Pope Leo XIV offers prayers for victims of Cebu quake
Citing his closeness to Filipinos, Pope Leo XIV offered prayers for victims of the deadly magnitude 6.9 earthquake in Cebu.
“I express my closeness to the people of the Philippines, and in particular, I pray for all those who are severely affected by the consequences of this earthquake,” the Pope said during his Sunday Angelus at St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican.
“Let us remain united and in solidarity in our trusted God and in the intercession of our Blessed Mother,” he added.
Pope Leo XIV visited the country several times before he was elected supreme leader of the Catholic Church.
Being the Prior General of the Order of Saint Augustine from 2001 to 2013, the first Augustinian Pope blessed churches, spoke to friars, and even joined jubilee celebrations in the Philippines.
In 2008, he visited Cebu to lead the blessing of the Santo Niño Spirituality Center in Consolacion, marking the silver jubilee of the Augustinian Province of Santo Niño de Cebu, Philippines.
Good news
The Philippine National Police, meanwhile, said that it has yet to record a crime incident in Cebu since Sept. 30 temblor.
“One commendable thing is that our people are really peace-loving Filipinos, especially in Cebu. Zero recorded focus crime. That’s in Cebu,” acting PNP chief Lt. Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. said at a press briefing in Camp Crame on Monday.
Focus crimes include murder, homicide, physical injury, rape, robbery, simple theft and theft of motor vehicles and motorcycles.
The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said that as of Monday, the death toll from the earthquake has so far reached 72, with 559 individuals injured, although these figures were still being verified.
The NDRRMC also said that a total of 155,094 families or 547,394 individuals were affected by the quake that struck on Sept. 30, with its epicenter located 21 kilometers northeast of Bogo City in Cebu.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said that as of 8 a.m. Monday, a total of 7,027 aftershocks had been recorded.
Of this figure, Phivolcs noted that 1,375 were plotted while 31 were felt. The aftershocks ranged from magnitude 1.0 to 5.1.
The earthquake also severely damaged thousands of houses, including heritage churches in Cebu such as the Parroquia de San Pedro Apostol and the centuries-old Archdiocesan Shrine of Santa Rosa de Lima in Daanbantayan town.
