Manila (Philippines), June 8 (LaPresse) – A magnitude 7.8 earthquake with an offshore epicenter shook parts of southern Philippines in the early hours of Monday, causing damage in a major coastal city, power outages, and generating tsunami waves up to one meter high along nearby coastlines, local authorities reported. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. urged the population to immediately evacuate to higher ground in Philippine areas vulnerable to tsunamis, and Indonesian and Malaysian authorities also issued warnings for their respective coastal zones. It is not yet clear whether anyone was trapped or injured in the collapse of at least a small building in General Santos, a city of over 700,000 inhabitants, a tuna processing hub and major commercial center in the southern part of the country. The strongest earthquake to hit the Philippines this year had its epicenter offshore, about 13 kilometers southwest of General Santos, and was caused by movement in the Cotabato Trench at a depth of 10 kilometers, according to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology. The tremor occurred at 7:37 a.m., said institute director Teresimo Bacolcol.