Batangas Rep. Vilma Santos-Recto. FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — Deputy Speaker Vilma Santos-Recto on Wednesday said the Batangas government is “ready for the worst case scenario” amid Taal Volcano’s eruption.
Santos-Recto, who serves as Batangas 6th district representative, said there is teamwork between government units in the province—from the provincial level all the way to municipal government and city level.
“Ngayon po nakahanda [for] the worst case scenario just in case because of the alert level 4 na hindi natatanggal at baka sakali po—ay wag naman sana—dumating alert level 5, wag naman po sana pero as early as this nakahanda na po kami para sa worst case scenario,” Santos-Recto said in an interview over radio station DZMM.
(Right now, we are ready for the worst case scenerio because alert level 4 is still in place and in case—hopefully not—it reaches alert level 5, we are ready for the worst case scenario as early as now.)
Santos-Recto, who also previously served as the province’s governor, added that discussions on rehabilitation efforts once the situation improves are also in place.
Taal Volcano is still placed under Alert Level 4, which is characterized by “intense unrest, continuing seismic swarms, including harmonic tremor and/or low frequency earthquakes.”
Some 11,000 individuals from various areas in Batangas are currently in evacuation centers in Lipa City, Santos-Recto said.
The lawmaker said she had met with other local government officials to discuss setting up of a system to improve distribution of relief items at evacuation centers.
“Ang nangyayari po sa dami ng evacuation centers, mayroong pagkarami-raming natatanggap na biyaya, mayroon naman yung iba ay nangangailangan pa at kulang na kulang,” Santos-Recto said.
(What is happening is because there are a lot of evacuation centers, there are those that receive a lot of blessings while there are those that still need more because it is not enough.)