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Bacolod City, PhilippinesMonday, February 13, 2012
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IN WESTERN VISAYAS
US embassy invites
students to writing tilt

The U.S. Embassy in Manila is inviting students from Western Visayas to participate in a special writing competition dubbed “America in 3D Kabataan Challenge”.

The writing competition is part of the “America in 3D: A Roadshow in Diplomacy, Development and Defense” program that will visit Iloilo March 2-4, a press release from the US embassy said.

The contest is open to students 13 years old and above, who are currently enrolled in any school in Western Visayas. To join, participants must submit a 50-word answer in English to the question “How can Filipino and American youth work together to make the world a better place?”, the press release said.

“This is an opportunity for Filipino youth to speak their minds and share their vision about how they can work together with their American peers for the greater good,” U.S. Embassy Public Affairs counselor Robin Diallo said.

Entries must be original and submitted before February 20. The public will be invited to vote and authors of the top three winning entries will have the chance to join U.S. Ambassador Harry Thomas Jr. onstage on March 2 during the opening of “America in 3D” at SM City Iloilo. They will also be awarded special prizes, the press release added.

For more information, visit the U.S. Embassy Manila Facebook page, click ‘Like’, and then click on the tab ‘America in 3D’, it added.*

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New fault in town

After Typhoon Sendong, another calamity in the form of an earthquake struckNegrosIsland last February 6, 2012 around noon time. The quake’s intensity was measured between 6 and 7 on the Richter scale, depending on the location of the closest measuring station and had its origins in the offshore area of Tayasan municipality, Negros Oriental.

The initial jolt tremor was followed by a series of tremors of lesser intensity for several days. Severely hit were the towns ofTayasan, La Libertad, and Guihulngan, some 70 kilometers north of Dumaguete City. The quake caused significant damage to buildings and roads in the said area. It also caused several deaths, mostly due to landslide.

This particular earthquake caught some Phivolcs authorities off guard, mainly because this area had no history of a major earthquake. What also made it perplexing for the authorities was that the area was not included in the fault maps of thePhilippines.

This observation reminds us of the Pinatubo volcano which erupted despite the earlier declaration that it had been dormant for 600 years.

The Tayasan fault, in my opinion, may be inherent to the area since it is situated between the islands of Negros andCebu. If you look at the map of these two opposing islands, you will notice that they appear to fit like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.

This pattern appears to support the theory that some time ago (millions of years) the islands of Negros andCebuwere once joined together. The separation of the two may have been facilitated by the formation of a fault line which is now covered by sea (i.e.TanonStrait).

Although geohazard maps have been produced for Negros Island, very few people know about their existence because of poor dissemination of information. The major fault lines of Negros include the Negros Volcanic Arc which runs north-south and central to the island, connecting the North Negros Volcanoes, Canlaon Volcano, and Talinis-Balinsasayao Volcanoes and the Negros Trench which is an offshore fault line. The Negros Trench is a long fault line which runs from Mindanao to Panay and passes southwest of Negros Island.

The size and location of this trench is believed to have the capacity to produce tsunamis particularly in the coastal areas facing Sulu Sea. On the other hand, the Tayasan fault is not a potential tsunami generator for reasons that the fault is located in relatively shallow waters and is constricted by the islands of Negros andCebu.

The earthquake that shookNegroslast February 6, 2012 was an eye opener in the sense that tremors can occur in undefined fault lines. There is a need to know where these fault lines are so that we can prepare to protect ourselves from earthquakes and landslides.

It is also equally important that we identify these geohazard areas so that proper precautionary measures are put into place when building roads and other infrastructures.*

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’28 Negros brgys
susceptible to landslides’

The Mines and Geosciences Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in Western Visayas reported that 28 barangays in Negros Occidental are highly susceptible to landslides.

MGB- 6 regional director Leo Van Juguan, in his report, said the areas classified as highly susceptible to landslides are those with presence of active faults, occurrence of recent landslides, presence of numerous and large tension cracks that would directly affect the community, and  presence of areas that are prone to landslide damming and have steep slopes.

The 28 barangays, which are highly vulnerable to landslides in the province are located in the municipalities of Don Salvador Benedicto, Murcia, Calatrava, La Castellana, Isabela, Cauayan, Candoni, Ilog and EB Magalona, and the cities of San Carlos, Cadiz, Silay and Kabankalan.

The MGB-6 completed its rapid geohazard assessment and mapping of Western Visayas last year, which led to identification of areas in the region vulnerable to landslides and floodings, Juguan said.

Of the 4,054 barangays in Western Visayas,  there are 564 barangays classified as highly susceptible to landslides, including 28 barangays in Negros Occidental, while 550 barangays are moderately susceptible to landslides.

Areas with inactive and old landslides, presence of smaller tension cracks and moderate slope are classified by MGB as moderately susceptible to landslides.

The province of Iloilo topped the list with 283  highly susceptible barangays , followed by Antique with 185, Aklan and Capiz with  30 each, Negros Occidental with  28, and eight in Guimaras.

Undersecretary Benito Ramos, director of the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council, recently met with officials of the Office of the Civil Defense in Western Visayas, and representatives of various search and rescue groups on disaster preparedness in the region.* GPB

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People & Events
’28 Negros brgys susceptible to landslides’
New fault in town

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