Classes resume in 69 schools in Albay

LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines—Classes have resumed in 69 schools that served as temporary shelters for at least 43,000 persons from villages inside danger zones around Mayon Volcano.

Nine schools, however, will remain closed as 13,365 evacuees, whose homes are inside a 6-kilometer radius permanent danger zone (PDZ), are still staying there.

“Some of the schools opened last week, but most of them started normal classes this Monday,” said Ramon Fiel Abcede, regional director of the Department of Education (DepEd). The evacuees vacated the schools last week.

A total of 54,877 students in 78 public elementary and high schools in the towns of Camalig, Daraga and Guinobatan, and the cities of Ligao and Tabaco were unable to use their classrooms since Sept. 15 when the evacuees started arriving after government volcanologists had raised Mayon’s alert level to 3.

Instead, they attended classes in temporary learning facilities built by the DepEd and in 155 tents from the United Nations Children’s Fund in areas away from the danger zones.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology has yet to lower the alert level after seeing signs of the volcano’s continued restiveness.

At least 51,319 students have gone back to their schools, while 3,558 still go to the temporary structures in nine schools in Malilipot, Daraga, Ligao and Tabaco, Abcede said.

Cedric Daep, chief of the Albay Public Safety and Emergency Management Office, said the remaining evacuees would stay in shelters until authorities identified a permanent relocation area for them.

Albay Gov. Joey Salceda earlier said the provincial government was planning to declare the 6-km permanent danger zone a “no settlement area.”