Residents barred from earthquake-hit villages

DUMAGUETE CITY—Authorities have barred residents of two landslide areas in La Libertad town and Guihulngan City from returning to the sites of their buried houses.

Benito Ramos, executive director of the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (NDRRMC), issued a no-habitation order for Sitio (settlement) Blocke, Barangay (village) Solonggon in La Libertad, and Sitio Moog, Barangay Planas, in Guihulngan City, during a congressional hearing held at the City Hall on Friday.

The hearing tackled concerns arising from the February 6 earthquake, such as relief and housing assistance to victims, and the identification of danger zones. It was presided over by Representative Rodolfo Biazon, chairman of the House committee on national defense and security and co-chairman of the congressional oversight committee on the NDRRMC.

Ramos directed Guihulngan Mayor Ernesto Reyes and La Libertad Mayor Lawrence Limkaichong to keep residents from going back to the landslide areas where some 60 people—40 in Solonggon and 22 in Planas—were believed to be buried during the temblor.

Some 60 houses in La Libertad and 30 houses in Guihulngan were reportedly buried in the landslide.

“We have soldiers of the 11th Infantry Battalion guarding the area. Please don’t let the people go back to the area,” Ramos said.

Limkaichong and Reyes said they would comply with the order.

“I am happy with the order so that my people will be safe,” Limkaichong said. Reyes said he would ask help from the Philippine Army because some residents had been insisting on returning to their homes.

But both mayors said they had yet to look for relocation sites for the displaced families.

Biazon directed concerned agencies to conduct a multi-geohazard mapping for Negros Oriental, covering areas prone to flooding, landslide, earthquake, rockslide and tsunami. He said he wanted a clear definition of a danger zone.

He said the committee would study how fast the government could respond to disasters, especially in extending financial assistance to families who lost members or have members who have gone missing, and those taken to hospitals.

The NDRRMC gave P10,000 each to families of those killed in the earthquake. But families who were still searching for their missing loved ones said they had not received a single centavo.