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More than 12,000 schools across Mindanao and parts of the Visayas were affected, and at least 559 schools suspended classes after a powerful magnitude 7.4earthquake struck offshore near Manay, Davao Oriental, on Friday morning, the Department of Education (DepEd) reported.

The DepEd’s Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Service (DRRMS) said in its 12 noon situation report that 12,399 schools were exposed to the impact of the tremor, which prompted widespread safety inspections and class suspensions in Bukidnon (344 schools), Misamis Oriental (138), Camiguin (66), and Lanao del Norte (11).

Initial reports from Regions 10 (Northern Mindanao), 11 (Davao Region), 12 (Soccsksargen), and 13 (Caraga) indicated that 9,923 learners and 490 teachers were affected, including five injured learners and one teacher. At least 201 classrooms sustained damage-173 with minor and 29 with major destruction-following the quake.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said the magnitude 7.4 tectonic earthquake struck at 9:43 a.m., with the epicenter located 62 kilometers southeast of Manay, Davao Oriental, at a shallow depth of 10 kilometers. The quake was generated by the movement of a local fault in the region.

Phivolcs recorded Intensity 5 in areas such as Southern Leyte, Davao de Oro, Misamis Oriental, and Cotabato, while Intensity 4 was felt in parts of Cebu, Bukidnon, and Surigao del Sur. The agency also issued a tsunami warning for coastal provinces, including Davao Oriental, Eastern Samar, Southern Leyte, Surigao del Norte, Surigao del Sur, and the Dinagat Islands. The tsunami warning was lifted before 2 p.m.

Local government units have activated disaster risk reduction teams to inspect public school structures and ensure the safety of students and personnel before resuming classes. The DRRMS said coordination is ongoing with the Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Councils (RDRRMCs) for rapid assessment and response.

‘We are closely monitoring the situation and emphasizing the importance of earthquake preparedness,’ the DRRMS said, urging schools to remain alert for possible aftershocks and tsunami activity.

The strong tremor, one of the most powerful to hit the country this year, caused widespread alarm across Mindanao and Visayas, though no major fatalities have been reported as of press time.

It happened 10 days after a magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck Bogo City in northern Cebu, causing widespread damage, and a day after a magnitude 4.9 quake hit La Union on October 9./coa

eath toll of the Davao Oriental 7.4-magnitude quake has climbed up to seven, with three more people confirmed dead in the mining village of Pantukan town of Davao de Oro.

Joseph Randy Loy, chief of the Davao de Oro provincial disaster risk reduction and management office, said three persons died in the mining village of Gumayan, a sitio (subvillage) of Kingking village of Pantukan town, while 10 others were injured when the area where they were standing was hit by landslide. He clarified that those affected were not inside the mining tunnel but outside. Davao de Oro Governor Raul Mabanglo has ordered a temporary closure of all mining sites in the province following the Gumayan landslide as a result of the quake.

Aside from the three persons who died in the mining site, three more deaths were reported in Manay town of Davao Oriental, including that of the 64-year old woman hit by a crumbling wall; and the death of the 80-year old man in Davao City, said Ednar Dayanghirang, OCD 11 regional director.

Dayanghirang said he had to check again the death in Lupon town of Davao Oriental, first reported only an hour after the quake.

An aerial survey in the earthquake-hit area showed one house totally damaged in Manay town and 20 houses totally damaged in the neighboring Tarragona town, according to Dayanghirang.

Aboitiz-owned Davao Light and Power Co. is allotting P1 billion to acquire the energy assets of Northern Davao Electric Cooperative, Inc. (Nordeco) following the government’s green light to take over the latter’s franchise area.

Talking to reporters, Davao Light president and chief operating officer Enriczar Tia said the company had initially offered Nordeco P1 billion to secure its existing network.

The figure remains up for negotiation with Nordeco, he noted.

‘Although right now, we still need to gather all the data on their assets. It’s just that there’s still no transition period yet,’ Tia said.

The company executive said that Davao Light would also invest to upgrade Nordeco’s network. The timeline and the capital, however, are yet to be determined since the firm is still assessing the condition of the assets.

Third largest

Currently, Davao Light delivers power to Davao City, Panabo City as well as the municipalities of Carmen, Dujali and Sto. Tomas in Davao del Norte.

It ended August with more than 500,000 customers, making it the third largest power distributor in the Philippines.

Davao Light will soon cover Nordeco’s operations, including Tagum City, the Island Garden City of Samal and several municipalities in Davao del Norte and Davao.

The transition period will take two years.

The top official, however, said that Nordeco seeks to challenge the decision before the Supreme Court.

Tia said Davao Light had already approached Nordeco for the establishment of a joint transition committee, but the latter was ‘kind of resistive.’

