SOS for Batanes
Itbayat is part of the Batanes group of islands, located in the far north of the Philippines, a place beset by constant storms, which has lent a grizzled resilience to its people and its structures.
On July 27, at 4:16 a.m., a 5.4-magnitude earthquake struck the island. The Ivatan of Itbayat saw their stone houses, long strong in the face of vicious wind and endless rain, heave and crumble to the ground.
The town’s oldest inhabitant, 101-year-old Lola Yayo, was immediately fetched by her son, Telesforo Valiente, and brought to Valiente’s reinforced concrete house. Lola Yayo’s stone house was leveled by a second quake; the experience was a first for the centenarian. “Ara pali (never in my life),” was how she described the temblor’s intensity.
“We have lived and survived typhoons for decades and we never had casualties,” said Edita de Guzman, a teacher at Itbayat Central School. “One jolt on Saturday, and we instantly had fatalities and houses crumbled.”
As many as 194 quakes struck the Batanes islands that day. Most of the tremors were imperceptible, but the third, near Itbayat, reached 5.9 magnitude, and the 10th, near the capital Basco, was measured at 5.8 magnitude.
In all, nine people died in Itbayat; 60 others were injured. The damage to infrastructure is estimated at P79.5 million.
Itbayat was the worst-hit town. It lost power, and its inhabitants were left in immediate need of tents, food, water and generator sets. The town’s hospital and the 19th-century Sta. Maria de Mayan Church were heavily damaged.
Ironically, the Batanes quake happened shortly after a hypothetical one. At 4 a.m., many Filipinos in Metro Manila were jolted from sleep when the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) sent an emergency text message announcing a 7.2-magnitude earthquake.
However, it was all just part of the MMDA’s fifth Metro Manila Shake Drill; safety workers and some civilians participated in the earthquake scenario, though many others complained about being roused from sleep. But such concerns were immediately doused by news and pictures of the devastation in Batanes.
As government continues to battle the weather and challenging conditions to bring rescue and relief to Itbayat and neighboring towns, the uncanny coincidence of the Batanes temblor striking at about the same time as the MMDA’s earthquake drill is a reminder of the urgent need for the country to gird itself and prepare for the “Big One.”
The Greater Metro Manila Area Risk Analysis Project made in 2013 projected that a 7.2-magnitude quake along the metro’s West Valley Fault could cause the collapse of structures within a 1,100-hectare zone; it would lead to over 37,000 deaths and P2.4 trillion in economic losses.
However, a May 2019 special report in this paper noted that despite routine drills in schools and offices and increased public awareness, Filipinos are hardly ready for quakes of such magnitude that may hit the country any time, according to experts.
“The Philippines is under constant threat,” said Mahar Lagmay, executive director of the University of the Philippines Resilience Institute. “Because we have a lot of faults, when they move, they may generate earthquakes that may be big and life-threatening.”
“We are hardly prepared because we hardly understand the magnitude of [a destructive] earthquake, because by nature, they are so rare and few,” added earthquake engineering expert Benito Pacheco. “In Metro Manila, for instance, many of us don’t have firsthand experience with such quakes and in that sense, we don’t understand the potential effects.”
Beyond public awareness campaigns such as the Shake Drill, Pacheco bats for an upgraded building law that imposes stringent earthquake survivability standards. The government must not only regularly and thoroughly monitor buildings and structures, it must also begin in its own backyard, by voluntarily upgrading its buildings.
“I think they should take the lead in a massive scale to invest in government-owned and -controlled structures and to lead by example,” said Pacheco. “We shouldn’t build more if we cannot build better.”
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The Philippine Daily Inquirer is holding an aid drive to help extend relief to Batanes residents and families affected by the quake. Cash donations may be deposited to the Inquirer Foundation Corp.’s Banco De Oro (BDO) Current Account No. 007960018860. Inquiries may be addressed and emailed to Inquirer’s Corporate Affairs office through [email protected], or call 8978808 local 238 or 352.
