Road blocked

Tons of mud and stones blocked the road leading to the boundary of lower barangay Agsungot and Binaliw in Cebu City three days after a landslide hit the area.

A one-foot wide tension crack spotted in the left side of a mountain may collapse anytime, said Alvin Santillana, operations chief of the Cebu City disaster office.

City Hall sent engineering personnel to clear the road immediately after barangay residents called for help.

Barangay tanods were told to guard the road and stop school children from passing through, said Santillana.

Mud and stones blocked 10 meters of the barangay road.

Residents have to take an alternaive route heading towards the upper portion of barangay Agsungot up to Guba.

Residents like Cathelyn Ardiza, Eduard and Cerelyn Villarin were alarmed after hearing the rumble of rocks and mud crashing down the road at 4:45 p.m last Monday.

Still, they are unwilling to leave their homes and hope that the weather improves so there won’t be a landslide again.

The Villarin family has been staying in the area for six years.

Grade 5 student Rojohn Antigua was advised to pass through sitio Macvie instead of the main road heading towards Agsungot Integrated School due to the mud and stones blocking the road.

He said some students choose to pass through Macvie and just cross the river because they feel safe than passing the main road.

Antigua added that whenever there are rains, he and other students would rather stay home than attend classes for fear of a landslide.

Simeon Romarate, executive director of Cebu city’s disaster office, said barangay Binaliw and the rest of its neighboring barangays are landslide prone due to their soft soil.

Aside from the rain, residents blamed the road widening and road concreting project being done near their site as the cause of the landslide.

Before the landslide in Agsungot, barangay Binaliw also experienced a landslide.