11 General Santos City residents dead, 142 injured after magnitude 7.8 quake

COTABATO CITY — Eleven residents of General Santos City died from injuries while 142 others sustained wounds and fractures as a result of the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that jolted the city and nearby provinces and cities in Central Mindanao early Monday, June 8.

Employees of the Philippine Information Agency 12 and officials of the General Santos City Risk Disaster and Management Office separately told reporters on Monday afternoon that emergency responders were also searching for at least four other residents reported missing following the earthquake, which lasted for about two minutes and damaged dozens of buildings in the city and in neighboring provinces of Sarangani and South Cotabato, both in Region 12.

Local executives and officials of the Bureau of Fire Protection 12 and the Police Regional Office 12 said 142 villagers in Barangays Calumpang, Tambler, Lagao, Tinagacan, Apopong, Bula, Fatima, San Isidro and Labangal in General Santos sustained wounds, fractures and contusions in different parts of their bodies after being hit by debris from buildings and structures destroyed by the tremor.

Army medics from the 10th and 6th Infantry Divisions, the BFP 12, PRO 12 and the General Santos City local government unit are cooperating in emergency response operations in areas devastated by the strong earthquake, which was also felt in the Zamboanga peninsula in Region 9, in Region 11, or Davao area, and in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Aside from the 11 fatalities in General Santos City, the earthquake also left two people dead in Tupi town, South Cotabato.

Rolly Aquino, chief of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office in South Cotabato, said the strong earthquake also caused the death of two residents in Tupi, as reported by the local government unit to the office of his immediate-superior, Gov. Reynaldo Tamayo Jr.

He said one resident reportedly died after being hit by debris from a concrete structure destroyed by the earthquake.

“Another died of cardiac arrest while the ground was shaking,” Aquino, a registered nurse, said.

Officials of frontline emergency service agencies in Region 12 and local executives General Santos City said dozens of buildings in the city and nearby areas in South Cotabato and Sarangani provinces were damaged by the magnitude 7.8 earthquake, which lasted for about two minutes.

Bangsamoro Chief Minister Abdulrauf Macacua told reporters that engineers were immediately dispatched to inspect buildings inside the 32-hectare BARMM regional capitol in Cotabato City for possible earthquake damage.