Five families evacuate site; DENR says evacuation urgent

About five families were evacuated yesterday after cracks widened near their homes in two of the highest mountains in sitio Proper, barangay Vive in Ronda town last week.

Ronda Mayor Mariano “Nonie” Blanco III ordered yesterday’s evacuation upon the recommendation of the municipal engineering office which visited the area last Saturday.

The evacuation ensued amid an appeal from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in Central Visayas (DENR-7) for the remaining 55 families to immediately leave the affected areas which are also classified as landslide prone.

Dr Eddie Llamedo, DENR-7 spokesman, said the Ronda municipal government shouldn’t wait for the official recommendation from their Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) to effect an immediate evacuation of families in barangay Vive.

Blanco said their engineers talkd to the affected families who live just a kilometer away from the cracks.

He said while the families stayed at their barangay hall, they would leave to work on their farms in the morning.

Blanco said he cannot force the other families to evacuate because they have farms in their area.

He said they can provide housing materials and relocation won’t be a problem for the affected residents.

Llamedo said their threat advisory is sufficient to warrant an immediate forced evacuation of families.

“It should be immediately be imposed because their area is a permanent evacuation zone,” he told Cebu Daily News.

Last Friday, an MGB team of geologists visited the affected areas to assess the cracks and later recommended for the evacuation of residents along the slope in Barangay Vive.

Llamedo said copies of their threat advisory were sent to the barangay, the municipal government and the Provincial Engineering office after their inspection.

“The threat advisory indicated for the immediate evacuation, it needs to be carried out as soon as possible,” he said.

Llamedo said the threat advisory usually would serve as the official recommendation of the DENR or MGB and an official written communication would be sent afterwards.

Llamedo said they will send a formal letter recommending the “forced evacuation” of the 60 families in Barangay Vive.

He said the Ronda municipal government should have enforced their first recommendation for immediate evacuation back in 2010.

Based on the MGB’s 2010 geological assessment, Ronda had evidences of land movement in some mountainous areas due to the presence of old and inactive cracks.

These were categorized as highly susceptible to landslides.

Since then, MGB-7 recommended to local officials to avoid settlement at the foot of the slopes in the mountainous areas.

The report also stated that hills bounding the town’s northeastern side which developed tension cracks.

Llamedo said the area is experiencing ground subsidence due to the dissolution of limestone and development of underground caverns. /Candeze R. Mongaya and Carmel Loise Matus