Next target for gov’t evacuation: Animals left behind in danger zone

ALL ALONE Some residents of Barangay Caluit in Balete town, Batangas province, have left
their farm animals since there is no space for them in the evacuation center. —CHRIS QUINTANA

MANILA, Philippines — The Office of Civil Defense (OCD) on Monday gave assu¬rance that pets and livestock left behind by residents fleeing Taal Volcano’s eruption would also be rescued and cared for.

The commitment came as the Department of Agriculture released its latest bulletin sta¬ting that animal deaths in Taal’s eruption had reached 55,581 head, an alarming increase from 1,967 head at the start of the volcano’s restiveness last week.

Civil Defense Assistant Secretary Casiano Monilla said the agency had asked local officials in the volcano region to account for the animals that were left behind in the rush to evacuate residents last week.

Part of evacuation plans

“We already asked the provincial disaster risk reduction and management office and the different disaster risk reduction and management councils to take care, to account for them. What else needs to be saved there,” Monilla told reporters in Malacañang.

“Supposedly it has been done since last week. It is really included in the procedures, to bring their animals as well,” he added.

Rescued animals will not be taken to the evacuation centers where their owners are shelte¬ring, but to holding areas where local disaster offices will take care of them, he said.

Monilla noted that in Albay province, during Mayon Volcano’s eruptions, animals were also evacuated.

Predesignated areas

“The barangay, when it evacuates, they bring along their animals. And there are predesignated areas where the animals are brought,” he said.

Monilla was commenting on reports that residents in the Taal region were insisting on being allowed to return to their homes in villages within the 14-kilometer radius danger zone to feed their pets and livestock.

Since Thursday, the residents had been allowed a four-hour window every day to inspect their properties and feed their animals.

On Monday, however, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) ordered local authorities in the region to stop the visits and strictly enforce the lockdown imposed on the communities within the danger zone.

Thousands of animals are trapped in the danger zone, but some local governments have begun evacuating animals with help from animal rights groups, nonprofits and ordinary citizens.

P3.22-B damage

The agriculture department said on Monday that the damage to agriculture and losses caused by Taal’s eruption in Calabarzon — Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon provinces — had reached P3.22 billion.

Speaking in a television interview, Agriculture Secretary William Dar said the region stood to lose P10 billion, but his agency had prepared only P361.92 million worth of interventions.

Of that amount, he said, P191.50 million would be given to Batangas, P162 million to Cavite, and P8.41 million to Laguna.

The interventions include provision of seeds, livestock and agricultural inputs such as fertilizers.