Landslide-hit Davao site listed

as ‘high risk’ since 2008

By: Chris Panganiban, Germelina Lacorte - @inquirerdotnet
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 04:40 AM February 21, 2024

WHERE TRAGEDY STRUCK This aerial shot of the landslide that hit
Barangay Masara in Maco, Davao de Oro, was taken on Feb. 8, two days
after the massive soil erosion buried vehicles and houses and killed at
least 98 people. Photo was taken aboard a helicopter of the Philippine Air
Force Tactical Operations Wing Eastern Mindanao. —OFFICE OF CIVIL
DEFENSE DAVAO REGION

DAVAO CITY—An environmental group here asked for an explanation

from the mining company operating in Barangay Masara of Maco town of
Davao de Oro province and the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB)
because they knew the area posed danger before the killer landslide that
hit the village on Feb.6.

If the mining company’s own study indicated that certain areas in Masara
were highly susceptible to landslides and the MGB in the Davao region
already declared the area as a “no-build zone,” why was the Apex Mining
Corporation allowed to operate there?

This was among the questions posed by the Davao-based Interfacing

Development Interventions for Sustainability Inc. (Idis) on the mining
operation in Masara, where the landslide had killed 98 people, with nine
others still missing.

Lawyer Mark Peñalver, Idis executive director, noted that Apex Mining
placed its bus depot within the no-build zone, accounting to the high
number of its workers buried in the landslide.

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Vulnerable

Peñalver said a study commissioned by Apex Mining in 2021 revealed

that the geological and meteorological conditions in Davao de Oro
already indicated the province’s vulnerability to hazards like landslides.

The Apex report, titled “Economic Assessment and Ore Reserve

Estimation of Maco Epithermal Gold Deposits,” classified Davao de Oro’s
climate zone under Type IV in the Modified Corona’s Classification
System (MCC), which means it has practically continuous rainfall
throughout the year, with the heaviest precipitation occurring during the
monsoon season from November to February, Peñalver said in a
statement on Saturday.

“This classification highlights the increased likelihood of slope instability

and erosion in the area. With these conditions, landslide risk is set to
escalate with climate change and continuous activities in the area,” Idis
said.
Persistent pattern

Idis said the same report also stressed the presence of a prominent fault
lineation—or fault veins directly connected to the Masara Fault and
extending toward the northwest direction.

“Fault lineations provide areas of vulnerability in the earth’s crust,

increasing the possibility of slope instability and failure. The existence of
this fault lineation in Masara indicates that the region is prone to
geological hazards which elucidates its ‘high’ to ‘very high’ susceptibility
to landslide as determined by the [MGB],” Idis added.

In 2008, the MGB-Davao officially classified Barangay Masara as a no-

build zone because of the persistent pattern of landslides in the area,
going back to 2007, with recorded deaths, the group noted.

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It was even likely that there were more landslides that were not
documented in the area involving those that had no reported deaths,
according to Idis.

The group also pointed out that Apex Mining employed the method of
underground mining in its operations, a process that has the potential to
disrupt the stability of rock and soil layers, hence increasing the
likelihood of landslides, adding: “Given the massive human and
environmental impacts of mining, it is outrageous that the local
population only receives 1 percent of the company’s profits as a royalty.
Financial recompense is inadequate in the face of disasters like the recent
landslide.”

When asked for comment, both the MGB-Davao and Apex Mining refused
to answer the question why the bus depot, the barangay hall and other
civilian structures were allowed to be built within the area earlier
declared by MGB as a no-build zone.

Natural factors

“As has been reiterated by the [MGB], the landslide was caused by natural
factors,” said Teresa Pacis, Apex Mining’s AVP for corporate affairs and
communications, in an emailed reply to Inquirer on Monday.

“Barangay Masara in Maco has been our home for more than 50 years
now and we have been through many ups and downs. We are currently
focused on helping the barangay overcome the challenges brought about
by this landslide. If these inquiries will help Maco then we welcome
them.”

Pacis also said Apex Mining was “duly licensed by concerned government
agencies and is compliant with regulatory measures prescribed by law.”

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“Assessment is always a part of our adherence to responsible mining,
including strict observance of safety protocols,” Pacis said.

