Earthquakes are natural occurring disaster in which there is a sudden movement or shaking

in the earth. There are many causes of this phenomenon; one of the main reasons is tectonic plate

movement, where orogeny and subductions occur. Volcanic activity is also a factor on earthquakes

as well as land erosion. Earthquakes are active where the fault lines are present. In the Philippines

the earthquakes are strong, the reason is it coincides a fault line and also inside the Pacific Ring of

Fire. It is inevitable in the Philippines to neglect the danger that might happen in the near future

because of its distance location on the fault line. Buildings and other large structures are at risk that

may lead to economical/property damage or worse, death. Organizations like the government

conduct a research to prevent losses. Thus, those who are in lined with the profession like Civil

Engineers follow the National Structural Code of the Philippines (NSCP), and are urged to find a way

to strengthen the structure of the building, strong enough to survive a seismic activity.

The presented project is a five-storey multipurpose building located at the Mc Arthur

Highway, Toril, Davao City. It is composed of open floor spaces intended for boutique shops stalls,

offices and call center rooms. The intention of the building is to divide a place wherein people can go

and shop, give a spacious workplace for a company’s salary man and provide suitable rooms for call

center agencies in order for them to accommodate and provide better services to their customers.

In order to design a seismic-resistant structure; safe and can sustain a certain amount of

shaking. The building is designed in accordance to the National Structural Code of the Philippines

(NSCP) and follows the guidelines in the Seismic Design Consideration.

The distance location of the proposed building from the nearest fault line (Davao River) is 13

kilometers; refer to figure 1. The Seismic Zone belongs to Zone 4 with a Seismic Zone Factor (z) of

0.40; refer to table 208.3. Its Occupancy Category falls in Category III - Special Occupancy Structures;

refer to table 208-1, through a Seismic Importance Factor (I) of 1.00; refer to table 208-1. The

proposed building has a Soil Profile Type of Soft Soil Profile – SE; refer to table 208-2. The Davao

River Fault has no record of producing heavy earthquake that exceed the magnitude of 6.5, hence
the Seismic Source Type is C; refer to table 208-4. Since the seismic source is Type C and the soil

profile type is SE; the Near-Source Factor (Na & Nv), Seismic Response Coefficient (Ca) and the

Seismic Response Coefficient (Cv) is 1.0, 0.44Na and 0.96NV respectively; refer table 208-7 and 208-8.

figure 1