MGB 7 Declares Cebu City Mountain Sub-Village Unfit for Development

(PNA) — The Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) 7 of the Department and Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) 7 has declared Lower Sitio, Barangay Busay in the hinterlands of Cebu City, where an elementary school sits, as not suitable for development and construction of permanent structures.

MGB 7 Regional Director Loreto B. Alburo said the area has been identified as the proposed relocation site of the Busay Elementary School (BES).

But based on the 1:10,000 scale geohazard mapping and assessment of Cebu City conducted in March 2011 under the National Geohazards Mapping and Assessment Program, the site is classified as highly susceptible to landslides,” Alburo said.

Alburo said the area is in fact unstable and is not viable or safe for development of permanent structures.

He said the recent landslides in the area might have been attributed to several factors such as heavy rainfall, the type of soil being mostly weathered and typically porous and poorly bedded which has high absorptive capacity, and very steep slopes.

Classes at the BES were suspended after the landslides to keep students away from harm’s way.

Alburo, in a letter addressed to Barangay Busay Councilor Eliodoro Sanchez, said “recent investigation in the area showed that the ground subsidence has further advanced as shown in the increase in the ground vertical displacement as it was deduced that the access road going to the proposed relocation site is unstable.”

He said “previous assessment on file within the vicinity showed that in 2008, ground crack has affected an area, less than 50 meters farther, southwest of the relocation and the area affected is a sloping ground at the back of the classroom of the abandoned BES.”

In 2011, the ground movement reoccurred, damaging the newly-built multi-storey concrete building still within BES.

It was found out that a road slip or ground subsidence was mapped along the road junction from the transcentral highway going to the school.

“We are strongly urging our local chief executives, particularly the barangay captains, to revisit and restudy the landslide susceptibility rating and landslide advisory letter which we issued to them so that they will know where landslide or flooding would likely occur within their respective area,” said DENR 7 Regional Director Dr. Isabelo R. Montejo in a statement.

Alburo also reiterated their letter dated July 1 addressed to Cebu City Local School Board Chair Ronald Diola saying the proposed site as unsafe.

But Alburo said they did not totally dismiss the possibility that “engineering intervention could mitigate, if not prevent, slope instability following effective and stringent protection measures after a more detailed geological or geohazard study by experts.” (PNA) SCS/EB/EDS