VOLUNTEERS Emergency response teams from eight mining companies

are part of efforts to search for and rescue victims of the Feb. 6 landslide
that hit Masara in Maco, Davao de Oro. They continued helping
government teams when operations shifted to retrieval a week after the
tragedy. —PHOTO COURTESY OF EON GROUP

MGB also did not answer why mining was allowed in an area classified to
have “high” to “very high” susceptibility to landslides. Instead, MGB-
Davao officer in charge Beverly Mae Brebante referred to its earlier
statement on the Masara landslide, which cited the geohazard warning
they issued to the local government unit and the emergency response
preparedness advisory for the mining company at the height of the
flooding brought about by rains spawned by the trough of the Low
Pressure Area (LPA) that prevailed over the Davao region in the early
part of February.

“We appreciate your understanding. Our official statement, as provided

by the DENR (Department of Environment and Natural Resources) MGB-
Davao, as released in our Facebook accounts and official websites stands
as our definitive communication on this matter. Should there be any
developments warranting additional commentary, we will ensure timely
and appropriate updates are provided,” Brebante said.

She was referring to the earlier statement, which detailed how MGB-
Davao had warned the local governments and the mining company
against the perils of floods and landslides, telling them to be prepared for
untoward incidents because of the continuous heavy rain in the area.

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MGB also issued an advisory for the activation of the mining company
emergency response plans and the emergency response team before the
Feb. 6 7:30 p.m. killer landslide.

Very high risks

Already classified in the MGB’s geohazard map to have “high” to “very

high” risks to landslides, Masara’s risks were further aggravated by the
continuous rain spawned by the trough of a LPA early this month.

“Despite Masara being declared as a no-build zone, Apex Mining

continued building their facilities and operations [in the village].
Although the landslide area is not actively being operated on, it is still
within the premises of Apex Mining’s Mineral Production Sharing
Agreement,” Peñalver said.

He believed the high death toll could have been prevented had the MGB
and the mining company closely monitored the landslide-prone area.

DENR had earlier issued DENR Administrative Order 2000-98, mandating

the mining company to establish an emergency response readiness
program to address any “reasonably foreseeable industrial and natural
disasters,” which, Idis believed, was not fully enforced. INQ
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high-risk-since-2008#ixzz8SKR3d2B0
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6|Page
Davao de Oro landslide deaths soar
to 98; over 5,300 in evacuation
centers
By: Frinston Lim - @inquirerdotnet
Inquirer Mindanao / 09:25 PM February 17, 2024

GROUND ZERO Responders, backed by heavy equipment, comb the

ground zero of a massive landslide in the village of Masara in Maco,
Davao de Oro, in this photo on Feb. 10, four days after the tragedy struck.
The landslide killed nearly 100 people with more than 30 others still
missing. —FRINSTON LIM

TAGUM CITY — Two bodies have been found by responders at a

landslide-hit village in Maco town, Davao de Oro on Saturday, bringing
the death toll of the Feb. 6 disaster to 98, local disaster officials said.

In a 7 p.m. bulletin on Saturday, the Maco local government said the

number of missing persons was also down to only nine.

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Leah Añora, head of the management of the dead and the missing (MDM)
cluster of the incident command team, said ten of those retrieved were
body parts.

She said nine people remain unaccounted for, which included four
residents, four agency-contracted workers of Apex Mining, and one
regular employee of the mining company.

At least seven search and retrieval teams are currently doing “excavation
works” at the ground zero of the disaster, said Ariel Capoy, Maco disaster
response officer.

7|Page
The landslide dumped over 33 meters thick of mud, soil, and other debris
on a ten-hectare area in Masara following weeks of rain and buried
several buses, a jeepney, and some 55 houses.

It has displaced 1,503 families comprising 5,378 individuals from five

villages who are now staying at evacuation sites in Mawab town, said Joel
Penido, disaster response cluster head.

Marcos: Why the row?

Senate to lead Cha-cha
By: Melvin Gascon - Reporter / @melvingasconINQ
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:50 AM February 21, 2024

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Tuesday said he was baffled by all the
political noise on the proposal to amend the Constitution, saying that this
has already been settled “months ago” during his discussions and
consultations with the two leaders of Congress.

Mr. Marcos reiterated that the Senate would be taking the lead in crafting
the proposed Charter changes.

