11 killed in Mindanao quake

DAVAO CITY — A powerful earthquake registering 6.8 on the Richter scale rocked Southern and Central Mindanao at dawn yesterday, killing 11 people, toppling walls, destroying an elementary school building, and sparking widespread power outages.

More than 100 people were reported injured.

Two people died of heart attack after the tremors. Two others were killed by stray bullets due to a local superstition that firing in the air scares the spirits that cause earthquakes, according to Chief Superintendent Bartolome Baluyot, Southern Mindanao police commander.

At Malacañang, President Arroyo told reporters she will visit earthquake victims in General Santos City after her trip to Malaybalay, Bukidnon on Sunday.

Mrs. Arroyo said local officials in disaster-stricken cities and towns can use their own calamity funds and that the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) will assist them if their money is not enough.

The NDCC under Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes would "fill in the gaps" in funding, and relief and rehabilitation assistance, she added.

In Maitum, Sarangani, 76-year-old Glicerio Datuy and 14-year-old Giorvin Mandal were crushed to death by falling hollow blocks.

In Lake Sebu town in South Cotabato, Susie Marie Halya, 13, and Lampi Maladan died when a wall collapsed on them during the earthquake.

Killed by heart attack during the earthquake were Emilie Larosa of Quimpo Boulevard in Davao City and Pen Ulman of General Santos City.

Vicente Bungas, a lineman of the Cotabato Light and Power Co., was electrocuted while repairing a transmission line that snapped during the earthquake.

Bungas is undergoing treatment at a local hospital.

In Davao City, panicky guests in high-rise hotels reluctantly returned to their rooms after the earthquake for fear of aftershocks.

In Zamboanga City, people were shaken awake by the temblor, and some Muslim residents fired their guns into the air in the belief that this would ward off evil spirits.

In Iligan city, residents reported to a radio station that an electric transformer atop a post in the commercial district exploded and came crashing down to the ground during the earthquake.

However, there were no reports of injuries or damage to infrastructure.

In North Cotabato, the local government activated disaster centers in preparation for any strong aftershocks that may occur.

Gov. Emmanuel Piñol said over radio the earthquake toppled concrete fences and caused cracks in buildings, and fell electric posts in several towns in the province.

However, there were no major damage to buildings because the highest in the province only reach up to four stories, he added.

In General Santos City, officials said the earthquake toppled concrete fences, and at least one water tank, causing a massive power outage, but no one was reported hurt.

Councilor Eduardo Leyeson said at least three people were treated in hospitals for cuts and bruises from falling objects in their homes.

Concrete fences of several houses in the city collapsed and the walls of a police station cracked, but that no injuries were reported, he added.

Panicked residents ran out to the streets, where some of them were hurt by falling debris, and walls of at least 30 buildings in the commercial district were reported to have cracked.

Mayor Pedro Acharon told local television 14 people were slightly injured, one by a falling object and the rest in stampedes to get out of buildings.

Acharon said some power lines were severed, and some street lamps fell, and that the city of half a million people felt a powerful aftershock around 7 a.m.

After the earthquake, a tsunami or tidal wave slammed into the coastal town of Kiamba in Sultan Kudarat but there were no immediate reports of casualties.

Reynaldo Punongbayan, director of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs), said over radio station dzRH residents of coastal areas of Southern Mindanao should be on the alert for tsunamis.

"As the magnitude is rather high, we could expect aftershocks," he said.

However, Punongbayan assured coastal residents there is no longer any danger of tsunamis hitting populated areas in the disaster-stricken region.

"Tsunamis occur within 30 minutes after an earthquake," he said. "So there is no more danger."

Local officials in Socsargen (South Cotabato, Sarangani and General Santos) have set up "tsunami outposts" along coastal barangays facing the Mindanao Sea to warn residents of trouble.

Reports said Acharon has set up 24-hour monitoring centers along the coast of General Santos to spot any tsunami from the Mindanao Sea.

However, Acharon said he was confident that General Santos will not be hit by tsunamis because Sarangani Bay — which faces the Mindanao Sea — is a cove that serves as a protective cover.

In Davao del Sur, residents of coastal barangays have reportedly left their homes for higher ground as they still remember the day a tsunami hit the province in 1976.

Punongbayan said the earthquake was caused by tectonic shifts in the Cotabato trench, and that at least 10 aftershocks were detected starting 12:15 p.m. yesterday, with the strongest recorded at intensity four.

Punongbayan said the earthquake’s epicenter had not been fixed yet but that it could have occurred offshore.

"The depth of the quake was shallow — five kilometers from the north surface," he said.

Phivolcs seismologists said the earthquake was caused by the movement of the offshore Cotabato trench in the Celebes Sea, and its epicenter was about 135 kilometers west of General Santos City.

Apart from the cities of General Santos, Davao, Zamboanga and Iligan, and North Cotabato province, the earthquake was also felt in Sarangani province, and the cities of Butuan, Koronadal, and Kidapawan. — Felix delos Santos, Paolo Romero, Marichu Villanueva, Perseus Echeminada, Lino dela Cruz