Magnitude 5.8 earthquake strikes near Bogo, Cebu

A magnitude 5.8 earthquake struck near Bogo, Cebu in the early hours of Monday, October 13, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) said.

In a social media post, the monitoring agency said the earthquake struck at 1:06 a.m. at a depth of 5 km.

The epicenter was at 10.96°N, 123.94°E - 011 km S 21° W of Bogo City.

It is tectonic in origin, with the following intensities recorded:

• Intensity V- Tabuelan, Bogo, Tabogon, San Remigio, Medellin, and Daanbantayan in Cebu
• Intensity IV - Bantayan, Catmon, Sogod, and Tuburan in Cebu; Iloilo City; Roxas City, and Pontevedra, Capiz
• Intensity III - Argao, San Francisco, and San Fernando in Cebu; Tagbilaran City, Carlos P. Garcia, and Dauis in Bohol; Canlaon City and City of Himamaylan in Negros Occidental
• Intensity I - Legazpi City, Albay

Damage and aftershocks are expected, PHIVOLCS said.

PHIVOLCS earlier reported the earthquake as magnitude 6.0 but downgraded it magnitude 5.8 in an update.

PHIVOLCS Director Dr. Teresito Bacolcol said the magnitude 5.8 earthquake in Cebu on Oct. 13 is an aftershock of the magnitude 6.9 earthquake that struck Bogo on Sept. 30.

“It's an aftershock of the magnitude 6.9 event na nangyari noong September 30,” Bacolcol told Unang Hirit in an interview on Monday morning.

(It's an aftershock of the magnitude 6.9 event that happened on September 30.)

“Ang in-expect kasi natin na aftershock from the magnitude 6.9 event is maximum would be around 5.9. So, ito 5.8. So this is not surprising,” he added.

(We expected the aftershocks from the magnitude 6.9 event to be around 5.9. So, this is 5.8. So this is not surprising.)

Recent quakes

The Sept. 30 earthquake in Bogo killed at least 75 people. It is the strongest recorded quake in northern Cebu.

Monday's magnitude 5.8 earthquake meanwhile comes about three days after Manay, Davao Oriental was hit by doublet earthquakes of magnitudes 7.4 and 6.8 on Friday. The death toll has risen to eight.

On Saturday, a magnitude 6.0 earthquake struck Cagwait, Surigao del Sur, while a magnitude 5.0 tremor hit Cabangan, Zambales.

With some wondering if earthquakes are happening with greater frequency, the Department of Science and Technology clarified that PHIVOLCS actually records about 30 earthquakes a day in the Philippines, because the country has many active faults, and there have been previous instances of big earthquakes occurring in relatively quick succession.

Code Red

The Office of Civil Defense on Sunday announced that the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Center raised its Operation Center's status to Code Red and activated response clusters to assign lead agencies to manage operations in response to the recent earthquakes.

"Raising the status to the highest alert level required duty officers from the AFP, the PNP, the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), and the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), as well as technical personnel from the DILG, DSWD, DPWH, and DOH to render duty at the physical operations center in Camp Aguinaldo. Other concerned agencies joined the emergency operations via a virtual platform," the OCD said. — BM/KG, GMA Integrated News