1,000 families to be moved due to shore erosion

GENERAL SANTOS CITY—The city government will relocate the 1,000 families who have remained in Purok Tinago in Barangay (village) Dadiangas South here despite a worsening erosion along its coast.

“I want everyone to be safe,” Mayor Ronnel Rivera said as he appealed to the residents to leave the area immediately.

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

A three-hectare site in Purok Lanton in Barangay Apopong has been identified as resettlement site.

In late February, at least 38 families were forcibly evacuated from Tinago because of the coastal erosion. They had lived too close to the shoreline and were given priority for relocation in Promise Land in Barangay Mabuhay, Rivera said.

Dr. Agripino Dacera Jr., action officer of the city disaster risk reduction management office, said an underwater precipice some 25 meters deep had been found a few meters from the shores of Tinago.

“Through the years, the movement of the sea has eroded parts of this cliff, thus causing the erosion,” he said. He likened the phenomenon to an underwater “landslide.”

Rivera said he was hoping the relocation of the remaining families would be completed in three months. “I have made

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

“If the hole keeps growing bigger, it could affect more [residents],” the mayor said.

Latest data available on the coastal subsidence showed that it had grown to 70 meters in diameter and 640 meters deep. Allan Nawal, Inquirer Mindanao