Clarin, Bohol Mayor Allen Ray Z. Piezas has appealed to the national government to speed up its help to his town which has been severely damaged by the 7.2 magnitude earthquake last year. In the wake of the Oct. 15, 2013 tremor, Clarin has sustained some 3,000 partially damaged houses and another 604 totally damaged houses. “Our estimated total cost of damage is P300 million,” Piezas told the Bohol Sunday Post during an exclusive interview. Asked whether the municipality of Clarin has returned to normalcy, Piezas said: “We are not normal here.” He revealed that after the killer quake the town's area had significantly submerged. “Clarin sinks after the earthquake,” he told the Post. “And there are around 600 families who are badly affected by the submersion of the town,” he added.

During high tide, the port area of the town is covered with seas while the coastal barangays are heavily flooded with seawaters up to waist-deep. “We consider these 600 families as highly at risk. They are not safe where they are now,” Piezas said. The mayor has planned to relocate these 600 families to a resettlement area within the town, but resources are scant at this time, which prompted him to sound the call for help from the national government. He said that while the provincial government of Bohol under Gov. Edgar Chatto has been sufficiently supplying his town with relief goods, the mounting effort of relocating 600 families from coastal areas to a higher ground requires direct intervention of the national government as it is too costly for the province to handle the relocation project. Piezas said that he is still expecting the promised P41 million aid from the National Housing Authority (NHA). “Clarin needs a lot of help, and we are calling for the national agencies to help us relocate the 600 families to a new resettlement area,” the mayor said.