Subic landslide victims suffer in evacuation area

SUBIC, Zambales—Forced to live in a covered court due to a landslide that buried their houses here early this month, 65 families are complaining that they have been denied compensation or a relocation by a real estate company whose project allegedly triggered the incident.

Emelita Mejares, one of the survivors, said their conditions were eased only by the help of donors.

“They come here and give us enough [to subsist]. But we don’t know how long that will last. There has been no [positive] developments yet,” Mejares said.

Thirteen of the displaced families have already moved to another site in Barangay Wawandue because they were given tents, she said. “But the rest of us did not want to go there because it’s near the public market. It is hot and smelly.”

Mejares said Sta. Lucia Realty and Development Inc. (SLRDI), developer of Club Morocco, an upscale village where the water that triggered the mudslide supposedly came from, was insisting that it had nothing to do with the disaster.

“They (company officials) won’t accept the blame. Some of their people came here and said they can only give us financial assistance, but if we ask for more, then we should just go to court,” she said.

In a statement, SLRDI said the “heavy runoff that caused the soil to erode poured down from a hill that is outside Sta. Lucia Realty’s property development.”

The firm said “earth-moving activities” in the area where the landslide occurred were stopped in 2005. Drainage systems have also been installed to prevent soil erosion, it said.

According to a report submitted by geologist Edgardo David to the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB), the landslide area is sandwiched by two gullies or creeks. The first originates from Villa Mallorca village of Club Morocco while the second comes from the peak of Saddle Mountain.

The landslide was 248 meters long, 45 m wide and 12 m deep, dislodging 104,160 cubic meters of debris on the Manzano compound in Barangay Asinan, as well as on rice farms and fishponds nearby.

Edwin Tarpina, another resident, said what happened was not an act of nature because in the past four years, they had been telling SLRDI that the volume of water coming down from the mountains had been increasing.

Elmer Tumaca, Tinambacan barangay chair, said he was instructed by Mayor Jay Khonghun to arrange a meeting between SLRDI representatives and the landslide victims.

Tumaca said SLRDI was negotiating with the heads of families about the cost of damage. “But they said they can only give financial assistance,” he said.

David earlier asked the regional EMB to recommend to Subic officials to stop residents from resettling in the landslide-hit village.

“The Manzano compound should be abandoned permanently for safety reasons and also those areas beside it,” David said in a 27-page report to Lormelyn Claudio, regional chief of the EMB.

David’s company, Geo Environmental Consultancy Inc., prepared the environmental study for the Club Morocco subdivision project of SLRDI. Robert Gonzaga and Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon