A sinkhole is threatening to swallow an entire house, which has been built only two months ago, in Barangay Laguille, Taal, Batangas.
In a Facebook post, PTV-4 reporter Allan Francisco said the sinkhole happened after two tremors rocked the province of Batangas Saturday morning.
Taal resident Jomar Salazar de Roxas, in a separate Facebook post, revealed the pit started to appear since Taal Volcano’s flare up last year.
“Nangyari na kinakatakutan namin. ‘Yung maliit na butas sa kabilang lote noon dahil sa pagputok ng bulkan at naging sink hole last year ng dahil sa bagyo. Tapos ngayon napabayaan mapasok nang mapasok ng baha... ito naging resulta,” posted De Roxas.
De Roxas then made an appeal to friends who could provide them with any equipment that could restock the area with soil and protect their newly built house.
At the moment, De Roxas said all their family got was 25 kilos of rice from the local government of Taal.
Aftershocks also remain as a threat to the area, just a day after a strong earthquake measuring 6.6-magnitude on the Richter scale jolted Batangas on Saturday morning, July 24.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs), traced the epicenter of the earthquake at 23 kilometers southwest of Calatagan, Batangas at around 4:48 a.m.
It was initially measured as a 6.7-magnitude quake.
In Taal, Phivolcs said it detected a total of 95 earthquakes in Taal Volcano as of July 23. Of the 95 earthquakes, 88 were volcanic tremor events having durations of one to 17 minutes, 26 low-frequency volcanic earthquakes, and one hybrid earthquake, including a low-level background tremor that has persisted since July 7.