June 15 a non-working day in Pampanga to mark Pinatubo eruption anniversary

A lake had formed at Mt. Pinatubo summit as seen on Oct. 4, 1991 or four months after the June 15, 1991 eruption. (Photo by C. G. Newhall/USGS in Fire and Mud/Phivolcs)

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO — Malacañang has declared June 15, Saturday, a special non-working day in Pampanga province to give way to the commemoration of the 33rd anniversary of Mt. Pinatubo’s 1991 eruption.

Proclamation No. 555 was also requested by Gov. Dennis Pineda to “ensure that the lessons and values learned from the volcanic eruption live on and are never forgotten by the people,” a copy signed by Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin showed.

The eruption and lahar flows until 1997, triggered by monsoon rains, also destroyed the neighboring provinces of Bataan, Nueva Ecija, Tarlac, and Zambales in the Central Luzon region. The volcano straddles the boundaries of Pampanga, Zambales and Tarlac.

The three-kilometer lake in the collapsed crater has become a destination for local and foreign tourists.

Considered by volcanologists to be the world’s second worst eruption in the 20th century after Mt. Novarupta in Alaska, Mt. Pinatubo and the disaster it spawned cost the Philippine government P31.802 billion in responses.

According to the June 11, 1999 transcripts of the Joint Oversight Committee on Mt. Pinatubo obtained by the Inquirer, the defunct Mt. Pinatubo Commission spent 24 percent, or P7.617 billion, while implementing agencies spent P24 billion.

At least 13 upland and 10 lowland resettlements for 46,485 displaced families were built by the government.

The Pinatubo Museum at the Center for Kapampangan Studies of the Holy Angel University has documented the social, scientific, and environmental impacts of the disaster. INQ