NHA urged to relocate people along West Valley Fault

RAISING ALERT A warning sign posted by the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology stands on the road near the boundary of Rodriguez, Rizal province, and Payatas, Quezon City, advising residents living in the danger zone to vacate the areas transected by the West Valley Fault. INQUIRER PHOTO

Quezon City Mayor Herbert Bautista on Monday urged the National Housing Authority (NHA) and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) to give “utmost attention” to the relocation of people living along the West Valley Fault.

In a press statement issued following the release by the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology of a new map of areas likely to be hit in a major earthquake, Bautista called on the DILG to start issuing relocation notices to families whose houses were in the danger zone.

In 2013, Quezon City identified at least 700 property owners residing within the fault’s 5-meter-wide buffer zone.

While Bautista said he understood that the NHA and DILG were giving priority to the relocation of informal settler families along waterways, he said it was also “imperative that utmost attention should be given for the immediate transfer of the West Valley families to areas away from the fault line.”

The Quezon City government is already discouraging the construction of structures within the buffer zones on both sides of the fault, which runs along the eastern boundary of the city. The city government has also been installing physical markers at the actual locations of the West Valley fault system since 2012.–Jaymee T. Gamil