Iloilo City – Regional Director Leo Van V. Juguan of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau, DENR Region-6 (MGB, DENR-6) cautions those who are living in areas that are highly prone to landslides to take precautionary measures considering that Panay and the rest of the region is experiencing prolonged rains due to the weather condition.
MGB, DENR 6 has previously issued advisories to the local government based on its geohazard assessments.
The provinces of Antique, Iloilo and Negros Occidental have the most number of barangays with high vulnerability to landslides.
In Antique, eight municipalities topped the most number of barangays as highly prone to landslides namely San Remigio, Patnongon, Laua-an, Hamtic, Valderrama, Sibalom, Barbaza and Tobias Fornier.
In Iloilo, the municipalities of Leon, San Joaquin, Tubungan, Igbaras, Miagao, Lambunao, Calinog, Alimodian, Janiuay and Concepcion are the top ten municipalities with the most number of high-risk barangays to landslides.
The municipalities in Negros Occidental with the most number of high risk barangays are La Castellana, Calatrava, Salvador Benidicto, Isabela, Pontevedra, Cadiz City, Murcia and Cauayan have the most number of barangays vulnerable to landslides.
Flooding susceptibility was also assessed in all provinces considering historical data as baseline.
The number of barangays with flooding incidents in each province are as follows: Iloilo, 1,463 of 1,899 barangays; Negros Occidental, 557 barangays of 662; Antique have 444 barangays of 592; Capiz has 418 barangays of 473; Aklan 291 barangays of 319 and Guimaras, 82 of the 98 barangays have reported flooding incidents..
MGB, DENR-6 is conducting a detailed geohazard assessment of areas that are highly susceptible to geohazards to produce a more detailed map on a scale of 1:10,000. Detailed geohazard mapping started last year and is targeted to be completed in the next three years nationwide.