DepEd: 226 schools damaged due to 7.0-magnitude northwestern Luzon quake
The tally of damaged schools following the destructive 7.0-magnitude northwestern Luzon quake has now breached 200, the Department of Education (DepEd) reported on Friday, July 29.

Further assessment showed that there were 226 damaged and 9,539 affected schools due to the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that struck northwestern Luzon on Wednesday morning. Of the 226 damaged schools, 132 were from Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), 49 from Ilocos Region, 25 from Cagayan Valley, 18 were from Central Luzon, while both Metro Manila and CALABARZON had one damaged school respectively.
DepEd likewise reported that the estimated cost for rehabilitation and reconstruction of the totally and partially damaged classrooms has now ballooned to 1.298 billion. This is relatively higher than the initial estimated cost of 228.5 million.
The department assured the public that it will further assess the situation apart from its ongoing disaster response efforts and structural assessments of schools.
Meanwhile, the earthquake which was initially reported with a magnitude of 7.3 and was later downgraded to 7.0, was traced three kilometers northwest of Tayum, Abra. As of 6 p.m. on Friday, state seismologists said that they have already recorded a total of 1,156 aftershocks due to this quake.