‘Mt. Mayon still restive despite drop in volcanic quakes’

LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines – The movement of magma in Mayon Volcano temporarily stopped but the volcano remains restive, according to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs).

In its bulletin yesterday, Phivolcs said it recorded only four volcanic quakes and 22 rockfall events compared to Friday’s 22 volcanic quakes and 70 rockfall events.

But Phivolcs resident volcanologist Eduardo Laguerta said the sudden drop in the number of volcanic quakes and rockfall incidents in the past 48-hour monitoring period does not mean that Mayon had settled down.

The volcano’s alert status remained at level 3.

Laguerta said that upward movement of magma had stopped, but pressure was still building up for a possible eruption, he said.

He added the volcano’s sulphur dioxide emission was very high at 1,290 tons on Friday.

Laguerta said the movement of magma had become stationary in the past two days but the release of gas from the magma was measured above the normal emission of 500 tons a day.

“We can only say that Mayon’s status had gone back to normal if all its signs of abnormality, such as volcanic earthquakes, rockfall events, sulphur dioxide emission and surface inflation had dropped,” Laguerta told The STAR.

Temporary classrooms

Albay Gov. Joey Salceda said 20 classroom tents were put up in the towns of Camalig and Guinobatan so as not to disrupt classes in schools occupied by the evacuees.

Salceda said the tents, donated by the United Nations International Children’s Fund, can accommodate 60 students each.

He said 10,601 families or 47,040 individuals are temporarily taking shelter in public schools in Guinobatan, Malilipot, Camalig, Daraga, Sto. Domingo, Ligao City and Tabaco City.

Albay ‘open city’ for donations

Salceda has declared Albay an “open city” for local and international donors who want to help the evacuees affected by the imminent eruption of Mayon Volcano.

He said donors and different non-government organizations can go directly to the 22 evacuation centers.

“We have been doing this since 2007 to cut red tape, which causes frustration among those who want to extend help fast,” the governor said.

He said donors may coordinate with the teams from the Albay Health Emergency Management at the different evacuation centers.

“We welcome medical missions to lessen the health risks of the evacuees due to congestion in the evacuation centers,” Salceda said.

He also sought the help of international agencies for the evacuation of animals from the six-kilometer permanent danger zone.

The Albay provincial agriculture office said it will have to spend some P7 million to feed the animals for a 30-day evacuation period.

Donations can be sent to the Social Action Center, Diocese of Legazpi, with telephone numbers 0917-5581719 and 052-4812384.

Cash donations may be deposited to BPI Albay Account No. 0851-0067-37.  – With Celso Amo