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“I always said the Senate will take the lead. The Senate is taking the lead
and between the two houses they will come to an agreement, then that
will be the way we’ll do it,” he said.

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“But I don’t know why there is such [bickering]. It’s really a storm in a
teacup because this has been decided long ago [by] the leaders of both
houses,” he said on the sidelines of the 16th Ani ng Dangal awards at the
Metropolitan Theater in Manila on Tuesday afternoon.

Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri said last month that the President
had directed the Senate to take the lead in reviewing the economic
provisions of the Constitution.

He said Mr. Marcos gave the order after meeting with congressional
leaders last Jan. 11.

‘Doing it quietly’

In an interview, the President also sounded pleased by developments in

the two chambers, with the separate filing of identical measures in the
Senate and the House of Representatives that seek to relax the economic
restrictions in the Constitution.

Gov’t intel efforts more focused on external threats — Marcos

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He dismissed suggestions for him to intervene between the Senate and

the House, whose members have been squabbling over the preferred
method to open the Constitution to amendments.

“Maybe I don’t proclaim but I’ve often been asked to intervene—I have
long been talking with both chambers. But, you know, what for me is
more important… is to get it done,” he noted, adding that he has been
overseeing the efforts to change the Charter “quietly.”

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“So, that’s what we’re doing—we’re doing it quietly. We do it… without
any fuss,” he said.

Mr. Marcos is supporting moves to amend several economic provisions in

the Constitution to attract foreign direct investments.

“We just want to get those amendments incorporated into the

Constitution to improve the chances of investment and upskilling of our
people,” he said.

No withdrawal yet

On the ongoing people’s initiative (PI) to amend the 1987 Constitution, the
Commission on Elections (Comelec) said its local offices have yet to
receive any filled out form from those who intend to pull out their
signature.

“We have not received any completed withdrawal form. Our local
Comelec offices also have not forwarded any report of people who are
withdrawing their signatures,” Comelec Chair George Erwin Garcia told
reporters on Tuesday.

On Feb. 14, the Comelec en banc approved the issuance of a withdrawal

form, which would be made available in local Comelec offices for people
desiring to revoke their signatures in the PI petition.

“Comelec’s acceptance of withdrawal forms is for recording purposes

only and shall not be construed as a formal action by the commission on
the signature sheets/petition for PI,” the poll body noted.

George Erwin Garcia

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The issuance of the forms was in response to calls by a member of the
Senate committee on electoral reforms and people’s participation for the
poll body to do something about reported pleas from signatories who
wanted to withdraw their signatures.

Easy to understand

But for former Ako Bicol Party list Rep. Alfredo Garbin Jr., one of the
petitioners for the PI to amend the Constitution, those who signed in
support of Charter change (Cha-cha) fully understood the content of the
signature sheet before agreeing to its terms.

“When the signature sheets—which contained the one-line proposed

amendment to our Constitution—were distributed, they were explained
to the people at the barangay level. The content of the signature sheet
was translated in Tagalog, and in our case in the Bicol Region, translated
to Bicolano,” he said in an interview on ANC on Monday.

“They understood [its contents]. So I think there’s no technicality. They

didn’t have a hard time understanding what we meant by joint voting,”
Garbin noted, addressing allegations that the PI signature sheets used
highly technical language that made it challenging for ordinary
individuals to comprehend.

The current people’s initiative seeks to amend Article XVII, Section 1(1) of
the Constitution on how the Charter itself may be amended by Congress
with a vote of three-fourths of all its members.

The amendment specifies that this vote be made “jointly, at the call of the
Senate President or the Speaker of the House of Representatives.”

If the people’s initiative succeeds, senators feared that it would lead to the
24 votes of the Senate being overwhelmed by the more than 300
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members of the House of Representatives should Congress jointly amend
the Charter.

Enough signatures

People’s Initiative for Reform, Modernization and Action (Pirma) lead

convener Noel Oñate earlier said they were not affected by the issuance
of the withdrawal forms, noting that they still have more than enough
signatures to push Charter change.

“We are not bothered; in fact, we’re even happy because this shows that
we are living in a democracy, and those who wish to withdraw their
signatures can do so,” he said.

He noted that even if one out of their 10 signatories would take back their
support for the PI, they had “enough buffer” and would still have the
signatures equivalent to 17 percent of registered voters.