Lower rates

But once Davao Light enters those areas currently being served by Nordeco, Tia was confident that consumers would ‘automatically feel the lower rates.’

As of July, Davao Light charged P9.20 per kilowatt hour. Nordeco rates were 35 percent more expensive, Tia claimed.

Tia also said that Nordeco’s customers were experiencing ‘very frequent’ power interruptions.

Under the solemn gaze of the golden statue of the Virgin Mary, Queen of Peace, the sound of clanging pots and whistles filled the Edsa Shrine on Friday, Oct. 10, as the Trillion Peso March movement launched its weekly protest.

Instead of the silence often tied to peace, the air rang with noise- from whistles, stereos, pots and pans- demanding accountability.

This is because the protest includes noise barrage, candle-lighting activities and a mass.

Among those in the crowd of men, women, queer, old and young was 18-year-old Christian Alday, one of the young voices calling for change. But it was not Alday’s first protest of the day. Earlier, he joined a campus walkout organized by students of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP).

Alday, a first-year Public Administration student specializing in Fiscal Administration at PUP’s Quezon City campus, said he felt it was his duty to stand with the movement. ‘I joined these protests because, as a student specializing in Fiscal Administration, we want to help improve our system of fiscal governance. We want budget deliberations and discussions on public funds to be reformed and corruption to finally end,’ said Alday in Filipino.

‘As an iskolar ng bayan (scholar of the nation), joining protests will never be a burden to me. In fact, I just came from a rally earlier. We staged a walkout from PUP Quezon City to the House of Representatives.’

Alday is a member of Akbayan Youth and the Student Council of the Philippines (SCAP), where he serves as national finance officer.

Student activism

Yet his journey as an activist did not begin in college, not in PUP that has long been known for its tradition of student activism.

It started when he was in high school, at Batasan Hills National High School (BHNHS)- the public secondary school with the highest number of enrollees.

‘I have long been an advocate of quality education,’ said Alday.

He recalled his days as student council president. For him, BHNHS is the perfect embodiment of the problems many Filipino students face with the education system.

‘First of all, BNHS is overpopulated. We have very few classrooms yet the number of students reaches more than 15,000 to 20,000 every year,’ he said.

‘There is also a clear lack of funding. We see our teachers- the teachers of the nation- not receiving competitive salaries from the government despite their heavy workload. And it’s not just the teachers but also the school administrators who face the same situation.’

Facing these challenges as an everyday reality, Alday said that SCAP helped open his eyes about how the system works- and why it must be changed and improved. ‘We may not be able to see the fruits of what we are fighting for but someday, in a distant future, we will achieve what we are struggling for,’ said Alday.

A solemn vow

Some activists have called the launch of the weekly protest as their panata or solemn vow.

‘We join the call that someone should be jailed. These anomalies cannot be allowed to pass, they cannot be swept under the rug,’ said Francis ‘Kiko’ Dee during the media interview.

Dee is the co-convener of the Buhay ang People Power Campaign Network and the grandson of martyred Filipino hero Ninoy Aquino and late President Corazon ‘Cory Aquino.

He said that the protest will continue every Friday, as they want to see district engineers and other high-ranking officials held accountable.

‘We want to see meaningful cases filed against high officials. We want to see people jailed, and we hope that the cases that will be filed against them will be non-bailable,’ said Dee.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) on Friday vowed to take charge of farm-to-market road (FMR) projects, instead of leaving them to the care of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

Speaking at the Senate hearing on the proposed 2026 funding of the DA and its attached agencies, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said it would be better for his agency to handle the projects to prevent losing the budget allocated for it.

‘At the last Senate hearing on the DA’s 2026 budget, we were issued a direct challenge: To take charge of farm-to-market road projects ourselves, rather than leave them in the hands of the DPWH,’ he told lawmakers.

‘The concern, as rightly pointed out by the committee chair, lies in the troubling pattern of overpricing and alleged corruption in past infrastructure efforts,’ said Laurel.

He said instinct, at present, steers the DA clear, to play it safe, but he said there is no more time to hesitate.

‘The Senate has drawn the line: Take on the task or lose the budget. And so, after consultation with the DA family, we rise to meet the moment,’ said Laurel.

In explaining his decision, the secretary said FMRs are important, not only for farmers but also to the agriculture sector.

‘Para sa bayan, hindi namin tatalikuran ang hamon ng panahon,’ said Laurel. He, however, maintained that they will not handle it alone, but will do it with the help of local governments who ‘know their communities best.’

‘We will bring in farmers’ groups, whose livelihoods depend on these roads. And we will enlist independent auditors and third-party surveyors, of course, those who are reputable, to ensure every peso serves its true purpose,’ said Laurel.

‘If we’re going to build roads, they must lead to farms, not fraud,’ he noted.

Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian earlier revealed that over P10 billion worth of FMRs programmed under the 2023 and 2024 national budgets have been ‘extremely overpriced.’

One project, for example, cost 23 times more than the standard price set by the DPWH, while others saw markups of up to 70 percent, further bloating the project cost.

Laurel, meanwhile, said the DPWH set a P15,000 per meter standard cost for FMRs, but this could go as low as P10,000 if the ’30 percent’ markup was trimmed. /apl

A fisherman from Barangay Bagumbayan on Palawan’s west coast has turned over another package of suspected illegal drugs to authorities, marking the third such incident in recent weeks.

According to a report from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Mimaropa Regional Office, the package recovered from the waters of the West Philippine Sea contained an estimated 11 kilograms of suspected cocaine with a street value of around P56 million.

The discovery on Thursday came just a day after another group of fishermen surrendered a different package containing suspected high-grade marijuana or ‘kush.’ PDEA Palawan Provincial Officer Christopher Torres confirmed that the recovery was coordinated through the Western Command (Wescom) and turned over to his office for proper handling.

A composite team composed of PDEA-Palawan, the Western Naval Command, and the Palawan Police Provincial Office (PPPO)-Intelligence Unit went to Brgy. Bagumbayan to formally retrieve the suspected contraband.

Torres disclosed that the fisherman had actually recovered the package on Oct. 6, but only surrendered it to the Coast Guard Sub-Station Bagumbayan three days later, upon returning home. ‘We used a field test kit – a spectrometer – to conduct an initial test on the substance, and it turned out positive for cocaine,’ Torres said.

However, he emphasized that the result is still considered preliminary pending confirmatory laboratory testing in Manila.

‘Although we have the initial result, it remains classified as suspected cocaine until confirmed through further testing,’ he clarified.

Authorities are continuing their investigation in coordination with other involved agencies to determine the origin of the drugs and whether the recent recoveries are connected.

Jio Jalalon is eager to finally begin his new chapter with TNT, excited to immerse himself in a franchise where winning is the only thing worth measuring.

‘I like that kind of culture,’ Jalalon told the Inquirer in Filipino. ‘That will push me to do the same.’

The former Defensive Player of the Year will get his first chance to contribute when the Tropang Giga-fresh off two championships and a near-miss at a Grand Slam last season-opens their Philippine Cup campaign against Phoenix on Friday night.

Tip-off is at 7:30 p.m. at the Ynares Center in Rodriguez, Rizal, the town still commonly referred to as Montalban. The venue hosted a pair of playdates during the summer conference.

With key players like Calvin Oftana, RR Pogoy, Jordan Heading and Rey Nambatac back healthy, TNT enters Season 50 still hungry for titles. The team added depth during the offseason by signing Kevin Ferrer and Tyrus Hill. Then came Jalalon-though his arrival was far from smooth.

His contract with NorthPort expired on August 31, but he had to wait until Sept. 30 to officially become an unrestricted free agent after NorthPort’s successor, Titan Ultra, declined to make an offer. That month-long limbo sparked controversy when Jalalon was seen practicing with TNT, despite a pending and later canceled trade to Blackwater for Justin Chua.

TNT defended his presence, saying he was free to try out since his contract had lapsed. On Oct. 4, Jalalon finally signed the deal, ending a drawn-out saga that followed an injury-riddled stint with NorthPort. He was originally traded by Magnolia in 2024 as part of the Zavier Lucero deal.

‘I’m feeling great and I’m really happy,’ he said, crediting his agent, Danny Espiritu, for ironing out the details.

Now, both Jalalon and TNT are hoping to see flashes of the dynamic guard who starred at Arellano University, once made waves with Gilas Pilipinas, and built a reputation as one of the PBA’s most disruptive defenders.

‘I’m a winning person,’ said Jalalon, who had won a championship with Magnolia in the 2018 Governors’ Cup while also making multiple semifinal and Finals appearances then. ‘I’ll do whatever I can to help the team by giving my all.’

In the day’s first game at 5 p.m., Blackwater faces Terrafirma, with attention on Bossing rookie Dalph Panopio and sophomore guard Sedrick Barefield, who’s likely motivated after falling short in last season’s Rookie of the Year race to RJ Abarrientos. Terrafirma, under new head coach Ronald Tubid, looks to surprise critics and rise above low expectations. Phoenix, meanwhile, also parades a new bench boss in Willy Wilson, who hopes to lead his team-anchored by veteranW Jason Perkins-to a statement upset against powerhouse TNT.

Fear and uncertainty are gripping residents of Provident Village in Marikina City.

They live beside the great Marikina River that often overflows.

In the past, raging, violent waters as thick as lahar from the mountains of Rizal, engulfing Provident Village, have killed at least 15 persons in this community during deadly flash floods rising to over 20 feet.

