Leyte Landslide

TACLOBAN CITY – What really triggered the Guinsaugon landslide?

This is one of the issues that geoscientists and other experts from the Philippines and other countries will discuss when they converge here late this month to share the results of researches on the devastating landslide that buried a village in Southern Leyte in 2006.

The international conference-workshop on the Feb. 17, 2006 Guinsaugon landslide will be held in Tacloban City on April 28-29. It will include a visit to Guinsaugon, St. Bernard town on April 30-May 2.

Guinsaugon, 160 kilometers from the city, is the site of what was considered the most destructive single landslide in Philippine history. More than 1,000 people were killed or missing.

“Due to the devastation brought by the Guinsaugon landslide and other similar disasters, landslide research and hazard mitigation in the Philippines have now become a major concern not only among geoscientists but also among the government and private sectors,” conference organizers said.

Dr. Sandra Catane, of the National Institute of Geological Sciences in University of the Philippines, is spearheading the conference.

Antonia Loyzaga, executive director of the Manila Observatory, said in an interview that the experts had yet to determine what caused the landslide. “Some geologists will say it’s the earthquake. Some will say it’s the rainfall. Some say it’s the structure. So, this is the nature of the scientific investigation. They do not agree yet.”

Loyzaga said the Guinsaugon landslide is the fifth among the major rockslide-debris avalanches in the 20th and 21st centuries, after Mt. St. Helens (US) in 1980, Mayunmarca (Peru) in 1974, Bairaman (Papua New Guinea) in 1986, and Nevados Huascaran (Peru) in 1970.