This would be beyond the 8 million signatures or 12 percent of the total

68 million voters needed for a people’s initiative petition.

The group, however, was not certain if the signatures already reached at
least 3 percent of registered voters of each of the 254 districts across the
country, which is another requirement to compel the Comelec to hold a
plebiscite. —WITH A REPORT FROM Dexter Cabalza
READ NEXT

DepEd OKs gradual return

to old school calendar
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By: Dempsey Reyes - Reporter / @dempseyreyesINQ
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:40 AM February 21, 2024

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

The Department of Education (DepEd) has made adjustments to return to

the old school calendar, wherein vacations take place during the summer
months, following mounting complaints from teachers, learners and
parents about the extreme heat that students had to endure in public
school classrooms especially during their classes from March to May—the
peak of the dry season in the country.

However, DepEd said the reversion would be gradually implemented so

as not to compromise the students’ learning competencies.

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Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte issued Department
Order (DO) No. 3 series of 2024 setting the new dates of school activities
from February until the end of next school year.

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In her order dated Feb. 19, Duterte said DepEd took the health, safety and
well-being of teachers and students alike as its “highest priority” in line
with her so-called Matatag Agenda.

The order, which shall take effect immediately “upon its approval and
posting on the DepEd website,” was already up on the agency’s website as
of Tuesday, with officials confirming to reporters that it has also been
issued to all schools.

The order sets the end of School Year (SY) 2023-2024 on May 31, 2024, the
beginning of SY 2024-2025 on July 29, 2024, and the last school day on
May 16, 2025.

Optional for private schools

DepEd spokesperson and Undersecretary Michael Poa told reporters that

the gradual adjustments under DO 3 reduced the number of school days
by only seven to eight days.

Gov’t intel efforts more focused on external threats — MarcosGov’t intel efforts more focused on external threats — Marcos
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“The number of school days lessened for this school year was not that
many, if I’m not mistaken, only around seven to eight days,” Poa said.
“We cannot just [reduce] the school days because we cannot risk the
students to be delayed in their learning competencies and that is why our
shift [to the old school calendar] will be gradual.”

He said the phased shift or adjustments in the current and upcoming

school years would lead up to the return to the old school calendar by SY
2027-2028.

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 ADVERTISEMENT
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According to Poa, the end of SY 2026-2027 was estimated to be in the first
week of April and the possibility of going back to March as the end of a
school year would be during SY 2027-2028.

“So, we are on our way there with this gradual shift. As you know, every
year, we always look at the adjustments that we can make with the school
calendar but based on our projection, we will end SY 2026-2027 during
the first few days of April, so we really are on our way there,” he
explained.

As for private schools, Poa said they have the option to match their school
calendar schedule with that of public schools.

Classroom discomfort

Two of the organizations that were part of the consultations last Jan. 16 at
the DepEd Central Office, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) and
the Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC), raised the concern about the hot
weather, pointing out that it has been affecting their classes as students,
teachers and even school staff members get sick due to the extreme heat.

ACT chair Vladimer Quetua said some of their students even asked
teachers if they could wear plain T-shirts or even sleeveless shirts just to
keep up with the heat inside the classrooms.

“They would even ask us if they can go to the canteen just to buy a bottle
of water and of course, we allow them to buy water for themselves. We
also allow them to wear shirts they are comfortable with,” Quetua said.

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During the consultations, the TDC said the holding of religious festivities
during the months of April and May such as the Holy Week and festivals
in different localities was also raised.

Vacations unchanged

During the gradual shift to the old school calendar, Poa noted that
vacation days for students and teachers would not be lessened.

READ: DepEd: Gradual return to old school calendar starting SY 2024-

2025
In fact, he said the order stated that teachers should not be compelled to
do mandatory or even voluntary activities during their 30-day break
from June 1 to 30.

After this, teachers could then volunteer in activities scheduled in July

such as the Palarong Pambansa and the National Learning Camps.

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“The teachers have to rest during these days, we made that clear in the
order. We also instructed our undersecretary for operations to issue a
memorandum to the field to ensure that teachers won’t be given
mandatory or voluntary tasks during their 30-day break,” Poa said,
adding that any complaints should be reported directly to the Office of
the Secretary. INQ
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