A little past 5pm today, April 22, a tectonic earthquake with magnitude 6.1 hit the tropical country of the Philippines with a north source from Castillejo, Zambales in Luzon.
In Manila, which is not too far away from the source epicenter, majority of the areas in Metro Manila felt a variation of magnitude 5+ including areas in Makati City, Taguig City / BGC ,and Quezon City, among others.
Reported major damages are attributed to a small mall / collapsed building in Pampanga, which is just next to Zambales. Clark International Airport facilities were also hit. Some roads, highways, and bridges along San Fernando and Bacolor in the same province were reported as well. Some old churches in Porac Pampanga have also shown small cracks.
Officially, 5 human casualties have been reported as of the moment, resulting from the incidents some of which were mentioned above. Electrical blackouts are also currently a common situation in the said province.
Major malls, condominiums, and buildings in business centres in Manila have asked the people, employees, and residents to vacate their offices and rooms for a while in anticipation of aftershocks. They were authorised to return after half an hour to 1 hour. It seems that the earthquake drills held a number of times in 2018 was utilised today.
No tsunamis are expected by experts as a magnitude 6.5 and up are usually what causes tsunamis.
Tectonic earthquakes are caused by movements of continental plates underneath the ground. Auhtorities are still investigating if the earthquake is connected to existing Philippine fault lines.
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