Huge quake rocks Cebu: 69 dead and counting

BOGO CITY—The death toll from a powerful magnitude 6.9 earthquake in the central Visayas rose to at least 69 on Wednesday, a disaster official said, with scores of injured patients overwhelming hospitals on the island of Cebu.

Injured children cried and adults screamed while being treated on beds beneath blue tents outside the Cebu Provincial Hospital, having been wheeled outside as a precaution against waves of aftershocks overnight in what is recorded to be the strongest tremor to hit the province.

They are survivors of the shallow quake that struck late Tuesday off Cebu island’s north near Bogo, a city of 90,000 people, according to the US Geological Survey.

Others were not so fortunate, with hospital workers loading black body bags into vans that took the dead to local mortuaries.

“Many of them were pinned down by debris, which caused their death,” Office of Civil Defense deputy administrator Rafaelito Alejandro said in a television interview, putting the updated death toll at 69 as of press time.

Richard Guion, his left elbow heavily bandaged, told how he and his wife, who broke her foot, were dug from under the collapsed concrete wall of their home by their 17-year-old son, who was playing outside when the quake struck.

“When the cement collapsed, I called out to him,” said the 39-year-old Guion, thankful his son ignored his order to go to bed early.

Thirty people were killed in Bogo, Alejandro said. In other municipalities near the quake’s epicenter, 22 were killed in San Remigio, 10 in Medellin, five in Tabogon and one each in Sogod and Tabuelan, he added.

The Bogo hospital put the number of injured at 186 so far.

At least 34 classrooms were completely destroyed while hundreds others sustained damage, the Department of Education said.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is set to visit “ground zero” today, Presidential Communications Secretary Dave Gomez said.

“I offer my heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families,” the President said.

Mr. Marcos dispatched Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr., who chairs the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), to Cebu yesterday to evaluate the impact of the strong quake.

“We’re still assessing the damage there, but the earthquake was very strong,” the President said, lamenting the “big number” of casualties recorded in the aftermath of the earthquake.

‘I am struggling’

Teddy Fontillas, 56, told AFP he had not slept while he helped transfer the injured to other hospitals.

“I’m already struggling, but what we are doing is necessary to help our patients,” he said.

Elsewhere in Bogo, firemen used excavators to drill holes into the collapsed heap of a two-storey motel, where two receptionists and a child were feared trapped beneath debris.

A distraught Isagani Jilig, whose wife and child are among the missing, joined about a hundred people watching the rescue.

“I will never leave this site until I find them again. As a father, I have to be strong now more than ever,” said Jilig, 41.

Fireman Erwin Castaneda said they had been searching for five hours but “we cannot give up.”

“We are talking about lives here. We will do everything that we can,” he told AFP.

Dramatic footage filmed by residents on Bantayan island near Cebu showed a string of light bulbs on an old Catholic church swaying wildly before the church’s belfry tumbled into the courtyard.

Local television showed riders dismounting from their motorcycles and holding onto railings as a Cebu bridge rocked violently.

In Cebu city, 100 kilometers to the south, online shoe merchant Jayford Maranga said he hid under a restaurant table to avoid the collapsing metal ceiling of a shopping mall.

“My friend and I ate at the food court near closing time, and then, bang! It was as if the Earth stopped spinning. And then the mall started shaking,” the 21-year-old Maranga said.

The Cebu provincial government has put out a call on its official Facebook page for medical volunteers to assist in the quake’s aftermath.

A number of village roads also sustained damage. The road in Tabogon town was riddled with five-centimeter cracks.

Cebu Gov. Pamela Baricuatro has placed the entire province under a state of calamity to trigger price freezes and ensure the quick release of funds.

“Let’s continue to be vigilant while we call on all government offices and the national government for reinforcements,” Baricuatro said.

The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines and the Department of Transportation have also assured the public that the Mactan-Cebu International Airport and other major airports across the country remain safe and fully operational following the tremor.

The Archdiocese of Cebu, for its part, asked priests to refrain from going inside churches in quake-hit areas.

“To the parishes in the North that have been gravely affected, you are asked to refrain from using your churches for the celebration of the Holy Mass,” it said.

At the same time, the archdiocese has ordered the structural assessment of churches in Cebu.

“These sacred spaces have long been places of prayer, hope, and refuge. May they rise again as signs of Your enduring presence among us,” it added.

Earthquakes are a near-daily occurrence in the Philippines, which is situated on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of intense seismic activity stretching from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin. With AFP

Most are too weak to be felt by humans but strong and destructive quakes come at random, with no technology available to predict when and where they might strike. With AFP