• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Local governments surrounding Mt. Kanlaon in Negros Island have been given a deadline until today to conduct forced evacuation of the remaining families inside the six-kilometer expanded permanent danger zone (PDZ).
As of 10 a.m. yesterday, the Office of the Civil Defense-Western Visayas reported that 81 percent of the population in the expanded PDZ were already evacuated.
These include internally displaced persons composed of 4,881 families or 16,268 individuals, staying in 28 evacuation centers.
Among them 2,825 families or 9,328 persons in La Castellana; 721 families or 2,589 persons in La Carlota City; and 92 families or 310 persons in Bago City.
In Negros Oriental, 1,243 families or 4,041 persons are seeking shelter in evacuation shelters.
In a memorandum issued by the Regional Task Force Kanlaon chaired by OCD-6 head Raul Fernandez, the order issued to the municipality of La Castellana, cities of Bago, La Carlota and San Carlos in Negros Occidental, and Canlaon City, Negros Oriental, aimed at ensuring the safety and protection of families, given the ongoing volcano activity, in anticipation for any possible re-eruption or worst-case scenario, Fernandez said.
Alert Level 3 (intensified unrest/magmatic unrest) remains hoisted over the volcano.
In the past 24 hours before Sunday, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology logged 14 volcanic quakes, and reported emission of 3,620 tons of sulfur dioxide, with plume as high as 50 meters, which drifted west and southwest directions.
In La Castellana town, the police has established checkpoints along the main road of the six-kilometer expanded PDZ, where evacuation of livestock to the town poblacion is ongoing.
Task Force Kanlaon allows essential activities of IDPs inside the extended PDZ, from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. only.
As of Dec. 14, the Department of Social Welfare and Development, local government units and non-government organizations distributed P14.792 million worth of humanitarian aid, including family food packs, hygiene kits and sleeping kits provided to the affected families in La Castellana, La Carlota City, and Bago City.
Meanwhile, Vice Mayor Ian Villaflor reported a mud flow at the Intiguiwan River in Moises Padilla, Negros Occidental, which he believes originated from volcano ash deposits.
With a potential low pressure area expected to bring rains next week, Phivolcs warns the risk of ashfall turning into lahar increases.
It also issued a map, which highlighted areas likely to be affected by the lahar flow from the estimated three million metric tons of ash deposits from the Dec. 9 eruption, which is three times greater than the one million metric tons of ash deposits recorded during the previous eruption on June 3. | GB
