The havoc wrought by the magnitude 7.2 Visayas quake should make Metro Manila residents more conscious of the Marikina Valley Fault, says Senator Loren Legarda. In the aftermath of the quake, the senator issued a press statement citing a prediction from the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) on the impending movement of the Marikina Valley Fault Line. The statement, which was quoted in an ABS-CBNNews.com report, pointed out that the Marikina Valley Fault Line “is ripe for movement but no one can predict the exact time when it will move.”
Legarda also referred to a Metro Manila Earthquake Impact Reduction Study (MMEIRS) conducted by the Japan International Cooperation Agency in 2004, which revealed that “a magnitude 7.2 earthquake in Metro Manila would destroy 40% of the residential buildings, damage 35% of all public buildings, kill 34,000 people, injure 114,000 individuals, and the ensuing fires will also result in 18,000 additional fatalities.”
Those scary numbers should spur Metro Manila’s leaders and residents to finally implement, as Legarda’s statement put it, “the priority actions that should have been undertaken 3 to 6 years after the study was publicized to reduce the impact of such a strong tremor.”
