Cebu gov’t to Boljoon folk: Stay away from landslide path
CEBU CITY—The Cebu provincial government has ordered the forced evacuation of 37 families from two communities in Boljoon town to ensure their safety from landslides that could span up to 7 hectares.
Baltazar Tribunalo Jr., head of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, about 150 residents of Sitio Camp Franco and Sangi in the mountain village of Lower Becerril would be housed temporarily at the sports complex in Barangay Poblacion in the town center while relocation sites were being developed.
Three parcels of land had been donated to the town government as relocation sites for displaced families.
The donors were Cebu Archdiocese (4 ha) and Iglesia ni Cristo (25 ha), both in Barangay Lower Becerril; and former Boljoon Mayor Deogenes Derama (3 ha) in Barangay Poblacion.
Some residents, however, refused to leave their homes.
Tribunalo warned them that the danger was real.
“It’s not only possible. It will eventually happen. That’s 7 ha of landmass, at most, expected to crash down and bury any house beneath it,” he said.
“This is why massive and forced evacuation is needed. The only missing part here is when exactly this huge chunk of earth will fall. We never know—and that is what makes it even more alarming,” he added.
Geologists from the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) in Central Visayas region said the landslides had not stopped since these were detected two weeks ago. They said the ground remained unstable, with the situation made worse by incessant rains.
Since the rains were expected to continue, the MGB said it was anticipating that 5 to 7 ha of land from the slopes of Barangay Lower Becerril would cascade down to the subvillages of Camp Franco and Sangi.
The MGB clarified that the landslides in Barangay Lower Becerril were caused by the continuous movement of land triggered by the first landslide, and not by the movement of a fault.
“It’s not another landslide. It’s the same landslide (that first struck on Oct. 27) but the movement is continuous. The toe of the landslide is [also] continuously moving, [and] is near the diversion road,” said Marian Codilla, MGB public information officer.
“It will take [a longer time] before it [stabilizes] again because the [moving] landmass is really big,” she added.
At least 18 families (120 people) had evacuated from their homes in Camp Franco and Sangi and in the adjacent Sitio Cansiloy when the landslides started two weeks ago.—MOREXETTE MARIE B. ERRAM
