Ruby Tower in Binondo – Today in History : August 2, 1968
In 1968, an intensity 7 earthquake rocked Manila causing the collapse of Ruby Tower in Binondo, killing hundreds of people.
The Ruby Tower collapse served as an eye opener in disaster management. Later that year, the Marcos administration established the National Committee on Disaster Operation which eventually evolved as the Camp Aguinaldo-based Office of Civil Defense.
Next came the National Disaster Control Center, the forerunner of the National Disaster Coordinating Council, the highest policy making body on disasters in the country.
The earthquake’s epicenter was located in Casiguran,Quezon (now part of Aurora province). The earthquake of 1969 is deemed as the most destructive quake in the Philippines prior to July 1990 Luzon killer earthquake that spawned a tsunami that reached as far as Japan.
