As of yesterday afternoon, 69 deaths had been confirmed, with search and rescue teams still working frantically in the aftermath of the magnitude 6.9 earthquake that struck Cebu on Tuesday night.
It was the end of a working day, and bedtime for many people when the quake hit, followed by aftershocks. Buildings, houses and other structures began collapsing, including heritage churches. Power and telecommunications lines conked out. Fissures formed on roads and bridges, making passage dangerous and disrupting supplies and rescue work.
Cebu is now under a state of calamity as seismologists warn of more aftershocks. The earthquake was felt in varying intensities across Cebu and neighboring provinces, with the epicenter located off Bogo City.
The magnitude of the quake was just a few points shy of the 7.2 or the so-called Big One that seismologists have warned could hit Metro Manila and neighboring provinces straddling the West and East Valley Faults.
An earthquake more powerful than the Big One in fact hit Luzon including Metro Manila on July 16, 1990. Recorded at a magnitude 7.8, the Luzon earthquake killed over 1,600 people, with the casualties highest in Baguio City and Central Luzon particularly Nueva Ecija.
That quake heightened concerns about the Big One hitting the country’s most densely populated region. In March 2004, the Metro Manila Earthquake Impact Reduction Study was released by the Japan International Cooperation Agency in partnership with the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority and the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology. The study warned that up to 35,000 people could die from the Big One including from fires that would break out.
Japan, which has suffered from numerous killer earthquakes and tsunamis in the past centuries, has arguably the world’s most sophisticated earthquake response and mitigation system in place.
While the Philippines lacks the resources of Japan, the JICA study identifies the weaknesses in earthquake preparedness in Metro Manila and how these can be addressed.
Some of the recommendations have been undertaken. These include the introduction of new building safety standards and tightening of their implementation, inspection of public infrastructure and buildings for structural integrity and their reinforcement, and yes, those regular earthquake drills in schools and offices.
Yet seismologists and disaster response advocates have stressed that much more need to be done in terms of readiness for the Big One. The earthquake in Cebu should spur more action in enhancing preparedness.