Rising cases of theft won’t spare Phivolcs

LEGAZPI CITY—A top official of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) in Bicol has asked police to help retrieve stolen Phivolcs equipment and put behind bars the men who stole them in separate cases in the last two weeks.

Ed Laguerta, resident Phivolcs volcanologist, told police that robbers entered his office at the Ligñon Hill Observatory in Barangay Bogtong in this city between midnight and 1 a.m. on Friday and took his

laptop.

“It contains vital information, reports and data for Mayon and Bulusan observations,” he said in a phone interview Saturday.

Laguerta said he had been working overtime to prepare for a conference next week in Manila at the time his laptop was stolen.

He said police investigators did not find signs of forcible entry into his office.

Laguerta said he took a nap with the laptop near him but “when I woke up … the laptop was no longer on my desk.”

On the second week of December, the repeater system installed around the slopes of Mayon Volcano in Sto. Domingo, Albay, was also looted and vandalized by still unidentified persons.

“It operates on solar panels, batteries and the radio transceivers to relay seismic readings as well as other information to the observatory for processing,” he said.

Laguerta said Phivolcs staff in Bicol had to resort to other means of gathering data on restive volcanos in the region.