A powerful magnitude-7.8 earthquake that struck the southern Philippine island of Mindanao on 8 June has killed at least 46 people, injured more than 630 others, and left thousands displaced across the region. Rescue teams recovered the latest victim — a supermarket worker named Joey Deluvio — from the rubble of a collapsed building in General Santos, a coastal city of more than 700,000 people that has become the centre of relief efforts. Seventeen people are still listed as missing, and authorities warn that heavily damaged structures must be thoroughly inspected before search operations can conclude.
The earthquake — among the most powerful to hit the Philippines in recent years — toppled buildings, triggered landslides, and prompted tsunami warnings for neighbouring coastlines including Indonesia, Taiwan, Palau, and Papua New Guinea, though the alerts were lifted within hours. In General Santos alone, at least 13 people died when buildings collapsed. The broader damage footprint is severe: more than 3,100 houses destroyed, 12 hospitals and 89 schools damaged, and power cuts affecting around 280,000 households across six provinces. In Sarangani province, one of the hardest-hit areas, some communities can only be reached by helicopter. Aftershocks have complicated rescue operations, with civil defence coordinator Rodrigo Sosmena describing them as a major challenge for teams on the ground.
More than 32,000 people have been displaced, housed across roughly 50 emergency evacuation centres that are already at capacity. The government has released 500 million pesos in emergency funding, and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. declared a state of national calamity to speed up relief. General Santos International Airport partially reopened on 10 June for emergency flights after 78 domestic services were cancelled. International assistance has arrived from Japan, which sent rescue specialists and supplies, and Australia, which provided financial aid, while the World Health Organization deployed medical teams.
The human toll extends well beyond casualties. Around 4,000 schools on Mindanao were damaged — a quarter of them completely destroyed — leaving an estimated four million children unable to return to class. The quake struck just as the new school year was beginning. Humanitarian workers from Save the Children warn it could take three to six months before schools are safe enough to reopen, and describe children who witnessed the destruction as deeply traumatised, with some in coastal areas still fearful of a tsunami despite the warning being lifted. Psychological support programmes have been launched alongside food, shelter, and hygiene assistance.
The Philippines sits within the Pacific Ring of Fire, a zone of intense tectonic activity stretching from South America to the far east of Russia, and experiences hundreds of earthquakes each year. Mindanao, an island roughly the size of South Korea, is no stranger to seismic disasters, but the scale of this week's earthquake has tested emergency systems across the south of the country and begun what officials and aid agencies expect will be a long and difficult recovery.