The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) condoled with the victims of the Magnitude 7.8 earthquake in southern Mindanao and urged Filipinos to provide assistance to survivors of the country’s strongest tremor in the past five decades.
The CPP said it expresses strong solidarity with the people of Sarangani and its neighboring provinces who suffered in Monday’s disaster.
“We extend our condolences to the families of those who died and were injured in the collapsed structures. We call on the Filipino people to join hands in delivering the necessary assistance to the people who were severely affected by the earthquake, especially the poor whose livelihoods were destroyed or disrupted,” it said.
The underground Party called on concerned citizens to unite in providing all forms of assistance needed by the victims.
“The revolutionary organizations under the National Democratic Front (NDF), and the NDF-Mindanao, in collaboration with the Red fighters of the New People’s Army, are working closely to deliver all necessary assistance to the victims for their immediate relief and recovery,” it announced.
Race against time
Rescue efforts on 17 remaining missing persons are ongoing as the death toll has risen to at least 45 from Monday’s destructive earthquake in Southern Philippines. Several of the missing victims are workers of a collapsed grocery store while others are fisher folk believed to have been swept by the resulting tsunami.
Philippine Office of Civil Defense (OCD) assistant secretary Bernardo Rafaelito Alejandro IV said the deaths include 18 in Sarangani, 15 in South Cotabato, 11 in Davao Occidental, and one in Davao del Sur. Alejandro added some 630 were reported injured, he added.
The Philippine National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said in a separate update that 33,596 families or 149,372 persons were affected. Of these, 8,813 families, or 32,464 individuals, are being assisted inside 57 evacuation centers, while another 1,804 families, equivalent to 8,973 persons, are sheltering with families or friends.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. visited General Santos City on Wednesday, inspecting hospitals and schools damaged by the Magnitude 7.8 tremor and ordering quick distribution of relief goods to affected residents.
Power outages, weak internet
But while his government claims that electricity and internet signals have been restored in the city, residents said that power supply remains intermittent and internet signals remains spotty in the city.
“Yes, power is back. But every now and then, it fluctuates or goes out altogether,” film director Gutierrez Mangansakan IV said. He added: “Telecommunications provider Globe’s signal is weak while the others are ok.”
Mangansakan said the power outages affect the quality of internet signal. “If the outages last more than two hours, the connection suffers. Perhaps the batteries of the signal towers are being depleted,” he said.
He also said some aftershocks remain strong. “These aftershocks are the reason why electric cables snap. Linemen have their hands full,” he added.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) has recorded 2,067 aftershocks as of Wednesday morning.
General Santos City International Airport remains closed to commercial flights, although its largely intact runway still accepts relief flights. The facility’s passenger terminal had been substantially damage by the destructive tremor.
Not the time for fake news
Meanwhile, authorities urged Filipinos to refrain from spreading unverified information, especially from social media.
The OCD and NDRRMC have asked the public to disregard unverified rumors and instead rely strictly on updates from official government channels and credible news organizations.
The OCD stressed the need for accurate information sharing to prevent widespread panic and ensure effective resource allocation. It is the official source on validated reports on casualties, injuries, and affected families.
Phivolcs meanwhile is the principal authority for exact earthquake parameters (magnitude, depth, epicenter) and tsunami warnings while the Philippine Information Agency is the official public information arm of the government, distributing validated OCD and NDRRMC disaster bulletins.
The authorities added that credible news organizations help in disseminating accurate updates while social media sites cannot be trusted. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
