Landslides drive 13 families out of Adlaon homes

Thirteen families living in Barangay Adlaon, Cebu City have to be evacuated after a landslide hit their homes earlier this month.

Due to what happened in Adlaon, officials of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) 7 recommended to not allow homes to be constructed in Sitio Tabok 2 as landslides there could continue due to heavy rains.

Residents living in the area said landslides started to occur there during the rainy Sinulog weekend.

Loida Ardina, 38, one of the evacuees, told SunStar Cebu that she was with her children inside their hut when they heard a loud burst followed by a tremor.

She and her children immediately left their house just as this started to slide down with the earth.

Unknown to Ardina that, around 12 other families in the sitio were also experiencing the same thing.

Another resident, Erwin Bontuyan, said the landslide created cracks in the soil that also split his flower plots. He said he lost P20,000 worth of flowers, which he was supposed to harvest by the Lenten season.

Another resident, Dondon Pitogo, couldn’t return to his hut after it was damaged by the landslide.

The affected families were temporarily evacuated to the barangay hall and are still there now, said Adlaon acting chief Nieves Narra.

Narra told SunStar Cebu that the affected residents have been given with food by the City Government.

Marian Codilla, MGB 7 information officer, said they discovered that the affected area is clayey in nature and is easily saturated especially during heavy rains.

SUNSTAR FOTO / ALEX BADAYOS SHAKY PROSPECTS. Farmer Dondon Pitogo is perplexed by a large crack that suddenly appeared in the middle of his farm in Barangay Adlaon, Cebu City. The crack and some damage on his house appeared after a few days of heavy rains that led to landslides.

SUNSTAR FOTO / ALAN TANGCAWAN CRACKED. A mother and her child watch a huge gap in the soil caused by landslides that followed heavy rains in the city the past week.