Even evacuees need means to recover to livelihood, a village head lamented as he appealed to the government to provide support in terms of livelihood skills to his constituents who have been victims of the recent earthquakes in Mindanao.

Randy Navarro, 32, village head of Barangay Alta-Visa in Bansalan, Davao del Sur, said that the added skills they could pick up could even give extra motivation to rebuild their lives after being forced into evacuation centers from the successive temblors which rocked their region.

“We cannot go on living in the evacuation center. When word is given, we will stream back to our homes to pick up the pieces anew,” Navarro said, adding that the relief aid will stop at some point.

Their village sits at the foot of Mount Apo, the country’s highest peak, as well as on a fault line that extends to the neighboring town of Magsaysay and all the way to the towns of Tulunan, epicenter of the earthquakes, and M’lang in North Cotabato.

The Mines and Geosciences Bureau has advised villagers living at the foothills of Mt. Apo to move to safer grounds in the meantime.

Augustus Tapia of the National Anti-Poverty Commission, who organized a medical mission that provided services to the evacuees, said livelihood assistance that would help the hillside farmers improve on their production would be right on the mark.

The bigger of two evacuation centers, home to 234 families in Sitio Tagabana was visited by Department of Social Welfare and Development Secretary Rolando Bautista on 9 November.

Bautista assured the evacuees the DSWD will ensure they will not run out of food.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said the earthquakes killed a total of 17 people, injured 327 people and affected 29,349 families in the Soccsksargen and Davao regions.