7 earthquake, the city soil has a tendency to "liquefy" or "collapse," and this poses grave danger to the more than 400,000 residents.

Javelosa was earlier commissioned by the Butuan City government for geological profiling related to its continuing claims as the site of the "first Christian Mass" in the country.

Javelosa said that in reality most local government units, particularly in the Caraga Region, have "no comprehensive" Disaster Preparedness Planning and Management Systems at hand to guide residents and thousands of school children in case a major earthquake occur.

No representatives from the City Engineering Office which approve building permits and from the Butuan City Council attended the symposium.

The Regional Disaster Coordinating Council (RDCC) has also urged different local government units in the region to formulate comprehensive disaster plans and conduct routine drills.