A shallow 6.9-magnitude earthquake struck the island of Mindanao in the southern Philippines on Sunday, killing at least four people, local officials have said.

In an updated report, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said the quake, which struck at 2:11 p.m. local time, hit at a depth of 3 kilometers, about 5 kilometers northwest of Matanao town in Davao del Sur.

Police said among the dead is a six-year-old from Asinan, a village in Matanao town in Davao del Sur. She died after hit by a concrete wall of her house.

A three-storey supermarket building collapsed in Padada town, trapping people under the debris. At least three people died and several others injured in that incident, Chief Superintendent Samuel Tadeo of the provincial Bureau of Protection told a radio interview.

Several market vendors were also pinned by a collapsed wall in Padada.

Read more: https://newsbreakers.ng/4-killed-in-6-9-magnitude-quake-in-s-philippines/


Presidency Reviews Approved 2020 Budget

The presidency has set up a committee to scrutinise the 2020 Appropriation Bill passed by the National Assembly, charging it to look critically into the differentials between the figure submitted by President Muhammadu Buhari and the one approved by the legislature, and advise the president on assent, THISDAY learnt last night.

The National Assembly had on December 5, passed N10.59 trillion, N264 billion more than the N10.33 trillion estimates submitted for 2020 by the president in October.
This differential, a reliable source told THISDAY, would be thoroughly scrutinised by the committee, before presidential assent.

The budget was last Thursday transmitted to the president for assent.
Although there is pressure on the president to give assent because of the administration’s desire to return to the January-to-December fiscal calendar, Buhari is said to be insistent on ensuring that his core financial objectives are not distorted by the fresh insertions, which are already causing disquiet in the Senate.

“The president wants to ensure that the projects inserted conform to his overall fiscal objectives,” a source told THISDAY, saying the exercise would not necessarily lead to the defeat of the desire to return to January-to-December budget cycle.

Read more: https://newsbreakers.ng/presidency-reviews-approved-2020-budget/

too bad , may their souls rest well, Amen .