Kidapawan City, North Cotabato—Council members here have placed the city under a state of calamity following last week’s magnitude-6.3 earthquake that hit the entire province.
In a special session Wednesday, the city council passed two resolutions—one putting the city under a state of calamity and the other redirecting programs and projects of the city disaster office for relief operations of earthquake victims.
Psalmer Bernalte, head of the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, told city legislators the quake has affected more than 700 individuals who evacuated to safer grounds due to aftershocks and rockfall in Barangay Ilomavis.
Bernalte said that five out of 40 villages of Kidapawan were earlier placed under a state of calamity due to the earthquake.
It was the third time that the city council has declared a state of calamity this year: first, due to severe drought and second was due to a dengue outbreak.
Earlier on Wednesday, residents of Barangay Ilomavis rushed to the village’s covered court anew after another aftershock, a magnitude 4.5, rocked North Cotabato at 2:45 a.m.
Vice Mayor Jivy Roe Bombeo, who is acting city mayor, personally checked the situation of residents in Barangay Ilomavis early on the same day.
He said many Ilomavis residents whose houses were damaged or situated in landslide-prone areas have been staying at the village covered court at night.
Meanwhile, the number of families affected by the magnitude 6.3 earthquake that struck parts of Mindanao last Oct. 16 has reached 7,293, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said in its update Wednesday.
This is equivalent to 35,465 persons. The report, signed and released by NDRRMC executive director Ricardo Jalad, said these persons are residents of 127 barangays in Davao and Soccsksargen regions.
Of this number, 936 families or 4,604 persons are being aided in three evacuation centers while 407 families or around 2,035 individuals are being assisted outside of these centers.
The number of the dead and injured remains at seven and 215,