Two powerful earthquakes struck off the southern Philippines on 10 Oct 2025, killing at least eight people and triggering tsunami warnings across coastal areas.
The largest quake registered 7.4 on the Richter scale. It hit approximately 20km off Manay town in the Mindanao region just before 10am local time, according to the United States Geological Survey.
An aftershock measuring 6.8 in magnitude rocked the same area almost 10 hours later, one of more than 300 tremors recorded following the morning quake.
Both earthquakes occurred 11 days after a 6.9-magnitude earthquake killed 75 people and injured more than 1,200 in Cebu province in the central Philippines.
Fatalities and Casualties
Three miners tunnelling for gold were killed when a shaft collapsed in the mountains west of Manay during the larger quake, rescue official Kent Simeon of Pantukan town told AFP.
One miner was pulled out alive, and several others were injured in the remote hamlet of Gumayan.
One person was killed in Mati city when a wall collapsed, while two others suffered fatal heart attacks, city disaster official Charlemagne Bagasol told AFP.
Another person was crushed by falling debris in Davao city, more than 100km west of the epicentre, police said.
A third heart attack victim died in the town of Montevista, provincial disaster official Ednar Dayanghirang told reporters.
The National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council counted 8,436 individuals, or 3,519 families, to be affected by the twin earthquakes across Davao Region, Caraga, and Soccsksargen.
Tsunami Warnings and Evacuations
Philippine authorities issued tsunami warnings shortly after the morning quake as well as for the early evening one, ordering evacuations along the eastern seaboard, though no big waves had been monitored.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center lifted its own alert for the Philippines, Palau and Indonesia at around noon.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology initially said a destructive tsunami was expected with life-threatening wave heights.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Honolulu said hazardous waves were possible within 300 kilometres of the epicentre, with waves up to three metres above normal tides possible on some Philippine coasts.
A total of 1,265 persons from Region 11 were pre-emptively evacuated, while 7,915 persons were displaced and residing in seven evacuation centres.
Infrastructure Damage
More than 200 patients were evacuated from the Manay district hospital, where tents were set up outside to shelter them after the building’s foundations cracked, provincial governor Nelson Dayanghirang said.
At least 21 houses in Davao Oriental were destroyed, including 20 in Tarragona and one in Manay.
The Department of Social Welfare and Development said 28 houses were damaged, while five were destroyed.
The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines said four transmission lines and three power plants went down following the earthquake. At least 10 substations also tripped.
Doublet Earthquake Phenomenon
Philippine Institute of Seismology and Volcanology chief Teresito Bacolcol told The Associated Press that the second earthquake was a separate event, which seismologists call a doublet quake. Both happened in the same area but have different strengths and epicentres.
The first quake was centred at sea about 43 kilometres east of Manay town and was caused by movement in the Philippine Trench at a depth of 23 kilometres, government seismologists said.
The second earthquake was caused by movement in the same fault line, the Philippine Trench, at a depth of 37 kilometres off Manay town in Davao Oriental province.
Government Response
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said the potential damage was being assessed, and rescue teams and relief operations were being prepared and would be deployed when it was safe to do so.
Classes were suspended and non-essential workers were sent home, the provincial government said on Facebook.
Bacolcol and other authorities expressed fears that the second nighttime earthquake could further weaken or collapse structures already undermined by the first one.
At least 106,794 people in the Davao and Caraga regions were affected, including 11,488 displaced persons sheltering in 12 evacuation centres.
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