Rep. Arroyo seeks shelter assistance to landslide victims
BACOLOD CITY — Negros Occidental 5th District Rep. Ignacio T. Arroyo has requested the National Disaster Commission for the giving of shelter assistance of P10,000 each to victims of the landslides in Sitio Manaol, Brgy. Quintin Remo, Moises Padilla.
He also said there is a need to build retaining walls in areas critically hit by landslides.
Arroyo visited the village recently and distributed food and relief assistance to children and families who were victims of the landslides.
He distributed 150 sacks of rice, beddings and mattresses to the victims and provided free lunch to the victims and school children at Quintin Remo Elementary School.
Arroyo said that he requested the National Disaster Commission for the possible giving of shelter assistance worth P10,000 per family.
This is a continuing problem because this involves the environment and also climate change, thus he urged his constituents for their cooperation.
He also coordinated with Moises Padilla Mayor Francisco Nazareno on where would be the best place to transfer these families who were victims of the landslide.
He also said that let more trees grow in the area because this can also be a measure to avoid the landslides.
Arroyo is still awaiting the recommendation by the U.P. team of experts who came to the town to get soil sample and study the cause of the landslide.
Dr. Mark Albert Zarco, Geotechnical expert from U.P. Geotechnical Schiences and Philippine Institute of Civil Engineers (PICE) Disaster Mitigation and Preparedness Strategies (DMAPS); Dr. Sandra Catane, Geologist/Volcanologist of the Philippine Institute of Geological Science; Edna Mendoza, Geologist, Masteral Degree, U.P.; Hilel Cabria, student of Masteral Degree on Geology and Volcanology and Kristine Jane Teves, Student, Masteral Degree on Geology were the team of experts who were requested by Cong. Arroyo to go and visit the landslide site.
He requested them to come up with mitigating measures to prevent the occurrence of the same in the future.
They were with Engr. Leah Delfinado, District Engineer of the 2nd Highway Engineering District based in Binalbagan, and PICE President, Negros Occidental Chapter, members of the Negros Occidental Provincial Police Office, Philippine Air Force, Philippine Army, Provincial Disaster Management Office, Office of the Mayor Francisco Nazareno during the consultative meeting soon after the aerial survey was conducted.
Dr. Zarco recently said that the landslide in Quintin Remo is similar to the landslide in Hagna Manaya, Bohol sometime in 2005 where the portion of the topography which is made up of limestone detached itself from the rock face and fell gently on a sloping area that precipitated this land to actually slide down.
This landslide has threatened to block the river.
“As of now, what can be done is to evacuate the people from the area to be able to delineate the area seemed affected by the landslide. Since the original portion got detached, it has been spreading to the other fringes or sides of the mountain and there’s quite a bit that may still come down. We believe that based on the experience in Bohol, this landslide will eventually die down. Once it stabilizes, this is the time for the people to go back to farming. I don’t believe that this will be the place where people should settle. Farming may be but not for residential because it may be prone again to landslide.”
He added that there has been a decrease in the motion of this landslide. It is in the process of diminishing its movement. But if there should be additional water that is introduce either because of heavy rain or a lake that burst, what we’re afraid of is that the debris that is already in the landslide field might go and then block the main river. This will dam the river and most like cause flooding and should this happen and should it break, there will be a flashflood down.
Dr. Zarco also said monitoring devices can be installed in the area. The extent of damage affects 104 hectares based on the mapping that they conducted yesterday.
Cabria also said that in 1967, there was a 100 meter long cracks that occurred in that area. Heavy rains triggered the small movements in the tension cracks. This slope is already moving. Trigger excessive rainfall happened.
“Let’s not wait for the water to increase as it will add weight on the landslide mass and will further destabilize the slope and cause rapid movement of the landslide material,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mayor Nazareno formed the Monitoring Team yesterday upon the recommendation of the U.P. Experts.