1,000 families in General Santos to be relocated due to coastal erosion

Erosion of the coast in General Santos City. RONALD VELASQUEZ

GENERAL SANTOS CITY—The city government has decided to relocate the remaining 1,000 families in Purok Tinago in Barangay Dadiangas South here as the coastal subsidence in the area appears to be worsening.

But Mayor Ronnel Rivera said there was no forced evacuation yet for the remaining residents although the city government was appealing they leave the area immediately.

“I want everyone to be safe,” Rivera said.

He said a three-hectare site in Purok Lanton in Barangay Apopong had been identified for the resettlement of the remaining residents.

Rivera said he was hoping the remaining families would heed the appeal of the city government to voluntarily leave Purok Tinago.

“If some will not heed our warnings, then we will give a waiver that the local government will not be responsible if something will happen to them,” he said.

In late February, some 38 families were forcibly evacuated from Tinago because of coastal erosion there and were resettled in Promise Land in Barangay Mabuhay, one of the relocation areas the city government has identified for informal settlers.

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The 38 families were prioritized to be relocated first because they were living very close to the shoreline, Rivera said.

“Few meters from the shores of Tinago, there is an underwater precipice (steep cliff) around 25 meters deep. Throughout the years, the movement of the sea has eroded parts of this cliff, thus causing the erosion,” Dr. Agripino Dacera Jr., action officer of the city disaster risk reduction management office, said.

He likened the phenomenon to an underwater “landslide.”

Rivera said he was hoping the remaining 1,000 families in Tinago, which would be directly affected by the phenomenon, would be relocated in three months’ time.

“I have made arrangements so that residents in Tinago can be relocated and be moved away from danger as soon as possible,” he said.

City hall sources said the coastal erosion might also affect Purok Islam, which is adjacent to Tinago.

“If the hole keeps growing bigger, it could affect more (residents),” Rivera admitted.

The latest data available on the coastal subsidence said it had grown to 70 meters in diameter and around 640 meters deep.