A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck the province of Batangas, a few kilometers south of the Philippine capital, Manila, early Monday morning.
The deep quake struck at 1:12 a.m., with residents in the capital reporting buildings swaying. The epicenter of the earthquake was in Occidental Mindoro province.
“It was really strong,” Jose Clyde Yayong, a disaster officer in Tagaytay City said. “So far there are no untoward incidents relating to the earthquake.”
Leonardo Tristan, a disaster officer in Looc town on Occidental Mindoro island, said the force of the quake sent some residents rushing outside.
“My wife was shouting ‘there’s an earthquake,’” Tristan told Agence France Presse.
Public Works Secretary Mark Villar said his officer has already deployed teams to assess structural integrity and damage of key infrastructure in Metro Manila, Occidental Mindoro, and other nearby provinces.
The tremor caused 112 aftershocks as of 5 a.m., with the strongest measured at magnitude 4.5, according to Renato Solidum, head of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology.
The aftershock was recorded at 1:40 a.m., with Intensity 1 reported in Abra de Ilog, Occidental Mindoro. It had a depth of 65 kilometers.
“Because the earthquake struck deep, the aftershocks were not felt, only a weak one and it was not damaging,” said Solidum in a television interview.
The Philippines is regularly rocked by quakes due to its location on the Pacific Ring of Fire, an arc of intense seismic activity that stretches from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.
