A SPECIAL Senate committee will be convened to examine a report that Manila sits on a fault line that makes it liable to an earthquake on the scale of the Kobe disaster.
Senator Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said the report came as a shock and the Senate Public Works, Environment and Local Government committees would meet immediately to contribute towards a contingency plan.
The joint report by the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology and the US Geological Survey said Manila's newly developed eastern suburbs had been built on the West Marikina Fault and could be struck by a major eight-to-nine intensity earthquake at any time.
'Considering there is really no way for us to know when the fault will move, it is best that we already prepare for the worst this early,' Senator Macapagal-Arroyo said.
The senator lives in La Vista, one of the sub-divisions straddling West Marikina Fault, which runs 23 kilometres from Rizal to Pasig through luxury districts and enclaves of the middle class.
'I understand the institute has been under pressure in the past not to release any findings on the fault that could alarm the public, but if the threat is real, I don't think the public minds being alarmed into a state of preparedness,' Senator Macapagal-Arroyo said.
