GovGen MDRMMO: Tsunami alert false alarm

THERE was no truth to the tsunami alert following the magnitude 6.0 quake that struck the east coast province of Davao Region on Friday afternoon, March 8, 2024.

This, after several netizens immediately posted disinformation on Facebook saying that there would be a tsunami alert due to the high magnitude of the quake.

In a local radio interview (DXDC RMN Davao) earlier this week, the Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (MDRRMO) of Governor Generoso, Davao Oriental, Jun Saavedra, debunked the claims circulating online.

He added that even the Office of the Civil Defense-Davao Region (OCD-Davao) did not issue a tsunami warning making the collective hysteria baseless.

“False alarm man nang sa Facebook. Didto gyud ta mag-base sa OCD, among pahimangno lang nga kung naay ipababa nga tsunami alert. Sa pagkakaron, wala man kay gabii paman to nahitabo. If ever man naay aftershocks, sundon lang nato tong mga protocol nato sa linog. Buhaton nato ang duck, cover, and hold. Then mag-evacuate kung kusog na gyud kaayo,” the official said.

(What’s on Facebook is just a false alarm. We should base our information on the OCD if there is a tsunami alert. At the moment, we have not recorded any tsunami because the incident happened last night. If there are aftershocks, let’s just follow the earthquake protocols. Let’s do the duck, cover, and hold, and then evacuate when the earthquake is really strong).

As of press writing, aftershocks have been felt in several portions in the Southernmost and Northern parts of Mindanao.

The seismic activity occurred a day after two successive earthquakes shook the municipality of Baganga in the same province.

The first one was magnitude 5.0 with an epicenter located 58 kilometers (km) northeast of Baganga while the second one measured 4.8 in magnitude, originally recorded at 5.1 magnitude.

Based on the report provided by the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs), the epicenter of the quake in Governor Generos was located 135 kilometers (km) within the town, with a depth of 143 kilometers.

Phivolcs’ instruments recorded the quake in Malungon, Sarangani; Sarangani and Don Marcelino in Davao Occidental; and Davao City. /