From Monday until last night, I was editing other journos’ stories and writing my own. Half of Asia was asleep because of the mid-Autumn festival, which coincides with mainland China’s Golden Week. That meant the only ones available to edit are my manager in Australia, me, and later my colleague in Japan. Sometimes our freelance editor/journo in SG chips in.

I  had to write as much as possible because I will be taking a long break on the 23rd and be back to work on 3 Nov. I need to at least try to meet my quota by 22 Oct.

It’s freaky that the faults all over the Philippines have started moving again, except for the ones in Metro Manila. Phivolcs says we are due for The Big One.

My mom, who used to teach NatSci 1, said it is fair to say that every place in the Philippines is tectonically and volcanologically active — except for Palawan because geologically that island belongs to a different plate. Palawan is its own microcontinental block that used to be attached to the Eurasian plate so it is not as geologically active as the rest of the Philippines. There are no volcanoes and earthquakes there but it is vulnerable to tsunamis if the Manila Trench decides to spew some anger.

Basically, the Philippines is squeezed by two plates—the Philippine Sea Plate and the Eurasian plate. That’s why we have these two trenches.

Anyway, Metro Manila is very vulnerable and the freaky thing is Marikina Valley Fault System (and the East Valley Fault) hasn’t had any significant activity in the last 400 years and that thing moves every 400 to 600 years.

Marikina Valley was formed because of the Marikina valley fault system. It basically slipped down and created a “valley”. A decade ago I was able to interview Dr. Solidum, the DOST secretary and former Phivolcs head, for a story. He said you can see the evidence of the fault in sections of Pasig like Canley Rd, St Paul’s Rd, and Capt. Henry Javier Rd that’s why it feels like you’re driving through a canyon when you pass though these roads. You could see the walls of rock on either your left or right. And the scary thing is a lot of condos were built just along this fault line! Some buildings were even built on top of fault lines. 🤦🏻‍♀️ Marikina Valley Fault cuts across Taguig and Makati, and BGC (which straddles both Taguig and Makati) sleeps next to it.

Oh heck, there’s another one just this afternoon.

Better prepare our Go bags and our tent and sleeping bags.