In Rupture

caption: This former print media practitioner on assignment in Sitio Kumayot, Inabanga, Bohol as “fault-finder” takes the time of her life to pose at the new earth formation deemed perfect for the next geological tourism spot here.

BOHOL, PHILIPPINES — Forty-year-old Roland Suerte held on to a house post when the ground shook on the morning of October 15, 2013. But the moment he saw cracks on the yard, he referred to as “slice marks,” an edgy Roland shouted at his wife, heavy with their sixth child due by October 20, and at their children ordering them to run for their lives.

“I thought that was the last of us. It was like a scene from a doomsday movie,” Suerte shared in Binisayang Bol-anon dialect.

Mariana Añasco, 59 years old, a widow, was tending her farm, 50 meters away from her house, on an early morning. She earlier had coffee and pieces of local bread called “pan kinamot” (mixed and kneaded manually) and was set to go home for breakfast proper when the earth trembled. She said she was almost through clearing withered leaves of a few banana shrubs when she noticed the earth move beneath her weight. At first, she held on to the banana trunk thinking she had an episode of nausea, but later on the world around her vibrated in such a horrible rhythm, she dropped on her knees and mumbled a prayer.

Emily Pisol, 24, saw how an earthen wall arose on a lot a stone’s throw from her house. She had a vantage view of the location, and when the temblor struck, the ground cracked! She described the ground rupture to seemingly gobble them up, while smokes of dust billowed, as though it was a clip of an apocalypse film.

“Pagtuyatuya sa akong gibarogan abi lang nako ba og ‘malikmata’ kay pagkurog dungan man miulbo-ulbo ang yuta. Atbang man gud kaayo ang luna sa among pultahan. Mikurog akong baba ug tuhod, uy (Swaying where I stood, I thought it was just a mirage because along with the tremors, the earth open before my eyes. Our main door was directly across the shaken lot. My lips and knees were shaking, uy!)” she narrated in tears. “Kusog kaayo nisaka ang yuta (The earth rose so quickly). Matter of seconds ra gyud. Abi nako gani matabunan mi (I thought we would be covered).”

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Mamerto Bautista Torregosa, 53, former barangay chairman of Anonang, saw it happened right on a patch of land owned by his family. The fault line missed his and his sister’s houses by a hairline. “This used to be a flat ground,” he pointed to the earthen wall, “level man ni siya, as shown by a rice paddy. But now part of the rice paddy is higher than this one we are stepping on. And look at these crops,” referring to the sweet potatoes, “we have already removed them as these [the tubers] were already sticking out,” he detailed.

More than the eagerness to receive aid in food and shelter, 1000 affected residents in Sitio Kumayot demand reassurance they are safe near the “face” of a reverse fault line. They are just so distraught about the current situation, that Nang Mariana describes it to be “makabuang” (maddening).

As I was listening to harrowing experiences told and retold during my five-hour stay – in Sitio Kumayot, the only assurance I shared with residents frenetic about a new natural formation is the very information I gathered that morning of October 23: the fault line stretches along 100 kilometers, according to experts, manifesting well in Inabanga and on upland portions of Sagbayan and Catigbian. Only five kilometers have been surveyed initially, led by Dr. Teresito Bacolcol of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology.

Phivolcs Director Renato Solidum recommends that “…no structures should be built on top of a fault and within the five-meter buffer zone on both sides of the fault.”

He called on Bohol leaders to “revise land use policy around the fault.” And that it will take years, even centuries, for pressure to build up again before a fault line can once more create a quake of such strength.

However, it has already jolted a new promise. Bohol is now a geosciences/geological tourism destination. Proof that opportunity is antithesis to crisis, and one has the choice and the power to use a predicament to one’s advantage.

A signage in white paint on recycled galvanized iron sheet, erected a kilometer away from the earth wall, warms us up to a new facet in touring: THIS WAY TO FAULT LINE!###