Make every Filipino home safe and secure from disasters

A ‘doublet earthquake’ struck Davao Oriental last Friday, Oct. 10, three days before today’s observance of International Disaster Risk Reduction Day.

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These were “two distinct seismic events in almost the same area, with two (or more) main shocks that have slight differences in magnitude,” according to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology (Phivolcs).

It is timely for Filipinos to grasp the importance of coming to terms with the severity of the threats to economic prosperity and sustainable development posed by recurring earthquakes, floods and natural calamities.

Spiraling disaster costs have spawned recurring humanitarian crises. Recall that it took several years for the country to fully recover from the harmful consequences of Mt. Pinatubo’s major eruption in 1990 and Typhoon Yolanda’s fury in 2015. Only last Sept. 30, an intensity 6.9 earthquake struck Cebu, inflicting a death toll of at least 74 persons and an estimated P3 billion damage to infrastructure.