More soldiers dispatched to quake-hit South Cotabato, Sarangani, GenSan

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June 12, 2026 | 5:33pm

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Two Army divisions in Mindanao have dispatched more soldiers to the tremor-stricken provinces of South Cotabato and Sarangani, as well as General Santos City, to support the disaster mitigation efforts of local government units in the three areas, officials said Friday, June 12.

Additional personnel from the 105th Infantry Battalion of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division and the 12th Forward Service Support Unit, based in Camp Siongco in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte, where the 6th ID headquarters is located, are supporting multi-sectoral, inter-agency public service operations in South Cotabato, Sarangani and General Santos City.

South Cotabato Gov. Reynaldo Tamayo Jr., chairperson of the Regional Development Council (RDC) 12, told reporters Friday that he and members of the multi-sectoral council appreciate the prompt deployment of rescuer-soldiers to the three areas by 6th ID commander Maj. Gen. Jose Vladimir Cagara.

Soldiers from the 10th ID have also been helping the General Santos City government address humanitarian concerns in its barangays, which were among the hardest hit by Monday's magnitude 7.8 earthquake that displaced no fewer than 300,000 families in the city and in towns across South Cotabato and Sarangani.

Maj. Gen. Alvin Luzon, commander of the Army's 10th Infantry Division, and his subordinate officers in Task Force GenSan are also directly supporting relief operations led by local executives in General Santos City, according to Tamayo in his capacity as RDC 12 chairperson.

Local executives in South Cotabato have been providing extensive medical care since before dawn Tuesday to 334 residents who sustained injuries, many of them serious, during the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that struck Central Mindanao on June 8.

South Cotabato, which comprises 10 municipalities and Koronadal City, is one of the four provinces in Region 12 and is less than an hour away from General Santos City by land.

A total of 513 buildings and other structures in General Santos City, Sarangani, South Cotabato and Koronadal City were damaged by Monday's earthquake, according to official reports from local government units in the four areas.

The earthquake also affected Regions 9, 10 and 12, as well as the entire Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Officials from the Office of Civil Defense 12, the Bureau of Fire Protection 12 and the Police Regional Office 12 separately told reporters Thursday that at least 35 residents in the Soccsksargen area died as a result of Monday’s earthquake, based on reports submitted by field responders as of late Wednesday.

Officials also clarified that 20 of the fatalities in the region were residents of the Sarangani towns of Glan and Malapatan. The epicenter of Monday’s earthquake that hit the Soccsksargen area was in the coastal town of Maasim, Sarangani.

Officials also confirmed Thursday that 647 individuals in Soccsksargen were injured during and after the two-minute earthquake, many of them struck by debris from damaged buildings and collapsed structures.

Rolly Aquino, chief of South Cotabato’s Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, told reporters Thursday that based on reports from local government units in the province’s 10 towns and Koronadal City, Monday’s earthquake left 334 residents injured.

Tamayo and the province’s mayors are jointly attending to the needs of the 334 injured residents.

“The office of our governor had also extended initial assistance to the families of the three residents of the province who died as a result of last Monday’s powerful earthquake,” Aquino, a registered nurse, said.

Aquino said field emergency response teams, backed by police and military personnel, are still searching for an ethnic T'boli resident believed trapped beneath tons of soil and rocks loosened by the earthquake and swept down from a hillside in T'boli town.

Tamayo told reporters that as of Thursday, engineers from the provincial government and local government units had estimated the damage to buildings and other structures in South Cotabato at P365 million.