Manila: Philippine officials are calling for enhanced disaster preparedness following the massive earthquake in Myanmar, warning that the archipelago nation is at risk of a devastating seismic event. 

The Philippines, an archipelago of more than 7,000 islands, lies along the so-called Ring of Fire, an arc of faults around the Pacific Ocean where the majority of the world’s volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur.

For the past decade, the Philippine government has been preparing for the “Big One,” a 7.2-magnitude earthquake that experts say could impact Manila and its surrounding areas.

“We must double our efforts, especially as the Philippines is at risk for the ‘Big One’— a potentially catastrophic earthquake that could result in 30,000 to 50,000 casualties,” Ariel F. Nepomuceno, administrator of the Office of Civil Defense, has said. 

“The most critical step in enhancing our earthquake preparedness is to implement engineering solutions, such as retrofitting essential structures like schools and health centers.” 

The 7.2-magnitude earthquake forecast by the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology was based on historical records of fault movements, as seismic events are impossible to predict. 

Philippine officials have been calling for increased disaster preparedness after the 7.7-magnitude earthquake that hit central Myanmar on Friday killed more than 2,700 people, injured more than 4,500 others, and destroyed scores of buildings. 

“We’re part of the Pacific Ring of Fire and every now and then we have earthquakes, we’ll be jolted by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and sometimes tsunamis. And for all these disasters, the best course of action is always preparedness,” PHIVOLCS Director Dr. Teresito Bacolcol said during a press briefing on Wednesday.

“We have to make sure that our buildings, our houses are earthquake resilient — meaning, we have to follow the minimum engineering standards when we construct our houses or buildings.”

In the Manila capital region, at least 124 public buildings have been retrofitted, or strengthened to make it more earthquake-resistant, with plans to do so for 500 more, according to the Department of Public Works and Highways. 

The Department of Science and Technology, which presides over PHIVOLCS, is also planning to hold earthquake seminars in different parts of the country this year, according to the state-run Philippine News Agency. 

Meanwhile, the Office of Civil Defense is working on improving the National Simultaneous Earthquake Drill by adding more scenarios, including nighttime drills and tsunami preparedness. 

One of the deadliest recorded earthquakes in the Philippines took place in 1990, when a 7.8 magnitude earthquake killed nearly 2,000 people in the country’s north.

SINGAPORE: Singapore used an internal security law against two teenagers separately, one over plans to attack mosques and the other for wanting to fight in Syria alongside Daesh militants, authorities said on Wednesday.
The 17-year-old male was detained and subscribed to far-right extremist ideology, seeing himself as an “East Asian supremacist,” authorities said.
He wanted to shoot mosques and had unsuccessfully tried to buy guns, including from the United States, Malaysia and Thailand, the internal security department said.
The teenager wanted to “maximize casualties” and kill at least 100 Muslims, to outdo the 2019 Christchurch attack in which a gunman killed 51 worshippers in a mosque, it said.
Detained in March under the island’s Internal Security Act, he could be held for up to two years without trial.
He was identified following an investigation into an 18-year-old detained in December over similar far-right extremism, authorities said.
Authorities said they were concerned about youth radicalization in Singapore, and have used the Internal Security Act against 17 youth aged 20 and under since 2015.
That law allows suspects to be held for lengthy periods without trial, or to be given a restriction order limiting travel and Internet access, among other conditions.
Of the 17 detained in the past ten years, nine planned to carry out attacks in multi-racial Singapore, where 74 percent of residents are Chinese, 13.6 percent Malay, 9 percent Indian, and 3.3 percent is classified as other, according to population statistics.
The second detained youth was a 15-year-old female who wanted to marry a Daesh fighter and raise a pro-Daesh family or fight for the extremist group in Syria, said the internal security department.
She was issued with a restriction order in February.
“Self-radicalization can happen very quickly. In the case of the 15-year-old, it only took weeks. It is thus critical that the public be vigilant to signs that someone around us may have become radicalized,” said the internal security department.