DENR: Viral video of Mt. Banahaw eruption just a minor landslide

LUCENA CITY, Philippines — A recent video circulating on Facebook that showed falling stones and thick dust from atop Mount Banahaw was only a small landslide, a local official of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, said Sunday.

“It was only a minor landslide that was covered with spurting thick dust. There was no Banahaw eruption or explosion. There is no cause for the public to be alarmed,” Salud Pangan, park superintendent for Banahaw and San Cristobal of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), said in a phone interview Sunday.

Pangan said the affected area only covers one hectare. “The probable cause of the landslide was wildlife,” she said.

Pangan based her information from the report of the inspection team that was immediately dispatched to a site at the mountaintop after Casiano Magadia, chairman of Barangay Concepcion Banahaw, posted a more than 3 minutes long video on his Facebook that he reportedly took on March 27.

According to Pangan, the video has triggered a public “misconception” that there was an explosion or eruption of Banahaw.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology station in Lucban town declared that there was “no seismic activity was recorded/observed since March 23, 2020 within the area of MBSCPL (Mount Banahaw/San Cristobal Landscape Area)”.

Meanwhile, Pangan disclosed that Mounts Banahaw and San Cristobal have been totally closed to the public since March 15 according to the declaration of the Protected Area Management Board.

“It was a precautionary closure in compliance with President Rodrigo Duterte’s enhanced community quarantine order to prevent the spread of the coronavirus,” she explained.