• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Residents of communities in central Negros affected by the unrest of Mt. Kanlaon started to return home on Thursday (July 31) after staying in various evacuation camps for almost eight months.
In Canlaon City, Negros Oriental, Mayor Jose Chubasco Cardenas said 590 families, composed of about 1,400 persons in the barangays of Masulog, Pula, Mala-iba, Lumapao and some portions of Linuthangan, have already returned home.
On July 29, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) lowered Kanlaon Volcano’s threat status from Alert Level 3 to Alert Level 2, with the permanent danger zone (PDZ) also reduced from six to four-kilometer radius of the volcano.
Alert Level 2 allows displaced residents outside the PDZ to return home.
Cardenas, however, said the 45 families living within the four-kilometer PDZ will remain in the evacuation centers.
In La Castellana, Negros Occidental, Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office chief John de Asis reported that 471 families, composed of 1,586 individuals, are scheduled to return home on Friday (August 1).
They are those residing outside of the four-kilometer PDZ.
The 15 families, composed of 47 persons, whose residences are within the permanent danger zone, will remain in the evacuation centers, he added.
In the neighboring La Carlota City, Mayor Jose Luis Jalandoni said they are sending 200 families back to their homes.
Regional Task Force Kanlaon head Raul Fernandez said the 22 affected families in Bago City have already been provided with permanent homes by the city government in Barangay Ilijan.
Fernandez earlier called on the local government units surrounding the Kanlaon Volcano to pass a resolution strictly enforcing the prohibition of human activity inside the PDZ regardless of Kanlaon Volcano’s alert status. | GB
