Eruption still possible despite Mayon alert level lowering

A farmer tends to his land at Barangay Busay, Daraga, Albay province, even as Mt. Mayon continues to show signs of restiveness. INQUIRER FILE photo / NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

LEGAZPI CITY–Despite the lowering of Mayon Volcano’s alert level from 4 to 3 (decreased tendency towards hazardous eruption) Tuesday, volcanologists from the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and
Seismology (Phivolcs) maintained that it is still possible to have sudden eruptions, lava collapses, pyroclastic density currents, and ash fall events.

“(The lowering of the alert level) does not mean that the eruption is finished. We are having an activity as we speak,” Mariton Bornas, chief of the Phivolcs’ Volcano Monitoring and Eruption Prediction Division, told the Inquirer as Mayon emitted another ash plume at 8:29 a.m.

The Albay Public Safety and Emergency Management Office has ordered the decampment of evacuees following the lowering of Mayon’s alert status.

Miladee Azur, Legazpi City disaster risk reduction and management officer, said Mayor Noel Rosal has ordered the decampment of evacuees in the city on Thursday.

“For Legazpi City, it will be a total decampment,” she said. All evacuees live beyond the six-kilometer permanent danger zone (PDZ).

Legazpi has 2,860 families (11,525 individuals) in evacuation centers.

In Ligao City, Sancho Alcantara II, City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management officer, said residents from the villages of Nabonton and Tambo would be decamped Tuesday, while those from the villages of Amtic and Baligang would be decamped Thursday.

There are 944 families (4,015 evacuees) in Ligao.

Staying

In Guinobatan town, 2,741 evacuees in five villages were ready for decampment, while 79 families will be staying in the evacuation centers as they live within the PDZ.

About 2,213 persons (569 families) will also stay at the evacuation centers in Tabaco City; and 596 families in Malilipot town.

In Bacacay town, 139 families (508 persons) were set to go home.

Throughout the province, there are 15,741 families (60,529 individuals) in 58 evacuation centers, according to the Office of Civil Defense Bicol.