Dark Christmas

Nearly three months since the landslide in the city of Naga in Cebu on Sept. 20, it will certainly be a sad Christmas for most of the affected people there.

I heard that the government, through the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, has not been able to fully implement immediate site restoration and protection.

This is alarming as another disaster may happen again. The DENR should have already acted many weeks ago to have all the precariously situated debris in the entire affected area cleared.

Otherwise, it could result in another, possibly bigger, landslide.

The national and local governments should also immediately ensure that the final relocation site is safe. Furthermore, authorities should also immediately act judiciously to ensure the complete rehabilitation and resumption of a major livelihood by the majority of the constituencies through the cement plant there.

However, in the meantime, it appears that there is a standstill on how to move forward to improve the general situation of the people.

Worse, the ongoing impasse may potentially claim more casualties and further wreak havoc on the city’s economy.

Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu took immediate action and suspended MGB officials whom he deemed responsible for the disaster. Right away, the DENR chief formed a team of experts to investigate the cause of the landslide.

Meanwhile, hundreds of volunteers from the city government of Naga, the Provincial Disaster & Risk Reduction team, civil society groups and Apo Land & Quarry Corp. (ALQC) pooled resources necessary for the retrieval, relief, evacuation and relocation operations.

But what happened? Eight weeks on, many affected residents remain in evacuation centers. The tons of debris and unstable slopes around them continue to put them at risk and there might be another tragedy.

APO Cement Corp. (APO Cement), for its part, is taking more measures that will prove significant to the local people and the cement industry of the country.

After a thorough investigation by the DENR-MGB led by MGB geologist Liza Manzano, the team concluded that areas surrounding the site of the landslide must be declared as danger and no habitation zones.

The DENR-MGB also noted that the landslide that occurred in Barangay Tinaan, Naga, Cebu is “a complex type of mass movement, a combination of planar block slide and subsidence”.

Such a hazard usually occurs in what experts described as a “karst” terrain, which is characterized by

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