The Philippines Return of the Vengeful King

By Guy D. Garcia

According to Filipino myth, the earthquakes that regularly ravage the archipelago are caused by the exertions of a legendary Tagalog king as he tries to free himself from his prison cave. Last week the king bestirred himself anew. At 4:26 p.m. Monday, a massive temblor shook the northern island of Luzon. At its epicenter in Nueva Ecija province, north of Manila, it measured 8.0 on the Richter scale (last month's quake in northwestern Iran registered 7.7). One of the worst-hit cities was the mountain resort of Baguio, 150 miles north of Manila, where dozens of buildings collapsed. By week's end the quake had killed more than 700 people and injured nearly 3,000. Hundreds were missing, most trapped in the rubble of shattered buildings.

In the provincial capital of Cabanatuan, rescue workers used handkerchiefs to ward off the stench of decaying bodies as they worked in the sweltering heat to peel away the remains of a six-story school building. "It happened so fast," said Abelaida Belino, a school principal who was in her office when the quake hit. "I had to stumble my way out. But I'm very lucky. I feel like I've been given a new life."

Metropolitan Manila, though largely undamaged, was severely shaken. In Malacanang Palace, where President Corazon Aquino was presiding over a meeting with Cabinet ministers and Senators, participants scrambled for cover under the conference table. Quipped Aquino: "What the coup failed to do, the earthquake did" -- a reference to the stoutly denied report that during a failed 1987 insurrection she was cowering under her bed.

With reporting by David S. Jackson/Cabanatuan and Nelly Sindayen/Manila