Lessons from Taal

QUIET FOR NOW Taal Volcano in Batangas province has calmed down since spewing steam and ash on Jan. 12. —PHOTOS BY LYN RILLON

AGONCILLO, BATANGAS—Even in the comfort of her home, Belen Hernandez, 44, couldn’t help but feel restless. She had not been done swee­ping away the dust and ash from Taal Volcano’s eruption in Ja­nuary, yet she could see harder work ahead from the deeper traces of structural damage, like the cracks on the wall and on her veranda.

More than a month since Taal blew up, Hernandez has refused to reopen her “lomihan,” a small, roadside eatery that served Batangas province’s popular noodle soup. Fissures have appeared in her store.

“What if there’s a bigger one?” she asked. In case of ano­ther eruption, her only escape route is a narrow, uphill alley that leads to the main highway.

When Taal erupted on Jan. 12, close to a million people rushed out of the high-risk areas, many of them with nothing but the clothes they wore that day.

Hernandez lives at Barangay Subic Ilaya in Agoncillo town, whose people, as with the rest of the communities around the Taal lake and volcano, struggle moving on.

Many of the roads have already been cleared of debris, business and offices have resumed, and the power and water supplies have been restored.

The picture, however, is different on the fringes, like the villages of Banyaga and Bili­binwang in Agoncillo and Buso-buso in Laurel town, where about a hundred houses were submerged after water from the lake rose.

WAITING FOR RIDERS Owners of horses kept at a pen at Tagaytay Picnic Grove in Tagaytay City await tourists who want to roam the park on horseback. Second photo shows the area covered with ash during Taal’s eruption in January.

Livelihood lost

Lake fishing and aquaculture activities have slowly picked up after workers repaired the damaged cages, according to Mario Balazon, a representative of the fish cage owners’ association.

All 78 public schools (except for three in Banyaga and Bili­binwang) reopened this week with extended class hours or weekend classes to make up for school days lost when they were used as evacuation centers or abandoned for being inside the 14-kilometer radius lockdown zone.

“We had just finished our assessment [of the damage to school buildings] and reques­ted [from the national office] for P150 million to P200 million for rehabilitation,” said Wilfredo Cabral, Department of Education director for Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon).

As volcanic activity has tapered down, 47 to 49 percent of the evacuees had left for home, said Conrad Navidad, national program manager of the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Thirty-eight percent are staying with relatives elsewhere, Navidad said, citing latest data from the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

“In our observation, this 38 percent outside evacuation centers have not yet returned home because of so much debris [in their houses] or the lack of livelihood,” he said.

A mere 1 percent is left in go­vernment-run temporary shel­­­ters. Among them are 1,600 families (8,000 people) who were permanently uprooted from “Pulo,” or the Taal Volcano Island, after the government declared it a permanent danger area.

The IOM said jobs were lost in the sectors of fishing, agriculture, retail, horse rental and tour-guiding—the last two a common tourism activity on Pulo that propped up the local economies of Talisay, San Nicolas and Balete towns.

The IOM had been working closely with the government, monitoring displacement of residents and sharing know-how with local camp managers.

“In general, our impression is that the government did very well,” Navidad said as the United Nations-attached agency shifted to postdisaster assessment.

CLEARED A road at Tagaytay Picnic Grove has been cleared of volcanic debris (second photo) as tourism starts to rebound in Tagaytay City.

Quick response

Batangas recorded no major casualty, even at the height of a chaotic exodus, except for one Pulo resident, Christopher De­teral, whose body was retrieved weeks later from an ash pile.

“The private sector [had also shown] a tremendous capacity in responding to [and] evacuating the affected residents. In a matter of 24 hours, all [evacuees] were accommodated [into evacuation centers] in Batangas, Cavite and Quezon,” he added.

Relief missions also came in quick, perhaps because of Batangas’ nearness to the capital and its being a relatively urbanized province, Navidad said.

But as the situation dragged on for the remaining evacuees, mendicancy and donor fatigue set in.

Gerald Hidalgo, a Batangas resident, had led a couple of donation drives around affec­ted areas and even offered jobs at his automotive shop or his friends’ farms.

“Would you believe, no ta­kers?” Hidalgo said. “The people believed if they were to leave the evacuation center, they would lose [their slots] in the free go­vernment housing,” he said.

Such sentiment, Navidad explained, was “valid,” but he reminded donors that disaster-stricken communities also suffered from trauma.

The government did pro­mise them new homes and employment, but “as to when, we don’t know,” said Rommel de Sagun, 43, a Pulo resident.

“We are very grateful for all the help but what we need at this point is financial [aid]. My daughter can’t pay for her ride to school with two cans of sardines,” he said.

Despite government war­ning, De Sagun and a couple of other men would slip back to Pulo to catch fish to sell.

“We are being taken care of [in evacuation centers], but our lives will never be normal here. Ang hirap gumalaw (It’s difficult moving around),” he said.

FARM RECOVERY Alfredo Tibayan says it will take time before his farm in Silang town, Cavite province, becomes productive again. His land, planted with pineapple, banana and “guyabano,” was devastated during Taal’s eruption (second photo).

Tricky situation

With recovery under way, the international humanita­rian network has committed to come up with financial assistance to complement local go­vernment funds being distri­buted to the affected families.

The National Housing Authority and the provincial go­vernment have designated an “interim” resettlement area, by initially repurposing a military housing site in Ibaan town for 600 displaced families.

Last week, the Philippine Red Cross established a tent city in Ibaan.

“In fairness to the [Batangas] provincial government, it was really intent [and was] seriously preparing for the next eruption,” Navidad said.

A contingency plan “[built] upon lessons learned” inclu­ded mock evacuations, identification of new evacuation sites, procurement of modular tents, land-use planning and stronger partnership with potential host cities, Navidad said.

“[But] permanent relocation is quite tricky,” he said, saying it should be the “last resort” during emergency situations.

It entails “a comprehensive package” that considers livelihood, safety and peoples’ access to basic needs, he said.