South Cotabato quakes topple 76 houses

KORONADAL CITY , Philippines  – Earthquakes toppled 76 houses, government properties and several commercial buildings in two towns in South Cotabato province, injuring three civilians and damaging more than P4 million worth of properties, officials said yesterday.

The magnitudes 5.6 and 4 quakes struck this city and other towns of South Cotabato province Friday night and Saturday morning. The quake also struck some parts of Central Mindanao. 

“People were running. They really felt and saw the shaking of their houses that time when earthquake hit this city and several towns of this province,” Haydee Lacdoo, chief of the South Cotabato Disaster Coordinating Center, told The STAR.

Lacdoo said no one was reported killed during the quake incidents in this city, except in the towns of Norala and Sto. Niño (in South Cotabato province) where there were reported injuries, collapsed houses and government properties destroyed.

In Norala, town Mayor Reynaldo Januto told The STAR that the quakes affected the villages of Lapuz, San Jose, Liberty and Poblacion and toppled 36 houses and two commercial buildings.

In the municipality of Sto. Niño, Mayor Antonio Damandaman said the quake toppled at least 40 houses and destroyed some government properties like barangay halls, covered courts and session hall buildings.

Two residents were seriously injured, Damandaman said.

Damandaman said the injured, whom he identified as Helen Apolinario, 48, and Editha Servando, 53, both of Barangay Panay, are still under observation at the provincial hospital here.

“They were injured when their houses collapsed,” Damandaman told The STAR.   – Ramil Bajo