The Philippine Army, together with the Philippine Air Force (PAF) and the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), delivered emergency food packs, potable water, and medical relief to isolated communities in Sarangani Province and Davao Occidental on Sunday, June 14, 2026, following a destructive 7.8-magnitude earthquake and a series of powerful aftershocks that cut off several municipalities from regular relief channels.
The relief operations, coordinated from Fort Bonifacio in Taguig City, targeted hard-to-reach areas in the municipality of Jose Abad Santos in Davao Occidental and the municipality of Glan in Sarangani Province — both among the areas most severely affected by the disaster. Search, Rescue, and Retrieval (SRR) missions remain active, with Army teams currently deployed to locate missing persons, particularly in zones identified as high-risk for landslides.
Multi-Agency Teams Reach Jose Abad Santos and Glan
According to a statement released by Colonel Louie G. Dema-ala, Chief Public Affairs of the Philippine Army, relief teams successfully penetrated isolated communities in both provinces, bringing critical supplies to families who had been cut off following the earthquake and subsequent aftershocks.
The combined Philippine Army, PAF, and PCG teams worked in concert to ensure that essential goods reached areas where road damage, landslides, or other disaster-related conditions had made access extremely difficult or impossible by standard ground transport alone. The multi-agency coordination reflects the military's Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Response (HADR) framework, which designates clear roles for each branch of the armed forces during large-scale disasters.
Army teams provided critical ground manpower and logistical support to accelerate the distribution of relief items across affected communities. The use of air and maritime assets from the PAF and PCG, respectively, allowed responders to reach communities that ground teams could not access quickly, particularly in areas where roads and bridges sustained structural damage.
Mobile Water Filtration System Deployed in Maasim, Sarangani
One of the most pressing concerns in the aftermath of the earthquake has been the availability of clean, potable water. The destruction of water infrastructure in affected communities has left thousands of families without access to safe drinking water — a critical public health concern in the immediate days following a major seismic event.
In response, the Philippine Army, in cooperation with the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), deployed a mobile water filtration system to Maasim, Sarangani Province. The system is designed to treat available water sources and convert them into potable water suitable for drinking and basic sanitation use, providing a crucial stopgap while permanent water supply infrastructure is assessed and repaired.
Access to clean water is considered one of the most urgent priorities in post-disaster relief operations, as contaminated water sources can rapidly lead to outbreaks of waterborne diseases such as cholera, typhoid, and gastroenteritis — conditions that can compound an already strained health response in disaster-affected communities.
Search, Rescue, and Retrieval Missions Continue in Landslide Zones
Alongside the humanitarian relief operations, Search, Rescue, and Retrieval teams remain deployed across the affected provinces. According to Colonel Dema-ala's statement, SRR teams are specifically focused on locating missing individuals in high-risk landslide zones — areas where terrain instability following the earthquake makes both the survival of trapped persons and the safety of rescuers a serious operational challenge.
Landslides triggered by strong earthquakes are a known secondary hazard in mountainous and hilly regions of Mindanao. The combination of loose soil, steep terrain, and structural damage from seismic shaking creates conditions where communities can be buried or isolated for extended periods following a major quake.
The Philippine Army did not disclose specific figures on the number of missing persons being searched for as of the time of the statement's release, but confirmed that SRR operations remain an active and ongoing component of the overall disaster response.
Army HADR Teams Coordinate with National and Local Authorities
The Philippine Army's HADR teams are operating in close coordination with national government agencies and local government units (LGUs) in both Sarangani Province and Davao Occidental. According to Colonel Dema-ala, this inter-agency coordination is designed to ensure that relief operations are timely, well-organized, and able to reach the greatest number of affected families possible.
Coordinated HADR operations of this scale typically involve the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), and local DRRMC offices, which serve as the civilian counterparts to military relief operations on the ground.
The involvement of LGUs is particularly important in ensuring that relief distribution reaches the correct beneficiaries and that local knowledge of terrain, community locations, and specific needs is incorporated into the overall response plan. Local officials are often the first point of contact for affected residents and serve as critical links between the national government's response apparatus and the communities themselves.
7.8-Magnitude Quake Triggers Major Disaster Response
The earthquake, which measured 7.8 in magnitude, struck with sufficient force to trigger a large-scale, multi-agency disaster response involving the Philippine Army, the Philippine Air Force, the Philippine Coast Guard, and the Bureau of Fire Protection, among other agencies. Earthquakes of this magnitude are classified as major seismic events and are capable of causing widespread structural damage, triggering landslides, and — depending on location and depth — generating tsunami warnings.
The provinces of Sarangani and Davao Occidental, both located in the southern Mindanao region, were identified as among the hardest-hit areas. Jose Abad Santos, a municipality in Davao Occidental, and Glan and Maasim, both municipalities in Sarangani Province, were specifically named in the Army's official statement as focal points for relief delivery operations.
The Philippine Army confirmed that photos documenting the relief operations were sourced from various Philippine Army Major Units actively deployed in the affected areas, providing visual documentation of the ongoing response effort.
Army Reaffirms Commitment to Sustained Relief Operations
In his statement, Colonel Dema-ala reaffirmed the Philippine Army's commitment to sustaining its HADR operations in the earthquake-affected provinces for as long as required. The Army's public affairs office released the statement under the official Philippine Army communications framework, bearing the service's motto tags — "Ang Inyong Matatagang Hukbong Katihan," "Stronger Army, Stronger Country," and "Serving the People, Securing the Land" — reflecting the institution's stated mission of combining defense with community service during times of national crisis.
As of the release of the Army's official statement on June 14, 2026, HADR operations in Sarangani and Davao Occidental remain active. The Philippine Army indicated that teams will continue to push relief supplies into isolated communities, maintain SRR missions in landslide-affected zones, and sustain the mobile water filtration operation in Maasim until conditions on the ground allow for a transition to longer-term recovery support.
No casualty figures, specific aftershock data, or timeline for the conclusion of operations were included in the Army's official statement as of press time. Further updates are expected to be released by the Philippine Army Public Affairs Office as operations develop.
Photo credit: Photos courtesy of the Philippine Army / Various Major Units