BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – Negros Occidental’s Provincial Disaster Management Program Division (PDMPD) assured Negrenses that recent earthquakes in the southern part of the province, particularly near Sipalay City, were normal.
According to Zeaphard Caelian, PDMPD head, 13 earthquakes were recorded between Aug. 18 and Sept. 7.
The strongest recorded was on Sept. 5 at magnitude 4.9.
According to Caelian, Negros Island has a lot of earthquake generators, and earthquakes may be experienced every month.
He explained the particular case of Sipalay City and the town of Hinoba-an – they are near the Negros Trench.
The island also has fault lines such as the Southern Negros Fault which traverses the province and neighboring Negros Oriental; and the Candoni Fault which connects to the Central Negros Fault located between Kabankalan City and the town of Mabinay in Negros Oriental.
There are also the West Negros Fault near the towns of Binalbagan, Isabela, La Castellana, Moises Padilla, and the city of Himamaylan; and the East Negros Fault which stretched from the town of Toboso in northern Negros down to the town of Sibulan in Negros Oriental.
This year, data gathered by the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) in Negros Occidental recorded a total of 19 earthquakes in January, 19 in February, 22 in March, 15 in April, and 16 in May.
In 2018, during a visit to Bacolod, Phivolcs director, Renato Solidum Jr. recommended that the province should seriously look into constructing earthquake-resistant structures.
Solidum said buildings should be constructed with hollow blocks that are six-inches thick and use vertical steel bars with a spaced diameter of 10mm or 40cm to each other.
Following the major earthquake that took place in the neighboring province of Bohol in 2013 and with Negros Occidental being home to several century-old houses and churches, Solidum also recommended to local officials to seriously think about earthquake retrofitting to protect them from the possibility of a collapse./PN
