OCD: Negros town closest to Kanlaon yet to firm up evacuation plan
OCD Western Visayas Director Raul Fernandez
BACOLOD CITY, NEGROS OCCIDENTAL, Philippines — La Castellana town in Negros Occidental, which is expected to be the hardest hit by a major eruption of Mt. Kanlaon, still has no final and approved contingency plan, the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) said.
OCD Western Visayas Director Raul Fernandez said La Castellana does not have a final plan on where thousands of its residents should be evacuated if the volcano erupts again and is placed under alert level 4.
“It is worrisome if (a contingency plan for an evacuation) is not acted on soon,” he said in a Feb. 19 interview.
READ: Marcos forms task force to aid victims of Kanlaon Volcano eruption
Fernandez, who is also Task Force Kanlaon head, said La Castellana Mayor Rhummyla Nicor Mangilimutan has proposed to bring affected residents to two barangays in her town but “the sites to be identified by the mayor have no facilities for the evacuees yet.”
‘Double handling’
Fernandez said they would want to avoid “double handling,” wherein evacuees would have to be transferred twice.
The OCD is preparing evacuation sites in the cities of Himamaylan and Kabankalan to accommodate evacuees from La Castellana if needed.
Fernandez said La Castellana is the lone affected area that has yet to sign a memorandum of understanding with other local governments to accept its evacuees under a worst-case scenario.
Under a worst-case scenario, about 100,000 residents on Negros Island, including those in La Castellana, will have to be evacuated, Fernandez said.
“Whether they (La Castellana) like it or not, there will be a spillover of displaced residents,” he stressed.
In several evacuation centers in Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental, at least 10,000 residents from Kanlaon’s 6-kilometer danger zone have been sheltered since the volcano erupted on Dec. 9 last year.
The OCD has been preparing for thousands more evacuees since the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology warned Mt. Kanlaon could have another and more violent eruption.
