Kidapawan City (CNN Philippines) — Residents who fled their homes near the landslide affected areas of Mt. Apo are not yet allowed to go home despite the fair weather condition experienced in Kidapawan City today (August 7).
Kidapawan City Mayor Joseph Evangelista said they are continuing to assess the situation in the area based on the images captured by the newly acquired drone of the city government.
Evangelista said if there is no more rain today and tomorrow, the residents could probably go home on Sunday (August 9).
The mayor clarified that what they have implemented is not actually a forced evacuation but rather “controlled evacuation.”
This means that able bodied men are allowed to go back to their homes to check on their properties and feed their animals while the rest of the family members stay in the covered court of Ilomavis.
Evangelista led the distribution of relief goods to the affected residents yesterday.
More or less 200 families or an estimated 1,500 individuals were evacuated on Wednesday (August 5) from Sitio Sudsuhayan and Lake Agco in Ilomavis and Sayaban due to the continuous rain which resulted to landslides in the different areas surrounding Mt. Apo.
The Kidapawan City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (CDRRMC) monitored 22 areas hit by landslides, some near the roads, that need major concern due to the higher risk factor.
Kidapawan CDRRMC Officer Psalmer Bernalte said these areas in Barangay Balabag and Ilomavis have been declared by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) of the Department of Environment and Nautral Resources as landslide high risk areas but the residents continue to refuse relocation offered by the government.
