NAGA LANDSLIDE / September 22, 2018: Airforce helicopter hovers around the landslide area sitio Tagaytay 1 Barangay Tinaan Naga City as they check the area.
(CDN photo/ Lito Tecson)
OVERTAKEN by events.
This was how a top official of the Mines and Geoscience Bureau in Central Visayas (MGB-7) described the turn of events that led to the devastating landslide in Barangay Tinaan, Naga City early on Thursday last week.
Lawyer Gerardo Mahusay, the finance and administration officer of MGB-7, said that two days before the massive landslide on Sept. 20, or on Sept. 18, their geologists have inspected the huge soil cracks in Sitio Tagaytay and had verbally recommended the evacuation of residents of the same area.
But there was no inspection done in the adjoining Sitio Sindulan, where the landslide actually happened, because there was no request to do so, explained Mahusay.
He said the August 29 letter, which he signed and which said that the fissures would cause no imminent danger to the residents, was an initial finding that would have been corrected and updated in the subsequent report had these were not overtaken by events.
Mahusay recalled that on Sept. 13, the City Government of Naga had once again requested them to conduct a reassessment and reinvestigation in Sitio Tagaytay, after the cracks that were noticed by the residents have become huge.
“It must have developed as the days pass by,” he said, referring to the time from Aug. 29, when their geologists first visited the site on the request of Naga City Mayor Kristine Chiong, to the time when the team went back to the site on Sept. 18.
The second letter for inspection was signed by Chiong on Sept. 13 and was addressed to Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)-7 Regional Director Gilbert Gonzales. It was referred to and received by MGB-7 on Sept. 17, said Mahusay.
Mahusay said that the following day, Sept. 18, they immediately deployed their geologists to investigate in the area.
“After their investigation, they’ve conducted an exit conference together with the representatives from APO Cement and the City Government of Naga wherein our team has verbally recommended enforcing force evacuation to residents in Sitio Tagaytay due to eminent danger and possible occurrence of landslide based on their findings,” he added.
He revealed that MGB-7 was about to release a report about their new findings, but it was overtaken by the landslide
incident.
He said that because of their recommendations, residents of Sitio Tagaytay were evacuated by APO Cement and the City Government and no victims were accounted from the said area.
Mahusay also described the landslide as unusual because of the massive damage that it has brought to the residents of the adjoining Sitio Sindulan and its neighboring areas.
As of press time, authorities have already recorded 46 deaths due to the landslide, with about 40 more residents still unaccounted for.
Good faith
Mahusay also claimed that even in the first letter on Aug. 29, they attached to the letter the findings and recommendations made by their geologists, such as thorough monitoring and relocation of residents in the area.
He added that no movements of grounds in the cracks were monitored by their geologist at that time, that was why they concluded that there was no presence of eminent danger during that time.
“It was done all in good faith and the findings were based on their discipline, which we cannot question because we are not technical people,” he said.
Aside from this, the request for investigation of cracks and fissures was only focused in Sitio Tagaytay. He said Sitio Sindulan, where the landslide was most destructive, was not included.
“We’ve only investigated in Sitio Tagaytay because Sitio Sindulan was never mentioned and the cracks were only found in that area (Tagaytay),” Mahusay added.
Stop the bashing
Mahusay, meanwile, has appealed to the public to stop threatening him and his family, after he was being bashed in social media due to the landslide incident that occurred in Sitio Sindulan, Barangay Tinaan, Naga City on September 20, Thursday.
“I was bashed (in social media). It’s okay with me if I’m the only one being bashed but they’ve included my family and there were threats already that they will bury me alive together with my children so that I could also feel the pain that residents of Naga (City) are feeling right now,” relieved MGB-7 Finance and Administration Chief lawyer Gerardo Mahusay said, adding that its unfair for him to be judged immediately while describing the threats as deadly and uncivil.
Mahusay was bashed for signing a letter stating that there was “no eminent danger” in Sitio Tagaytay where cracks and fissures on the ground were observed by residents in the area.
“The letter was not really my opinion; it’s just a mere cover letter, a transmittal letter prepared by our geologists. In the second paragraph that states “no eminent danger,” the statement comes from our geologists. It’s not me who issued that statement because I am not a technical person, I’m a lawyer,” he added.
The letter was dated Aug. 29 but was signed by Mahusay on Aug. 31 and sent on the same day to the City Government of Naga City and APO Cement Corp., which operates a cement factory in Barangay Tinaan.
He explained that he signed the letter because MGB-7 Regional Director Loreto Alburo had a scheduled hospital check-up on that day while Engr. Armando Malicsi, MGB-7 assistant regional director, was attending a meeting.
In her timeline, Naga City Mayor Kristine Chiong said she issued a cease and desist order (CDO) on Aug. 29 to stop the operation of Apo Land and Quarry Corporation in Sitio Tagaytay due to complaints of residents in that area.
Chiong lifted the CDO on Sept. 6, or two days after she received the MGB-7 report declaring that the cracks in Sitio Tagaytay were not caused by quarry operations, but rather by a “natural phenomenon.”