Don’t go home yet, Mayon evacuees told

LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines —  Barangay officials in this city have been ordered to monitor and prevent around 3,000 families or 11,548 persons staying in evacuation centers from returning to their homes.

Mayor Noel Rosal issued the directive, saying he received reports that residents of Barangay Padang, Matanag, Mabinit, Moyoan and Bonga who are staying in eight evacuation centers have been returning to their homes during daytime.

“I will hold them responsible if something happens to the evacuees,” Rosal said at a press briefing. “If they can’t do the job, they must inform us.”

He said the city government is spending P1.2 million a day for the evacuees.

Rosal said the evacuees are residents of barangays in the southeast flank of Mayon and at risk for pyroclastic density currents flow.

Arnel Garcia, Department of Social Welfare and Development-Bicol director, said the 30 trucks of relief goods sent by the DSWD, Office of Civil Defense, Department of Transportation, World Food Program and Philippine Disaster Resiliency Foundation arrived in Guinobatan yesterday. 

Garcia said the relief items worth P9.6 million would be distributed to residents of six towns in Albay.

The Mandaluyong City government also donated P1 million in hygiene kits, medicine, mats and school supplies.

Mayon’s condition in the past 24 hours was characterized by “relative quiescence,” according to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology.

Between 9:03 a.m. and 10:46 a.m. on Tuesday, two discrete lava fountaining that lasted for up to six minutes and generated steam-laden plumes that rose 800 meters were observed. 

Lava effusion continued to flow in the Miisi, Bonga and Basud gullies. 

At least 51 volcanic earthquakes and 16 rockfalls were recorded by Mayon’s seismic monitoring network. 

Alert Level 4 remains in effect over the volcano.