Mindanao earthquake leaves villages in ruins in ‘tour town’ Glan, Sarangani

SARANGANI, Philippines – At 75, Seferino Ugdamin must figure out the repair costs for his home in Barangay Tango in Glan, Sarangani, after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake tore through its foundations last June 8.

It has been more than a week since the disaster. Ugdamin, a farmer by profession, could only count the coins in his pockets, knowing it would not be enough to pay for even one strand of wood worth P15. 

The cost of labor per day alone is estimated to be at P700. The senior citizen does not even know from whom to ask for loans, as almost everyone in his neighborhood also suffered the same fate: fallen walls, broken glass, and fragments of a home that once was.

“Naa unta mi senior citizen [assistance] pero dugay kaayo muabot. Tag-tulo ka buwan maghulat unya karon hapit na lima ka buwa,” Ugdamin said.

(Supposedly, we would receive senior citizen assistance, but it takes too long to arrive. It takes around three months of waiting, and now, it has been five months already.)

PAIN. Farmer Seferino Ugdamin deals with the trauma and the costs of losing his home following the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that hit Mindanao on June 8, 2026. Photo by John Sitchon/Rappler

The Department of Social Welfare and Development, through its Social Pension for Indigent Senior Citizens program, gives indigent senior citizens a P1,000 worth of social pension per month.

Ugdamin’s home is only one out of 13,314 damaged houses identified by the Glan municipal government, based on their incident report as of Wednesday, June 17. The Sarangani provincial government, in its June 18 report, tallied 33,026 damaged houses in the province.

Tour town no more

Glan is known as the “summer capital” of Sarangani and the oldest established municipality in the province. Its rich history and geographic location next to the Sarangani Bay make it a top tourist destination and an ideal place for fisherfolk.

However, the earthquake left a huge dent on its tourism and coastal communities as some roads and bridges suffered damage and were rendered unusable. 

DEBRIS. A wheel loader heads toward debris left by earthquake-induced landslides along the Sarangani-Davao del Sur Coastal Road in Glan. Photo by John Sitchon/Rappler

“Tourism is really affected because all the beaches are closed,” Glan Mayor Victor James Yap Sr. told Rappler.

In Barangay Pangyan, south of Glan’s town center, many families living near the shoreline were displaced, as the earthquake devastated their homes. More than 700 houses in the barangay were damaged by the tremor, according to the municipal government. The earthquake and subsequent aftershocks did not spare the local mosque.

REMNANTS. What remains of a kitchen in Purok Tamparan, Barangay Pangyan, Glan, more than a week after the June 8 Mindanao earthquake. Photo by John Sitchon/Rappler GONE. The mosque of Purok Tamparan, Barangay Pangyan in Glan, Sarangani, in the aftermath of the magnitude 7.8 Mindanao earthquake. Photo by John Sitchon/Rappler

“Ang kahadlok nako ang lubi. Sa tugkaran na namo sige og kahulog. Pag-linog, ga-kamang na lang ko ug akong anak nigakos sa akoa kay hadlok na siya,” Pangyan resident Noriam Abubacar told Rappler.

(I was afraid of the coconuts. They were falling on our front yard. When the earthquake happened, I crawled, and my child held on to me because he was afraid.)

Abubacar shared that a relative had been hit on the head by a falling coconut during the earthquake and hasn’t returned home from the hospital as of this writing.

Abubacar’s family is currently staying at the Pangyan Elementary School, but she returns to her home routinely to look after what remains of it and check if anything could still be salvaged.

When asked if it pains her to see her home, Abubacar said it doesn’t matter anymore.

“Mao mani ang gihatag sa Ginoo sa atoa. Dawaton na lang nato,” she said.

(This is what God gave us. We can only accept it.)

HOME. Noriam Abubacar spent five years with her husband Genn on building their home in Purok Tamparan. There is nothing left here for her, Noriam tells Rappler on June 19, 2026. Photo by John Sitchon/Rappler

– Rappler.com