Shear line-triggered landslides claim 8

Landslides triggered by a persistent shear line have killed at least eight people in the Davao region over the last two days, disaster officials reported Sunday.

The Office of Civil Defense (OCD) confirmed that the fatalities were concentrated in Davao de Oro and Davao Oriental, where continuous heavy rainfall saturated mountainous terrain, causing hillsides to collapse onto residential areas.

In the city of Mati, Davao Oriental, a family of four — including a father, his pregnant wife, and their two young daughters — died early Saturday when a cascade of rocks and soil buried their home in Barangay Salazar.

In Davao de Oro, four other deaths were recorded. A small-scale miner was found dead under mud and debris in Pantukan on Saturday, while three people were buried alive in their sleep Thursday night when a hillside collapsed in Monkayo.

OCD Region XI director Ednar Dayanghirang said authorities are still verifying if more people are missing.

He cited that the inclement weather has affected nearly 20,000 families in Davao de Oro alone, with agricultural damage in that province estimated at P376 million.

Dayanghirang criticized the region’s infrastructure, specifically the lack of adequate drainage along national roads.

“The drainage system of our national road is incomplete... it is pitiful,” Dayanghirang said in Filipino. He explained that without proper channels, water rushing from the mountains passes underground, undermining road systems built near coastlines and riverbanks.

Meantime, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) reported that the shear line has affected more than 372,000 individuals across 385 barangays in the Davao and Caraga regions. As of Sunday, over 27,000 people remain in evacuation centers.

In the Caraga region, OCD information officer Carlo Becera said more than 60,000 families were impacted. In Bislig City, Surigao del Sur, residents reported unprecedented flooding, which authorities attributed to debris clogging a bridge and causing a local creek to overflow.

While some floodwaters have begun to subside, the Davao–Surigao Road remains impassable due to landslide debris. Classes at all levels remain suspended across Davao City and the five surrounding provinces as the state weather bureau, PAGASA, warned that the shear line will continue to bring scattered rains and isolated thunderstorms to Mindanao and parts of the Visayas.