Sinkhole damages 3 buildings in Lapu-lapu

Three apartment buildings in Lapu-Lapu City were badly damaged when a five-foot-deep sinkhole suddenly appeared causing large cracks on the ground after Tuesday’s 7.2 magnitude earthquake.

For safety reasons, the Lapu-Lapu city government condemned the two-story buildings in barangay Canjulao.

Eight families occupying the units were evacuated, said City Administrator Teodulo Ybañez.

The sinkhole in sitio Kapayas, barangay Canjulao, was 15 meters wide but Andy Berame of the Task Force Kalikasan representing Lapu-Lapu City government said the city engineering office would ask the Mines and Geo-sciences Bureau (MGB) to check the area to determine the exact dimensions of the affected area so that other residents to be warned.

No one was hurt from among the eight families living in the 21-door apartments.

Authorities still had to check if a building permit was issued by the Office of the Building Official (OBO) for the structure constructed more than 10 years ago.

The apartment owner James Berdin said he hopes to save some of his units because the rentals were his only source of income.

He said the area used to be a low-lying land with water and clay. Garbage and filling materials were dumped there over the years.

“Wala gyud ko magtuo nga maingon niana ang yuta kay dugay naman na siya nga gahi.” said Berdin. (I never expected this to happen because we filled this site years ago.)

One of the tenants, 43-year-old Cresilda Baguio, was shocked to see the big cracks near her unit. She moved in a few months ago.

“We ran outside with my 13-year-old son during the earthquake but when we came back, we noticed the big cracks on the ground,” she said in Cebuano.

Baguio and most of her neighbors are looking for a safer place to live, saying the sinkhole has added to their trauma.

The area was not cordoned off but the city engineering office advised Berdin not to allow anyone near the sinkhole.

City Engineering Office personnel who checked the area said it was previously planted with mangroves.

Before the apartments were built, the area was filled with a limestone, scrap metal and Mactan stone mix.

In a separate development, five families in barangay Matombo, evacuated to safer areas after ground movement damaged their homes.