50 homeless in Bohol landslide

TAGBILARAN CITY — A landslide struck a village in Jagna, Bohol last Monday, destroying at least 12 houses and leaving at least 50 people homeless.

Gov. Erico Aumentado has sent a quick response team to Barangay Mayana, 14 kilometers away from the Jagna town proper, to assess the extent of the damage and provide assistance to the affected villagers.

"I will ask Mayor (Exuperio) Lloren to (place) the area under a state of calamity so they can release some amount to help the victims, and the provincial government will also release a counterpart fund," he said.

Seven of the 12 houses were totally destroyed, three of them buried up to the roof. No one was reported hurt in the incident.

The villagers said they heard a rumbling sound at about 6 a.m., warning them that one of the walls of Mayana mountain, Bohol’s highest peak, was about to slide.

Engineer Nolan Evangelista, of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, said the landslide could have been caused by the collapse of the walls and ceiling of an underground river, or the movement of an old fault. — Peter Dejaresco