Two years ago, in July 2023, a big dike was built on top of an old dike along the river.

But in only just a year into its construction, big portions of the road on top of the dike already cracked and collapsed.

The structure was not yet complete, and yet it was already disintegrating. Dike collapse

An engineer, who requested that his name be withheld, gave INQUIRER.net a video taken in August 2024.

As he inspected the dike, he said, ‘We jog here. There are big cracks here on top of the dike. The road collapsed. The concrete pouring. the concrete pouring sank.’

The cracks were stretching to a few kilometers long.

The engineer inspected the project: ‘The road. This means the sheet pile was not compacted,’ he noticed.

Engineer shows kilometers-long cracks on Marikina dike in Provident Village (Video taken in August 2024)

What surprised the villagers was not just the dike’s cemented sections that sank.

It’s what was underneath that shocked them.

Rain that drenched the dike in August last year exposed the weak foundation of the dike.

It was not built on large steel frames.

The dike was standing mainly on mere soil.

Soil as foundation of dike

Resident Dindo Caballero was alarmed by what he witnessed.

He said that because of this structural weakness, the dike might not be able to withstand the deadly floods during strong typhoons.

‘Aside from it looks like it has not been compacted well, it looks like a structure without steel framing,’ he said, while standing on the dike with INQUIRER.net.

‘If you look at the structures like overpasses. of roads that are [solid]. I travel a lot. And I’ve seen constructions a lot. And they have a metal support supporting the structure for a longer service period like 20 years,’ he pointed out.

‘This type of construction is evidently not lasting for even a year. with a budget of say 20 years.’

Jose Rizal University coach Nani Epondulan downplayed his team’s early wins over league juggernauts Letran and San Beda in the NCAA Season 101 men’s basketball tournament.

The Heavy Bombers, who beat the Knights in their season-opener last week, stunned the Red Lions, 67-66, on Friday at Mall of Asia Arena-a big bounce-back victory after losing to Emilio Aguinaldo College three days ago. ‘It’s a bit too early to say things now, but what we always talk about is taking games one at a time. Either we win, or we learn,’ Epondulan told the Inquirer.

‘We’ve always wanted to bring back the winning culture in JRU because it’s been a while since we reached the Final Four.’

Allan Laurenaria only scored six points in the win, but he made the most important one with four seconds left, lifting the Bombers to victory.

Sean Salvador and Justin Lozano had 15 and 13 points, respectively, for JRU

The troika of John Sajonia (16), Agjanti Miller (13) and Bismarck Lina (13) combined for 42 points, but not enough to prevent the Lions from dropping their first game after a 2-0 start.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) on Friday said the magnitude 7.4 and 6.8 tremors that struck off Davao Oriental may possibly be considered a ‘doublet earthquake.’ A doublet earthquake, according to Phivolcs, refers to distinct or different earthquakes that occurred in almost the same area ‘with two (or more) main shocks that have slight difference in magnitude.’

‘This happens when faults or trenches are causing the stress to trigger a sequence of events,’ Phivolcs said in a statement.

According to Phivolcs, this is not the first time a doublet earthquake occurred in the Philippine Trench-in 2023, a magnitude 7.4 and 6.8 doublet earthquake also occurred in Hinatuan, Surigao del Sur.

The same happened in 1992, when magnitude 7.1 and 7.5 quakes also struck Manay, Davao Oriental. However, Phivolcs said it is still analyzing the earthquake parameters ‘to further characterize’ the two recent tectonic events.

The epicenter of the magnitude 7.4 earthquake that struck on Friday morning was located 62 kilometers southeast of Manay, Davao Oriental, while the magnitude 6.9 temblor that hit less than 10 hours later was traced 36 kilometers southeast of the same town.

Is a bigger one coming?

Are these foreshocks? Another big one expected?

When asked in a press conference if this doublet earthquake could simply be a foreshock to a bigger earthquake, Phivolcs director Teresito Bacolcol responded that this is possible.

Bacolcol cited a similar event in Japan, particularly the magnitude 9.0 Tohoku earthquake on March 11, 2011, which was preceded by several foreshocks.

However, Bacolcol also noted that data from previous similar tectonic events in the Philippine Trench suggest otherwise.

‘From what we’ve seen here, just like in 2023, there weren’t any bigger events after that,’ Bacolcol said in Filipino, referring to the Hinatuan earthquakes in 2023.

‘And the determination of whether an earthquake is a foreshock can only be made in hindsight, as it can only be classified as such if a larger earthquake occurs afterward,’ he added.

Bacolcol then reiterated that there is no technology to predict earthquakes yet. He also once again stressed that these two recent earthquakes in Davao Oriental were in no way related to other recent earthquakes in Cebu, La Union, and Baguio.