MANILA, Philippines — The twin earthquakes that struck the province of Batanes over the weekend left at least P47 million worth of damage to infrastructure, according to an estimate by the country’s disaster office Monday.
The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said in its latest situation report that the estimate is based on damage to the Itbayat District Hospital (P40 million) and Itbayat Rural Health Unit (P7 million).
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President Rodrigo Duterte has pledged the release of P40 million to build a new community hospital.
The figure does not include the 15 houses and two schools that were reported to have sustained earthquake damage.
A total of 911 families of 2,963 people were affected by the tremors.
According to NDRRMC, the twin quakes claimed eight lives and left 63 individuals injured. It also said one person was still listed as missing as of Monday morning,
Two earthquakes in the magnitude 5 range hit Batanes on Saturday. The first one registered at 5.4 struck when many people were still asleep at around 4:15 a.m.
It was followed just under four hours later by a second, stronger jolt at magnitude 5.9.