Jamaine Punzalan

Workers carry a deceased person on a stretcher past bags containing the dead bodies of victims outside the provincial hospital in Bogo City on October 1, 2025, after a powerful 6.9 magnitude earthquake jolted the central Philippines, killing at least 31 people on the island of Cebu with fears the toll could rise. Ted Aljibe, AFP

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<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1759293170026AFP__20251001__77BJ9NQ__v2__MidRes__TopshotPhilippinesQuake.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">Workers carry a deceased person on a stretcher past bags containing the dead bodies of victims outside the provincial hospital in Bogo City on October 1, 2025, after a powerful 6.9 magnitude earthquake jolted the central Philippines. <em>Ted Aljibe, AFP </em></span></span></span></div><p>MANILA — The death toll from a powerful earthquake in the central Philippines approached 70 on Wednesday, with injured patients overwhelming hospitals on the island of Cebu as workers carried dozens of body bags away in the chaotic aftermath. </p><p>At least 69 people have died after the quake, with most of the casualties found in the northern part of the province, the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) said. </p><p>As of noon, the OCD has recorded casualties in the following areas. </p><ul><li>Bogo City - 30</li><li>San Remegio - 22</li><li>Medellin - 10</li><li>Tobogon - 5</li><li>Sogod - 1</li><li>Tabuelan - 1 </li></ul><div><br/></div><p>&quot;We are receiving additional numbers of reported casualties, so this thing is very fluid,&quot; Office of Civil Defense deputy administrator Rafaelito Alejandro told reporters in Manila. </p><p>The shallow magnitude 6.9 quake struck at 9:59 p.m. Tuesday off the island&#x27;s northern end near Bogo, a city of 90,000 people. </p><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/regions/2025/10/1/cebu-quake-likely-triggered-by-fault-that-had-not-produced-powerful-tremor-in-past-400-years-1012">Cebu quake likely triggered by fault relatively steady in the past 400 years</a></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>BODIES OUTSIDE HOSPITAL</strong></div><p>Injured children cried and adults screamed while receiving treatment on beds laid out beneath blue tents on the driveway of the Cebu Provincial Hospital in Bogo.</p><p>They had been wheeled out of the building amid fears of further harm as hundreds of aftershocks rocked the region overnight.</p><p>Nearby, hospital workers carried black body bags on stretchers into vans that will take them to local mortuaries, AFP journalists saw.</p><p>During health department&#x27;s budget briefing, Sen. Erwin Tulfo asked Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa if the bodies outside the hospital could be moved to a less conspicuous area. </p><p>&quot;Bakit kailangang pang ilagay sa harap ng hospital yung mga body bags? Alam ko, mga nire-retrieve. Pero baka pwede naman po, not in full view of the public naman po siguro, baka pwede pagsabihan natin sila na itago-tago po kahit paano. Mas maganda siguro yun, Sec.&quot; Tulfo said.</p><p>Herbosa replied: &quot;Of course, maa-affect ang mental health ng ating mga victims doon sa area when they see. Usually, we allocate a morgue that is far away from all the response. Pero kailangan din kasi they&#x27;re all together kasi maraming naghahanap ng relatives nila.”</p><p>“The cadavers are covered but they&#x27;re also put there for the purpose of looking for missing persons. You look for the missing person in the evacuation center, then you look for them in the morgue. So magpapa-allocate tayo ng special area na hidden,&quot; Herbosa said.</p><p>The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council earlier listed 147 injured across the central islands, where 22 buildings were damaged.</p><p>Rescuer Teddy Fontillas, 56, told AFP he had not slept a wink, adding some patients had to be moved to other hospitals because the one in Bogo was already overflowing.</p><p>&quot;We are already overwhelmed so we have to bring them to the city,&quot; he said, referring to the provincial capital Cebu, some 100 kilometers to the south.</p><p>&quot;I&#x27;m already struggling but what we are doing is necessary to help our patients,&quot; he added.</p><p>&quot;Because of the high volume of patients with serious injuries, the medical staff tended to some of them outside the hospital,&quot; Cebu provincial governor Pamela Baricuatro posted on her official Facebook page.</p><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/regions/2025/10/1/cebu-province-declares-state-of-calamity-1053">Cebu province declares state of calamity due to powerful quake</a></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>‘GOLDEN HOUR’ </strong></div><p>The Office of Civil Defense on Wednesday said search and rescue remained the priority during the<a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/regions/2025/10/1/authorities-race-to-save-trapped-residents-within-crucial-24-hours-after-cebu-quake-1117"> “golden hour”</a> or the first 24 hours after the quake, when lives could still be saved.