Mayor waiting for MGB-7 report on sinkholes

CEBU, Philippines - While waiting for the findings of the Mines and Geo-Sciences Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-7, Mabinay (Negros Oriental) Mayor Ernesto Uy had dispatched the town’s rescue group to monitor the sinkholes at Barangay Hagtu following continuous rains the past days.

Uy explained that the MGB-7’s investigation report would be a basis for him to determine future actions of the local government unit on the sinkholes, considering that the area where these are situated is close to the proposed site for the regional centers of the Negros Island Region.

Last week, at least four sinkholes were found at the Malaiba riverbed with a fifth one formed over the weekend, due to continuous rains. At least two tension cracks were also observed to have formed around the sinkholes, said Uy.

The mayor said the MGB-7 team members already visited the site of the sinkholes and they told him there might be a larger hole underneath that could have caused the depressions on the surface.

Initial measurements taken by the MGB-7 team showed the biggest of the five sinkholes had measured around eight to nine meters in diameter with a depth of about eight feet. Other holes measured were around two to three meters in diameter and six to eight feet deep, Uy said.

The mayor said he believed the sinkholes could have extended farther down from the surface the first time they were observed but rains and flowing water had eroded sediments that gradually filled them up.

Uy said he wanted to know immediately about the MGB-7’s findings about the possibility of a bigger hole underground, as the continuous rains may also cause a collapse of the ground surface.

The site of the sinkholes is located in what many believed to be an earthquake fault along the Hagtu-Tagukon area in the boundary of Mabinay, Negros Oriental and Kabankalan City in Negros Occidental.

This site was reportedly a portion of the Central Negros fault, which geologists had found. Tagukon is the adjacent barangay to Hagtu and has been declared the site of the future regional centers of the NIR.  (FREEMAN)