• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Another batch of 1,548 residents, who have been displaced by the eruption of Kanlaon Volcano in La Castellana, Negros Occidental, went home on Friday (Aug.1), Mayor Añejo Nicor said.
The day before, 1,400 affected individuals in Canlaon City, Negros Oriental returned home after the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) downgraded the volcano’s alert status from Alert Level 3 to Alert Level 2, allowing the decampment of internally displaced persons (IDPs) residing beyond the four-kilometer permanent danger zone (PDZ).
Nicor said the 27 families, who are residing within the permanent danger zone in barangays of Masulog, Biak-na-Bato and Cabagna-an, will remain in the evacuation centers.
He added that the Office of Civil Defense gave roofing materials to IDPs whose houses were damaged by ashfall.
The Phivolcs lowered the alert status of Kanlaon Volcano after it exhibited less frequent volcanic earthquake activity, decreased volcanic gas emission by subsurface magma, and ground deformation cycles.
The Negros Occidental provincial government is buying an eight-hectare property in La Castellana to be used as a relocation site for the IDPs residing within the four-kilometer PDZ.
The IDPs have been staying in the evacuation centers in the past eight months, following the volcano’s explosive eruption on Dec. 9 last year. | GB
