The year 2018 saw two of the worst earthquakes strike the Davao Oriental province of the Philippines in September and December, with magnitudes ranging between and . Of the many hazards caused due to earthquakes, the most severe was found to be ground shaking, followed by the combination of ground shaking and liquefaction. In the National Capital Region, a percent likelihood of ground shaking hazard was calculated in the event of an earthquake in 2018.
Philippines lies within the Ring of Fire
The Philippines is an archipelagic country of over thousand islands that are situated in the “Ring of Fire” between the Pacific and Eurasian tectonic plates, making it an earthquake and volcanic eruption prone region. A total of volcanoes lie within this region, most of them located within the Luzon Island. As of 2020, of them are still active with the most recent eruption that of the Taal Volcano on January 12, 2020.
Risk mitigation
As a country prone to natural disasters, the Philippine government’s risk reduction expenditure has been on the rise since 2014, with the expenditure crossing billion Philippine pesos in 2017. The spike was due to the super typhoon Haiyan in 2013 that wreaked havoc within the country, resulting in rehabilitation for those significantly hit by the disaster.