P590-million infra in South Cotabato damaged by earthquake

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June 13, 2026 | 5:23pm

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Engineers placed at P590 million, as of Saturday, June 13, the cost of buildings and other infrastructures in Koronadal City and in ten towns in South Cotabato that were damaged by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake last Monday.

Koronadal City, which has 27 barangays, is the provincial capital of South Cotabato, only about an hour away via overland travel from General Santos City and Sarangani province, both even more badly devastated by the tremor that shook the Soccsksargen area then. The Soccsksargen area encompasses South Cotabato, Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and Sarangani provinces and General Santos City in Region 12.

Regional personnel of the Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology were quoted in Saturday’s radio reports in Central Mindanao as saying that they have detected 4,017 aftershocks by Friday afternoon, following Monday’s earthquake that jolted the Soccsksargen area, the Zamboanga peninsula, or Region 9 and Regions 10 and 11 and the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

South Cotabato Gov. Reynaldo Tamayo, Jr. said on Saturday that their tally of families in Koronadal City and nearby towns in their province that got displaced by the earthquake is now 562, some confined to evacuation sites and makeshift shelters.

“They are being provided with essential humanitarian support by our provincial government and local executives and different line agencies,” Tamayo said.

The commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division. Major Gen. Jose Vladimir Cagara, and his counterpart in the 10th ID, Major Gen. Alvin Luzon, separately told reporters on Saturday that the soldiers they dispatched to support multi-sector and inter-agency disaster impact mitigation operations in South Cotabato and Sarangani provinces and in the cities of General Santos and Koronadal are now focused on relief works for displaced residents.

Many of the soldiers sent to the four areas by the 6th ID and the 10th ID are medics, now helping local government units attend to injured villagers, hit by debris from buildings and other infrastructures that collapsed as the ground shook strongly last Monday.

General Santos City is under the jurisdiction of the 10th ID, which has its anti-terror Task Force GenSan in the area. The 6th ID has units in South Cotabato and Sarangani provinces.

Rolly Aquino, chief of South Cotabato’s Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, said in their province alone, 395 residents were hurt as a result of the earthquake.

“All of them had been provided with ample medical interventions by local government units and our office,” Aquino said.

Officials of the Office of Civil Defense 12 and the Philippine Information Agency 12 told reporters on Saturday that 73,436 families, or 331,305 individuals, in the Soccsksargen area were affected by Monday’s strong earthquake.

The houses of some of them, made only of semi-permanent materials, were virtually flattened by the earthquake, according to local executives.