562 aftershocks rock quake-hit Mindanao; death toll rises to 37

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Up to 562 aftershocks were detected following the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that jolted Central Mindanao early Monday, which destroyed 76 buildings and left 37 people dead in the neighboring General Santos City and Sarangani province.

Officials of government frontline emergency response agencies and the Office of Civil Defense 12 told reporters on Tuesday that the 562 aftershocks were felt from Monday morning until before dawn Tuesday.

Radio reports on Tuesday quoted local executives as saying that the adjoining General Santos City and Sarangani province, both in Region 12, are the worst affected by Monday morning’s powerful tremor that also hit towns and cities in the Zamboanga peninsula in Region 9, in Regions 10 and 11 and in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Its epicenter was in the seaside Maasim town in Sarangani, according to Mindanao-based officials of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology. Sarangani is one of the four provinces in Region 12, also known as Soccsksargen Region.

The General Santos City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office reported on Tuesday that 13 residents in different barangays under its jurisdiction died from injuries, hit by debris from buildings and other structures that the earthquake destroyed.

The incident also left no fewer than 20 residents in different towns in Sarangani dead, according to local executives and officials of police and military units in the province.

Among the tremor fatalities are two residents of Tupi town in South Cotabato, as reported on Monday afternoon by the nurse Rolly Aquino, chief of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office in the province.

Emergency responders from the General Santos City local government unit, the Police Regional Office 12, the Bureau of Fire Protection 12 and the Task Force GenSan of the Army’s 10^th Infantry Division are together searching for four villagers in different barangays in the city that their relatives and community leaders had reported as missing.

OCD 12 officials announced on Tuesday morning that the earthquake caused the displacement of 17,689 families, or 77,186 individuals, from across 41 barangays in Region 12, now in evacuation sites and makeshift shelters far from their homes.

Many of the earthquake fatalities are residents of Sarangani, according to local executives and officials of police and Army units in the province.

Of the 76 buildings in General Santos City and nearby Sarangani province destroyed by the powerful earthquake, seven are large shopping malls.

Officials said the earthquake also damaged 14 school buildings and six hotels in both areas.