Intensity 5 quake shakes Zambales, Central Luzon
OLONGAPO CITY—A moderate earthquake shook Zambales and other parts of Central Luzon and Metro Manila early Tuesday, but local and disaster response officials said there were no reports of casualties or damages.
The ground shaking brought about by the 5.9-magnitude earthquake roused residents here at 1:15 a.m. A bulletin from the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said the quake’s epicenter was 35 kilometers southwest of Iba, Zambales.
It was felt at Intensity 5 in Iba, San Felipe and Santa Cruz towns in Zambales; Intensity 4 in the Clark Freeport in Pampanga, Obando in Bulacan, Quezon City, Manila, Alabang in Muntinlupa, and Bacoor in Cavite. Residents in the cities of Makati, Pasig, Taguig, Mandaluyong, Tagaytay and Cabanatuan and Guiguinto, Bulacan, felt the earthquake at Intensity 3.
Phivolcs said the earthquake was also felt in Baguio City at Intensity 2.
The earthquake was followed by three tremors that struck between 2 and 4 a.m. also on Tuesday. These minor earthquakes struck at 2:12 a.m. (magnitude 3.9), 3:10 a.m. (magnitude 4) and 3:34 a.m. (magnitude 2.8). Their epicenters were also located southwest of Iba, near the epicenter of the first earthquake.
Fermino Waje, a resident of Barangay Gordon Heights here, said he was awake when the first earthquake struck.
“[It was] really strong, but the good thing is it was just short. It was like it just passed by,” he said. Robert Gonzaga and Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon
