Rebuilding from scratch: Soccksargen’s road to recovery in quake’s aftermath

Digging, lifting, and waiting for almost two weeks since a magnitude 7.8 earthquake hit Mindanao — this has been 72-year-old farmer Armando Dante’s daily routine.

Most days, Dante picks up fractured pieces of his home, places the rubble in a corner of his front yard, and tends to candles sitting right next to what was once the wall of their home. 

It is a tradition to keep a candle lit for 40 days after the death of loved ones in hopes that the light would guide them on their journey to the Creator. Dante’s family keeps three candles lit — one big candle, and two smaller ones.

On June 8, when the earth began to rumble, the walls of Dante’s home collapsed, killing his daughter Karen Joy, 24, and grandchildren Rania Hazia, 3, and Rydan Xion, 8 months old.

“Katong si Rania, mangayo man to og P5 nako para palit candy sa tindahan. Karon, wala na’y mangayo sinsilyo nako. Nitulo akong luha ato,” Dante told Rappler on Friday, June 19. (Rania used to ask me for P5 to buy candy at the store. Now, no one’s asking me for coins. I cried thinking about that.)

Like the Dantes, many families in the coastal towns of Sarangani and parts of South Cotabato share the pain of losing loved ones and the loss of homes that they’ve worked hard to build for years. 

The first week of the quake’s aftermath only made grieving more difficult as traumatized residents were forced to build outdoor tent shelters or move into government evacuation centers.

Almost half a month after the earthquake, electricity has steadily returned to the communities but the return of potable water supply and stable communication lines remain slow. 

Waiting is the hardest part, Dante told Rappler, as residents, mostly farmers and fisherfolk, are unable to go to the mountains to check on their croplands or go to the seashore due to safety hazards caused by a quake-induced coastal uplift.

Without access to their harvest or fish, Dante and his neighbors are left to wait for aid to arrive — and in most cases, the government’s food packs and hygiene kits are never enough.

Challenging landscape

The number of casualties continues to increase daily as authorities finish clearing operations along coastal roads and uphill thoroughfares, accessing more areas previously unreachable.

As of June 21, the government has tallied a total of 77 fatalities, 1,339 injured, and 31 missing persons due to the earthquake. 

Soccsksargen is where a majority of the deaths and injured persons were reported — at 56 deaths and 1,259 injured, to be precise. The region also recorded P1.2-billion worth of damage to infrastructure, around 67,119 damaged houses, and at least 310,041 families or 1,321,125 individuals affected by the disaster.

Aid distributions remain concentrated in the town centers as some roads and bridges sustained heavy damage, causing locals to rely on aid brought in by private donors traveling through the countryside on motorcycles and light vehicles.

More than 100 roads and 39 bridges were damaged in Soccsksargen. 20 roads and 10 bridges have yet to be repaired and remain impassable.

Most of the quake’s impact was felt in the coastal towns of Glan, Malapatan, Alabel, and Maasim in Sarangani province and General Santos City in South Cotabato. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said on June 8 that the quake’s epicenter was found offshore, southwest of Maasim.

“Some of the hardest-hit areas in Glan that we could not pass through like [Barangay] E. Alegado was later accessed with the help of a chopper,” Sarangani Provincial Public Information Office (PIO) chief Joana Grace Lapore told Rappler on Saturday, June 20.

Rappler visited Glan, Malapatan, Alabel, and General Santos City on June 17 to 20, and saw that residents in upland villages struggled with landslides while those in coastal areas dealt with the threat of tsunamis.

Shelter crisis

In the uphill village of Datal Salvan, Barangay San Jose in General Santos City, residents stayed in a makeshift evacuation center primarily built from tarpaulins and established on a community drier — an area used for drying crops like corn.

The area can be dangerously hot and dry for senior citizens and children. Barangay health worker Juanita Pandian said that living conditions and trauma from the quake have started manifesting in the high blood pressures of patients at the evacuation center.

Still, some residents said they felt fortunate to even have shelter to begin with, as those in neighboring villages could only sleep on grass after losing their homes to landslides.

“Our major challenge is making more evacuation centers. I have four evacuation centers with affected residents coming from puroks that are in the danger zones,” San Jose barangay captain Abdul Rahim Paidumama told Rappler on Wednesday, June 17.

Glan Mayor Victor James Yap Sr. echoed similar sentiments on Saturday, June 20, telling Rappler that the municipal government is struggling with providing shelter for families displaced by the quake.

Based on data from the Sarangani provincial government, Glan has the highest population of families inside evacuation centers at 2,851.

“Our P10-million Quick Response Fund has run out. If any non-government organization would call to ask how they can extend help, I always tell them — construction materials,” Yap said.

At present, the local governments of Sarangani and General Santos City have deployed social workers to assist in psychosocial interventions for the displaced families and children. The National Housing Authority (NHA) has also begun distributing P30,000 cash aid to families whose homes were totally damaged by the disaster.

Disrupted education

After their debriefing with local health officials, teachers of Datal Salvan Elementary School will have to do the same for their students this week.

Providing psychosocial first aid to students is a must before quake-hit schools can continue to the actual teaching and learning period. 

The earthquake disrupted the first day of classes for school year 2026 to 2027, affecting the education of more than 140,000 learners in Mindanao.

The violent shaking damaged over 10,000 classrooms, according to data from the Department of Education (DepEd), needing millions of pesos for clean-ups and repairs.

Play Video

Aside from damaged classrooms, strong aftershocks delayed the return to in-person classes in General Santos City and Sarangani, unlike in other areas in Soccsksargen. 

In General Santos City, schools are expected to implement asynchronous learning amid re-inspection of their facilities. Blended learning, or the combination of in-person classes and distance learning, will also be prioritized, especially in schools located in landslide-prone areas.

Face-to-face classes in Sarangani schools, however, remain suspended until June 30. The provincial government said alternative learning modes will be enforced.

The temporary situation becomes clear for the two areas: Students will have to learn through modules, while teachers will work harder to produce them. Would it run for weeks? For a month? Still unsure.

‘New normal’ coastlines

The strong tremor also rocked the livelihood of coastal communities as new shorelines emerged after the coastal uplift. 

With seabed rising up to as much as two meters, beach resort owners in Sarangani are facing uncertainties over the effects of the coastal uplift on their businesses.

Leicinio Pontilar, a beach resort owner in Barangay Gumasa, said tide levels in the quake’s aftermath became “abnormal.” 

“Negosyo namin, beach lang. Meron kaming maliit na sari-sari store, nasira lahat,” Pontilar told Rappler. (This beach resort is our only business. Our small sari-sari store was destroyed by the earthquake.)

Authorities are still assessing the phenomenon’s effect on the province. The assessment is also highly needed to address the new challenges faced by fisherfolk, who could still not set sail two weeks after the earthquake.  

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Regional Office in Soccsksargen told locals to stay clear of shifted shorelines and areas affected by the coastal uplift, and not to handle stranded marine life due to possible severe biological hazards.

Rebuilding from scratch

Rebuilding is still far from reach for many of the affected areas, especially since most of the local government units are unable to use their own offices after the earthquake.

General Santos City Mayor Lorelei Pacquaio told Rappler on Wednesday, June 17, that it’s going to take three to four months of repairs and renovation before they can go back to using their city hall.

“We’re using different offices for now. We’re borrowing from the barangay spaces that we can use because we still can’t enter the city hall,” Pacquiao said on Wednesday, June 17.

General Santos City Vice Mayor Jose Edmar Yumang told Rappler on Saturday, June 20, that the city is making use of its P160-million disaster response fund for recovery efforts.

Yumang said that the city government is looking into implementing a tax holiday for the business sector, mental health support for children, and the creation of guidelines for the acceptance and disbursement of donations for disaster situations.

“We don’t have any clear guidelines for receiving and distributing goods from donors…During earthquakes, you’ll see vloggers giving away goods carelessly and in doing so, you are teaching my people to be a mob,” Yumang said.

Meanwhile, a framework for a recovery plan in Sarangani is currently in the works, pending finalization of reports on the damage and needs assessment of affected communities, according to Sarangani PIO chief Lapore. 

For now, the Sarangani provincial government has identified the list of immediate needs: potable water supply, food packs, tarpaulins for tents, generator sets with fuel, and mental health support systems.

As of June 16, the national government has released P362 million for recovery efforts in Mindanao. Sarangani province received P140 million for the rehabilitation of damaged infrastructure, while South Cotabato was given P122 million for the development of a road in Tupi town to help aid delivery across the province.

P20 million under the presidential socio-civic projects fund has also been turned over to Glan to jumpstart their recovery efforts, while P100 million was given to General Santos City from the Local Government Support Fund (LGSF) to help rebuild their city hall.

While officials continue to finalize damage reports and rehabilitation strategies for their respective communities, Dante, who is still mourning his daughter and two grandchildren, has only one small ask from the government — to help him fix what’s left of his home.

“Ang balay maoy pinaka-importante namo kay unsa na lang amo puy-an diri nga mahadlok na man mi mubalik sa bukid (A home is important because where else would we stay when we’re too afraid to return to the mountains)?” Dante asked. – Rappler.com

Some quotes have been translated to English for brevity