According to official figures from the Philippine Office of Civil Defense (OCD), the death toll from the 7.8-magnitude earthquake in Mindanao island has now reached 45.
Search, rescue and relief operations are being carried out in extremely difficult conditions due to continuous aftershocks. Most of the victims are buried under the rubble of collapsed buildings or caught in mudslides triggered by the earthquake in Sarangani province.
At least 630 victims are officially reported, many of them students.
17 people remain missing, as rescue teams continue to search the ruins. Over 32,000 people have been displaced and are in emergency shelters, and the total number of affected citizens in Mindanao exceeds 145,000.
The hardest hit was the port city of General Santos (population 700,000), located near the epicenter. Commercial establishments (including a fast-food restaurant), parts of shopping malls, and church buildings were completely destroyed there.
The earthquake struck on the first day of the new school year. To date, the Department of Education has reported that over 6,000 public school buildings have structural damage and cracks. Classes throughout the region have been completely suspended pending safety inspections.
Provinces in Southern Mindanao are suffering from severe drinking water shortages and widespread power outages due to damaged substations and transmission lines. Roads and bridges in mountainous areas have been blocked by active landslides.
Several hospitals in the affected areas have been partially evacuated due to cracks in the upper floors, and doctors are currently triaging patients outdoors.
Seismologists at the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) have recorded more than 2,000 aftershocks so far. Most are weak, but nine of them were of serious intensity - the strongest at magnitude 6.4, further compromising surviving but unstable buildings. The tsunami warning has now been completely lifted, after waves with a maximum height of 1.4 meters flooded only some isolated low-lying coastal buildings.