6 seeking Facebook fame flaunt breach of Taal danger zone, get arrested

LUCENA CITY—Police from Talisay town, Batangas province arrested six individuals, three of them minors, for allegedly entering Taal Volcano Island on Tuesday (March 9) in violation of a no-entry order imposed by authorities following the volcano’s phreatic eruption last January and its current state of unrest.

Capt. Liwelyn Reyes, Talisay police chief, said in a report posted on Facebook that police were alerted after a man was seen with companions livestreaming themselves near the main crater of the volcano on the island.

A police team was immediately sent to locate and arrest the intruders who were intercepted aboard a motor boat near the shore of Taal Lake in Talisay around 1 p.m.

Those arrested—Ryan Molinar, 33; Hazel Molinar, 33; Jerico Hernandez, 23 and the three minors—were brought to the police station.

The minors were turned over the custody of local social workers while the three adults face criminal charges.

The government had declared the Taal Volcano Island, or pulo to locals, as a permanent danger zone and had barred unauthorized entry to the place.

A police desk had been set up on Talisay’s lakeshore to serve as registration station for fish cage owners or workers who wanted to go to the island to tend to their fish stocks.

No one is allowed to cross the lake towards the island without registering.They are also required to log out upon their return in the afternoon.

Early in the morning, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) raised the alert status at Taal to Level 2 from Level 1 amid increasing unrest.

TSB