COTABATO CITY , Philippines – Seven children and an adult in Carmen, North Cotabato sustained injuries while 31 houses were damaged as a magnitude 5.7 earthquake shook Central Mindanao Saturday night, local officials said.
The tremor, which struck at 10:10 p.m. Saturday, also destroyed a bridge connecting a portion of the Sayre Highway between Carmen town and Damulog, Bukidnon.
The children and their adult companion were injured when boulders and soil from a nearby hill, loosened by the tremor, cascaded into their house.
The earthquake also des-troyed the concrete walls of several houses at the town proper of Carmen, hometown of North Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza.
Barangay officials said the earthquake also destroyed school buildings and left cracks on concrete solar dryers.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said the tremor, with its epicenter traced some 10 kilometers northwest of Carmen, was felt at Intensity 5 in Carmen; Intensity 4 in Roxas (Cotabato), Tacurong City (Sultan Kudarat) and Midsayap (North Cotabato); and Intensity 3 in Misamis City, Cotabato City, Tampakan (South Cotabato), Makilala and Magpet towns (North Cotabato), and the cities of Valencia and Marawi.
It was also felt at Intensity 2 in Mlang and Tulunan (North Cotabato), Camiguin, General Santos City, Malaybalay (Bukidnon), Misamis Oriental, and Padada (Davao del Sur); and Intensity 1 in Dipolog City.
Phivolcs continued to record aftershocks yesterday, including a magnitude 4.9 tremor that hit Carmen at 9:40 a.m. and was felt at Intensity 4. – With Helen Flores, Alexis Romero