BOGO, Philippines (AP) – When a firefighter puts the body of his 4-year-old son in a bag from a stupid hotel. 6.9 Magnitude Earthquake In the Central Philippines, Isagani Jerig leaned down and gently stroked the bag of black corpses for a few minutes, trying to feel the remains of his child inside at the end.
Next, a bag was carried out, including the body of Jerig’s wife, the receptionist at the Condor Pension House. She worked there at night, caring for her son John. The rescuer handed him the cell phone found in her body, and he nodded to confirm it was her.
Jerig and his family were called desperately after a powerful earthquake rocked the city of Bogo in Cebu on Tuesday night, but she never picked up.
Earthquake survivors are holding a “help” sign along the road on Thursday, October 2, 2025, days after a strong earthquake occurred in Medellin, Cebu, central Philippines. (AP photo/Aaron Fabira)
“I continued to go around the rooftop rub and call their names,” Jerig told the Associated Press next to the hotel’s ruins.
The earthquake death toll rose to at least 72 on Thursday, with over 360 injured. Disaster officials said they had no additional missing person reports and ended their search and rescue efforts. Over 170,000 people were affected, but many refused to return home due to fear of trauma and aftershocks.
The earthquake has destroyed or destroyed 87 buildings and nearly 600 homes in Bogo, a relatively new and progressive coastal city of about 90,000. The bridge and concrete roads were damaged, causing the Bogo port to collapse.
The damaged home lied after a landslide caused by the strong earthquake on Tuesday killed people sleeping in a hillside home in Bogo, Cebu, central Philippines on Thursday, October 2, 2025. (AP photo/Aaron Fabira)
The earthquake was caused around 10pm by shallow seafloor fault lines that Philippine seismologists said had not moved for at least 400 years.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. flew to Bogo on Thursday to inspect damaged homes and buildings and provide cash and medical assistance to survivors while mourning with the families of the dead. He said clusters of tents will be built for thousands of displaced people.
Just a few days ago, the president was in the Central Region since then. A fierce storm At least 37 people have been killed, affecting more than half a million people, including Cebu.
The country provides the will and support of the dol
The United States, an ally of the long-standing treaty of the Philippines, provided assistance after the earthquake. Several other countries, including China and Japan, have expressed their sincereness.
“Japan is always overcoming the Philippines’ overcoming this difficulties,” the Japanese Prime Minister said in a message to Marcos.
The Philippines, one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world, is often hit by earthquakes. Volcanic eruption It is located in the “ring of fire” of the Pacific Ocean, and therefore an arc of seismic faults around the ocean.
The archipelago is also tied up at around 20 Typhoons and storms Every year, disaster response is a major issue for the government and volunteer groups.
Victims and survivors share a tragic story
Survivors of Tuesday’s earthquake will request a mobile phone on Thursday, October 2, 2025 in San Remigio, Cebu, central Philippines. (AP photo/Aaron Fabira)
Shortly after the earthquake destroyed Bogo, the Red Cross tried to call on one of the full-time volunteers who lived in the city.
Ian Ho, 49, was the first highly trained responder. When he didn’t answer, the Red Cross team was deployed. His house collapsed, he was found dead inside and buried in a tile rub while holding his injured 14-year-old son. The teenagers survived, said Gwendolyn Pan, Secretary General of the Red Cross.
“He chose to be his son’s shield,” Pan said. “This is the kind of people we have, a lifesaver with innate instincts to help others. In this case, the last person he saved was his son.”
While most people were at home when the trembling struck, Brian Sinangote watched a basketball game with less than 100 spectators in the town of San Remigio, just outside Bogo. Everyone was frozen. Everyone jumped out of the gym in panic when the up and down shaking became more intense, the 49-year-old driver said.
The gymnasium ceiling collapsed, killing three Coast Guard personnel and firefighters. Sinangote said he tried to roll in but was partially locked up. He was later pulled freely by members of the Coast Guard and treated for facial and arm injuries.
It wasn’t the first brush of his death. He remembered how to do that Typhoon Haiyanone of the most powerful tropical cyclones on record, destroyed his home in San Remigio in 2013. Haiyan killed or disappeared over 7,300 people, flattened the entire village, ran the boat and rammed it into a house in the central Philippines.
“It’s heartbreaking to hear what happened to Bogo City,” Sinangote said, adding that Filipinos have no choice but to learn to live alongside disaster.
“After Typhoon Haiyan destroyed my house, I built it up in a year,” he said. “We need to prepare anything.”
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Jim Gomez contributed to this report from Manila.
