Quake-hit Ormoc under state of calamity | ABS-CBN

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Quake-hit Ormoc under state of calamity

Quake-hit Ormoc under state of calamity

ABS-CBN News

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Updated Jul 11, 2017 08:52 AM PHT

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MANILA - Officials have declared a state of calamity in Ormoc, Leyte, one of the worst-hit areas during a magnitude 6.5 earthquake last week, Mayor Richard Gomez confirmed Tuesday.

A state of calamity means local officials can tap emergency funds for the evacuees and impose a price freeze on basic commodities.

"Twenty percent of the calamity fund, puwede naming gamitin agad sa pagbili ng pagkain, tubig, materials para habang nasa relocation sila," Gomez said in a phone interview with ABS-CBN's "Umagang Kay Ganda."

"Iyung natitirang pondo, puwede naming gamitin para magpa-ayos ng relocation site nila."

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Gomez said the quake damaged scores of buildings in Ormoc including 18 classrooms that can no longer be used. At least 100 other classrooms now have cracks on the walls, he added.

A total of 616 families from Barangay Tongonan and Lake Danao, which both straddle the fault line that generated the earthquake, were evacuated to 6 relocation sites.

The mayor said these families would have to be permanently relocated to a safer area.

Local officials hold a meeting about the aftermath of an earthquake that rattled Leyte and nearby provinces.

Photo courtesy of Alex Hoseña via Ranulfo Docdocan

Thursday's tremor left 2 dead in the central islands. Its epicenter was traced to Jaro, Leyte about 70 kilometers away from Ormoc.

Ormoc and the nearby town of Kananga, which also declared a state of calamity last week, suffered the most damage to property, state seismologists earlier said.

Leyte and neighboring provinces have since experienced aftershocks, including a magnitude 5.4 quake on Monday morning.

Gomez said the aftershock sent panicked residents scrambling for safer ground.

About 20 students from a school near the city hall, he said, were injured in their rush to evacuate yesterday. Three other individuals in a mountainside village were also injured by falling debris.

"Siguro mahigit 20 iyung mga estudyante na binigyan ng first aid. Pero iyung 3 na nasa bundok, sila ang dinala sa ospital kasi nabagsakan sa ulo iyung 2 tapos iyung isa, nabagsakan sa likod. Hindi siya makalakad, under observation pa kung makakalakad pa iyung bata," he said.

The Ormoc government has suspended classes in all levels on Tuesday.

Local officials also expect power to be restored in their city later today, Gomez said.

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China, Philippines quarrel over South China Sea row in Munich conference

China, Philippines quarrel over South China Sea row in Munich conference

David Dizon,

ABS-CBN News

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Representatives from the Philippines and China quarreled Sunday over the South China Sea during a roundtable discussion at the 61st Munich Security Conference.

Speaking at the “Making Waves: Maritime Tensions in the Indo-Pacific” roundtable, Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo asserted the Philippines remains steadfast in defending the rules-based international order and the rule of law, in particular the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

"The basic issue here is that we are following international law. Whenever the Philippines undertakes any kind of activity within our exclusive economic zone, as defined by UNCLOS, we feel we are within our rights. But when another country, let's say, applies its own domestic laws to certain areas within our [exclusive economic zone], then it really does create the kind of tension that we have been experiencing, especially over the last two years,” Manalo said during the roundtable.


He said countries who have signed agreements such as UNCLOS should abide by these agreements. “If this is not the case, then the rich, the powerful, who will actually be in a position to assert their own laws against the weaker countries, I believe then we're in for a period of even greater tension,” he noted.

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However, former Chinese vice-foreign minister Fu Ying said China cannot agree for the Philippines to occupy Second Thomas (Ayungin) Shoal and Sabina (Escoda) Shoal “because that is a violation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea.”

“Everybody signed to it. I remember that language, not to make more moves, that language was watered down with the Filipino request in order for the Philippines to also sign up,” she said.

“So we all agreed, if the Philippines can take new rocks, how can you stop others? How can you stop China from taking more? We are capable, there is no problem. But we are exercising constraints because we are committed to this DOC. So that's a red line no one should be allowed to cross.”

For his part, Singapore Minister for Defense Ng Eng Hen noted that Chinese Coast Guard patrols have gone up to “about 2,000 ships a day, about a 20 per cent increase from last year to the previous.”

This is apart from the 200 Chinese militia vessels around disputed features, which is a 35 per cent increase from 2022, he said.

He noted that in 2014, Chinese President Xi Jinping said matters in Asia “ultimately must be resolved by Asians, and Asia's security ultimately must be protected by Asians”, which is a Monroe Doctrine.

Chinese vessels have engaged in a series of high-profile confrontations with Philippine ships in disputed waters of the South China Sea claimed by Beijing despite an international ruling that their assertion has no legal basis.

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