Major Quake in Philippines Feared

Students use their books to protect their heads during an earthquake drill inside a ground of the Paranaque National High School in Baclaran, Paranaque city, Metro Manila. (Reuters)

Philippine geological experts on Wednesday warned lawmakers that a 7.2-magnitude earthquake could hit Manila and surrounding areas “anytime from now,” adding that the country’s main fault line “is now ripe for movement.”

Speaking at a Senate hearing, Bartolome Bautista, the deputy director of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, said there is a “high probability” that Marikina valley fault line would move, triggering a massive earthquake that experts said could kill tens of thousands of people and leave about 1.2 million others homeless with the destruction of an estimated 117,000 houses in Metro Manila.

In a separate hearing at the House of Representatives, Albay Representative Edcel Lagman

said “a 7-magnitude earthquake would be like a 1,000 Nagasaki atom bomb explosions underneath the earth’s surface along the Marikina Valley Fault.” 

The Marikina fault line runs from the Sierra Madre mountains in Central Luzon to Tagaytay City in Southern Luzon. 

According to Bautista, the fault line moves every 200 to 400 years and that the last time it moved was 200 years ago.

Bautista admitted that they still do not know what could trigger the fault to move and that they only rely on pre-quake shocks to signal its movement. 

During the inquiry, senators expressed concerns over the apparent lack of awareness and preparation of local communities in the event of a massive earthquake and tsunami.

Public works officials assured that the Skyway and other major buildings and infrastructures in the Philippine capital are earthquake-resilient.

Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson said they have identified nine bridges in Metro Manila that need to be repaired and 11 other bridges that have to be retrofitted to withstand strong earthquakes.

Singson said more problematic are the low-cost housing units and low-rise buildings in Metro Manila. He said construction firms of low-cost and low-rise buildings have a tendency to breach the safety code in building construction. “If a massive earthquake occurs, there would be more deaths and damages in these buildings,” he warned.

At the House of Representatives, opposition lawmakers expressed doubts on the prepared of the Aquino government in implementing contingency plans to protect Filipinos in the event of a massive environmental and natural disaster in the country.