After Landslide, Nat'l road reopens temporarily

CORTES, BOHOL, Philippines — After weeks of being closed due to a landslide, local and highway officials have reopened at least one lane of the national highway along sitio Liloan of Brgy. Poblacion of this town.

This was confirmed by Mayor Apolinaria Balistoy who however told The FREEMAN that this was only good for three days since the area is still dangerous to traffic and houses nearby.

She said highway engineers still could not decide on what permanent measure to take that would prevent the recurrence of the landslide.

One plan was to build a concrete riprap, but then the soil base might not be able to sustain it and lot owners atop the hill might object to it since their lot will be slashed, the mayor said.

This area has experienced three landslides in less than a month when heavy rains hit Bohol over the last two months.

The latest landslide prompted officials concerned to close the road until they could come up with measures to stop the landslide for good.

The provincial government and the DPWH have joined to clear up the affected highway and started to let motorists pass to and from Tagbilaran City. The other route is via the elevated town proper of Cortes from Tagbilaran to Tubigon north.

Meanwhile, Balistoy said the residents nearby whose houses were almost hit by the landslide have not agreed to evacuate to safer places, but her administration is determined to convince them to move out considering that landslide may occur anytime.

The Mines and Geo-sciences Bureau (MGB), earlier, has recommended to the officials for their evacuation but to no avail as of yesterday. – THE FREEMAN