Impending quake between July 27 and 29 a hoax – Phivolcs

FOLLOWING the circulation of unverified text messages and social media posts, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) on Wednesday denied rumors of a supposedly impending earthquake that would occur between July 27 and 29.

In a statement posted on its social media pages, Phivolcs denied the “questionable” source of the false information, which was attributed to “a friend’s cousin in Phivolcs in charge of the land monitoring.”

“The Phivolcs has no ‘land monitoring’ division and does not issue official predictions of an impending earthquake,” the statement read.

Phivolcs said the circulating information lacked scientific evidence, as there was no available technology that could predict the occurrence of earthquakes.

“At present, the science of earthquake prediction has not yet matured to the point that imminent earthquakes can be predicted [time, location and size of earthquakes] using a rational model,” Phivolcs said.

“It obviously seeks to deceive and create panic among the recipients of this hoax message so that it would be forwarded to relatives and friends,” the agency added.

Phivolcs also advised the public to ignore the message and stop forwarding it to other people.

“We hope that this sufficiently sheds light on questions, concerns or confusions you may have relative to this alarming but baseless message that is being circulated,” it added.