30,000 to spend Xmas in shelters

Filipinos may have to celebrate in camps as aftershocks continue after 6.9 temblor

Festive celebrations will be a sombre affair for displaced victims of the recent earthquake in Matanao, the Philippines. They are fearful of staying indoors as strong aftershocks continue to rock the area.

MATANAO: More than 30,000 people will likely spend Christmas either in tents outside their homes or in different evacuation camps in Davao del Sur as the 6.9-magnitude earthquake that hit the province on Dec 15 continues to generate aftershocks, making residents fearful of staying indoors.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) said about 33,000 people were displaced by the most recent quake in Davao del Sur, which was within a 12km radius from the site of the series of quakes that hit Cotabato province in October.

The UN Ocha, in a report posted on its website, said at least 15,000 of the displaced had been staying in evacuation sites.

“I don’t feel safe in my house anymore,” said Regine Solis, 24, who was still traumatised from the quake that destroyed her family’s kitchen and left cracks in other parts of her house.

“My husband and I, together with our three children, will have to spend our Noche Buena here inside the tent.”

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology monitored more than 1,000 aftershocks following the Dec 15 quake.

Matanao Mayor Vincent Fernandez said 9,000 families from 33 villages had been displaced by the quake and were staying in the town’s evacuation centers.

In Davao del Sur’s capital city of Digos, Mayor Josef Cagas said 1,900 families had been staying at the city’s evacuation camps.

Aside from shelter assistance and additional food packs, Matanao town is also in need of water because their storage tanks and pipelines had been damaged by the quake, Fernandez said.

He said his town’s food supply was estimated to last only two weeks. Records from the Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office in Matanao showed that a total of 2,969 houses were destroyed, while 6,013 were damaged by the quake.

Magsaysay mayor Arthur Davin said 10 villages in his town were still experiencing water supply interruption and that they had to brace for more aftershocks because of an active fault in the area.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development in Davao region started distributing relief goods on Friday, giving out 125 dome tents and blankets to evacuees.

At least 1,875 family food packs were delivered to Matanao while 2,269 food packs and drinking kits were sent to Barangay Poblacion in Magsaysay town.