</p><p>Asec. Bernardo Rafaelito Alejandro IV, Civil Defense Deputy Administrator for Administration, said they mobilized their teams to respond immediately.</p><p>He said all hands were on deck, with the Department of Public Works and Highways forming a team to assess the structural integrity of bridges and buildings, while the Department of Social Welfare and Development responded to the needs of affected residents.</p><p>Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro flew to Cebu City to lead disaster response efforts.</p><p>Alejandro said communication and transportation remained a challenge as the most affected towns are three hours away from the airport and signal was weak in some parts of the province.</p><p>But he said that all affected areas remain accessible.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>‘THE MALL STARTED SHAKING’</strong><strong> </strong></div><p>President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said the government was still assessing the damage in Cebu. </p><p>“But the earthquake is very strong. ‘Pag ganyan ang mga klase ng numbers, that’s a very very big number already. We are assessing the damage. We are assessing the needs,” he said in a chance  interview. </p><p>Marcos noted that Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr., who heads the NDRRMC, was on the ground to evaluate the situation.</p><p>Buildings were damaged as far as Cebu city, where online shoe merchant Jayford Maranga, 21, hid under a restaurant table to avoid being struck by the collapsing metal ceiling of a shopping mall.</p><p>&quot;My friend and I ate at the food court near closing time, and then, bang! It was as if the Earth stopped spinning. And then the mall started shaking,&quot; Maranga told AFP, adding his friend was slightly injured.</p><p>The Cebu provincial government has put out a call on its official Facebook page for medical volunteers to assist in the aftermath of the quake.</p><p>&quot;There could be people trapped beneath collapsed buildings,&quot; provincial rescue official Wilson Ramos told AFP.</p><p>Overnight recovery efforts were hampered by the dark as well as aftershocks, he added.</p><p>The rescue effort proceeded all night even as the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said the region was being rocked by 379 aftershocks.</p><p>The quake caused power lines to trip, leading to outages across Cebu and nearby central islands, though power was restored shortly after midnight in Cebu and four other major central islands, the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines said in an updated advisory.</p><p>The Cebu provincial government reported a commercial building and a school in Bantayan had collapsed, while a fast food restaurant in Bogo was heavily damaged.</p><p>Agnes Merza, 65, a carer based in Bantayan, said her kitchen tiles had cracked.</p><p>&quot;It felt as though we would all fall down. It&#x27;s the first time I have experienced it. The neighbors all ran out of their homes. My two teenage assistants hid under a table because that&#x27;s what they were taught in the boy scouts,&quot; she told AFP.</p><p>A number of village roads also sustained damage. In Tabogon town, the road was riddled with 2-inch cracks, AFP journalists saw.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>RELATED VIDEO: </strong></div><div><iframe width="923" height="519" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RFUh_a7duxo" title="AS IT HAPPENED: Cebu quake causes panic in middle of the street | ABS-CBN News" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><iframe width="923" height="519" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/052cYZUhCbI" title="Mga motorista napatigil sa tulay dahil sa lindol | ABS-CBN News" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><iframe width="923" height="519" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/t-95y1SkWT4" title="CCTV: Mga residente nagtakbuhan sa gitna ng lindol | ABS-CBN News" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div>

<p>The death toll from a powerful earthquake in the central Philippines approached 70 on Wednesday, with injured patients overwhelming hospitals on the island of Cebu as workers carried dozens of body bags away in the chaotic aftermath.</p>

The death toll from a powerful earthquake in the central Philippines approached 70 on Wednesday, with injured patients overwhelming hospitals on the island of Cebu as workers carried dozens of body bags away in the chaotic aftermath.

Cebu quake death toll nears 70 as injured overwhelm hospitals

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Cebu quake death toll nears 70 as injured overwhelm hospitals

Katrina Domingo,

RG Cruz,

Jervis Manahan,

Jessie Cruzat,

ABS-CBN News; Agence France-Presse

Published Oct 01, 2025 12:35 PM PHT

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Updated Oct 01, 2025 05:35 PM PHT

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