At least 19 dead after 7.8 magnitude earthquake strikes southern Philippines

A powerful magnitude-7.8 earthquake struck off the coast of Mindanao island in the southern Philippines on Monday morning, killing at least 19 people and injuring more than 200 others. The major offshore temblor occurred at 07:37 local time at a depth of roughly 35 kilometers, according to seismic monitors. The violent shaking caused buildings to collapse, cut power grids, and triggered widespread panic across several southern provinces.

The earthquake hit at sea at a depth of 20 to 35 miles, roughly 20 miles southwest of Maasim town in Sarangani province. Variations in early measurements are common among different tracking agencies. The impact was felt across a wide swath of the region, including South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, and Davao Occidental, stretching as far as Malaysia’s Sabah state on Borneo island.

High Casualties and Infrastructure Damage in General Santos

The port city of General Santos, a major commerce hub known as the tuna capital of the Philippines, bore the brunt of the destruction. The city is also globally recognized as the hometown of Manny Pacquiao, the world boxing champion who later became a politician. At least seven of the recorded fatalities occurred within the city of 720,000 residents. Falling debris, landslides, and structural failures caused the remaining deaths across neighboring provinces and on Balut Island.

In General Santos, a popular Jollibee fast-food restaurant was reduced to rubble, and sections of a four-story office building housing a provincial radio station partially collapsed. Local officials reported that at least 12 people are missing in the city, with search and rescue teams actively clearing debris at a damaged warehouse and a school building. The national police and the Bureau of Fire Protection are leading the search operations. The international airport in General Santos was temporarily closed, forcing the cancellation of 17 domestic flights, while local power and communication networks experienced temporary outages.

Panic and Chaos on the First Day of School

The earthquake coincided with the first day of the public-school academic year, compounding the chaos as thousands of children were already gathered for morning activities. In Davao City and surrounding areas, more than 100 students sustained bruises or fainted from intense panic during outdoor flag-raising ceremonies.

Social media footage captured dozens of terrified elementary students crouching on violently swaying ground in Davao Occidental just before a corrugated-roof shelter collapsed behind them. At a separate campus in Davao del Sur, a high school roof caved in while students lined up on an open sports field. School officials confirmed that no injuries were sustained in either of those specific campus incidents. However, authorities continue to check separate reports of students trapped in a collapsed two-story school building in General Santos.

Severe Tremors Stun Residents and Officials

The sheer force of the initial earthquake caught residents entirely off guard during their morning routines. The tremor was followed by more than 130 aftershocks, some reaching magnitudes as high as 6.7.

Local authorities and eyewitnesses described a scene of sudden, overwhelming motion. “Our pickup truck suddenly jerked and I thought we had a flat tire,” said regional disaster-response official Sosmeña, who witnessed residents dashing out of houses into the streets. Another regional official, Ednar Dayanghirang, recalled that he could “hardly stand and keep my balance when the ground shook as I was leaving my house” in Davao.

The extreme strength of the event was echoed by emergency personnel. “This is the strongest earthquake we’ve experienced,” Benjie Ancheta, the police chief of Alabel town in Sarangani, told Reuters by phone. Ancheta noted that cracks formed in the police station walls while officers were assembled outside for a morning ceremony.

University staff similarly had to scramble for safety as structural interiors began to fail. “I had to duck and shelter myself under the table,” the president of Notre Dame of Dadiangas University told Reuters, describing the immediate reaction inside a campus building.

Tsunami Warnings Triggers Coastal Evacuations

The massive offshore displacement immediately triggered tsunami alerts across the Pacific Basin, prompting warnings in the Philippines, Indonesia, Japan, and Australia. The National Weather Service confirmed that no tsunami threat was detected for Hawaii. Philippine authorities urged immediate coastal evacuations to prevent a higher loss of life.

“To our kababayans (countrymen) in the affected provinces, please heed the tsunami warning. Move to higher ground now. Do not wait. Your life is more important than anything left behind,” Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said in a statement.

Tsunami waves averaging 3 feet were monitored along the coasts of Sultan Kudarat and Sarangani provinces, with a peak wave height of 4.6 feet recorded in the coastal area of Kiamba town. The surging water caused localized damage, destroying six stilt shanties in a coastal village in Zamboanga del Sur. Smaller waves rippled outward across the region, with a 2.7-foot wave measured off Indonesia’s Sulawesi Island and 1-foot waves detected in Palau. The Japan Meteorological Agency recorded minor tsunami activity further north, measuring waves up to 7.8 inches on the remote island of Chichijima and in the central town of Kushimoto. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center stated the primary threat largely passed five hours later, though it warned residents that sea levels could continue to fluctuate.

Government Mobilizes Crisis Response

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council is currently tabulating verified casualty and damage figures from local police and relief operations. Because local assessments take time to consolidate, official national figures are expected to rise over the coming days.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered the immediate suspension of classes in all affected zones and directed national agencies to deploy emergency rescue and evacuation teams to Mindanao.

“The national government is moving, and we will not leave Mindanao behind,” Marcos promised.

Seismic experts emphasized that the disaster aligns with the complex geology of the region. “It’s a major earthquake and we’re expecting damage,” Teresito Bacolcol, the director of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, told the media. The Philippines sits directly on the Pacific Ring of Fire, a highly active arc of seismic fault lines prone to frequent volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. The archipelago is routinely tested by these natural disasters; the previous year, a deadly earthquake struck the central Visayas region, hitting Cebu and killing more than 70 people.