MikeLigalig.com

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines -- Geo-scientists and other experts from the Philippines and other countries are meeting later this month to share studies on the factors that led to the devastating Guinsaugon landslide in 2006 that killed over 1,000 villagers.

The five-day international conference-workshop on the February 17, 2006 landslide will be held in Tacloban City from April 28 to 29 and will include a visit to the village of Guinsaugon, St. Bernard town, on April 30-May 2.

Guinsaugon, about 160 kilometers from Tacloban City, is the site of what was considered the most destructive single landslide in Philippine history, with a death toll of more than 1,000.

“Due to the devastation brought by the Guinsaugon landslide and other similar disasters, landslide research and hazard mitigation in the Philippines have now become a major concern not only among geo-scientists but also among the government and private sectors,” the conference organizers said.

Inquirer.net
Dr. Sandra Catane of the National Institute of Geological Sciences (NIGS) in University of the Philippines and the leading landslide expert in UP, has been spearheading preparations for the conference, said Antonia Loyzaga, executive director of the Manila Observatory.

Loyzaga noted, in an interview, that the experts had yet to determine what caused the Guinsaugon landslide.

“Some geologist will say it’s the earthquake. Some will say it’s the rainfall. Some say it’s the structure. So, this is the nature of the scientific investigation. They do not agree yet,” she said.

Loyzaga was among the resource persons in a training of journalists on Community-Based Disaster Risk Reduction initiated by the Center for Community Journalism and Development, in partnership with Christian Aid and Oxfam GB, which was held recently in Iloilo City. She talked on the Guinsaugon landslide.

Loyzaga said the Guinsaugon landslide was the fifth among the major rockslide-debris avalanches in the 20th and 21st centuries, after Mt. St. Helens (US) in 1980, Mayunmarca (Peru) in 1974, Bairaman (Papua New Guinea) in 1986, and Nevados Huascaran (Peru) in 1970.

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