BAGUIO CITY— Government agencies are scrambling for funds to finance a geological study that would explain once and for all why sections of a mining town in Benguet have been sinking since the 1970s.

Some buildings at the Mankayan High School grounds caved in on June 5 due to a slide that some geologists have anticipated after a similar slide hit Barangay Colalo on July 26, 1999.

But to enforce relocation, officials must first declare the area an uninhabitable danger zone, said Benguet Gov. Nestor Fongwan at a news conference on Wednesday.

Fongwan said he was not in a position to make that call unless detailed geological information became available.

Samuel Paragas, Cordillera director of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB), said he was ready to issue a certification to speed up the relocation, but he said MGB also required data to provide the danger zone policy enough legal support.

Paragas said the study must be extensive because relocation may also affect the Mankayan town hall since a wide area of the town lies atop the Lepanto fault line.

The last comprehensive study was conducted by geologists of the University of the Philippines National Institute of Geological Sciences in 1999, but it too requested tunneling to determine if the sinking was caused by the fault or by underground mining operations of the Lepanto Consolidated Mining Co. (LCMC).

Paragas said the LCMC has denied that the sinking area lies atop its major operations, but it could not supply MGB with maps.

“They reported to us that all these old records were wiped out by a flood,” he said.

Fongwan said the full study cost has been placed at over P1 million, which the province could not spare.

Paragas said the government has approached the National Disaster Coordinating Council to help secure funds.

“Each meter we dig would cost P10,000,” he said.

Olive Luces, Cordillera director of the Office of Civil Defense, said the agency has urged residents to relocate soon because of the potential magnitude of future slides.