There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage, provincial rescuer Ralph Cadalena told AFP.

"We felt a sudden strong shake, but it was only for a very short time," Cadalena said.

The tremor struck near Dapa municipality in Surigao del Norte province at a depth of around 69 kilometres (43 miles), USGS reported.

It came a week after two quakes of 7.4 and 6.7 magnitude shook the eastern section of the main Mindanao island, killing at least eight people.

These followed a magnitude 6.9 earthquake days earlier that killed 76 people and destroyed or damaged 72,000 houses in Cebu province in central Philippines, according to government figures.

Earthquakes are a near-daily occurrence in the Philippines, which is situated on the Pacific "Ring of Fire", an arc of intense seismic activity stretching from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.

An 8.0-magnitude quake off Mindanao island's southwest coast in 1976 unleashed a tsunami that left 8,000 people dead or missing, the Philippines' deadliest natural disaster.