THE National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council yesterday urged local government officials in Batangas to step up the evacuation of residents in five high-risk areas due to the restiveness of Taal Volcano.
NDRRMC executive director Ricardo Jalad made the appeal as he said he is not satisfied with the progress of the evacuation in barangays Gulod, Buso-buso and Bugaan East in Laurel town, and barangays Banyaga and Bilibinwang in Agoncillo town.
Jalad, concurrent administrator of the Office of Civil Defense, said 14,000 residents were projected to be evacuated from these barangays but as of yesterday, less than 3,000 persons have been actually evacuated — 658 families or 2,300 persons from the Laurel barangays and 142 families or 549 persons from the Agoncillo barangays.
Jalad said some residents in other towns in Batangas have evacuated but could not immediately give figures.
“The number of evacuated (in the barangays) is quite low,” said Jalad, adding the much lower evacuees in Agoncillo town may be related to a pronouncement by the town mayor, Daniel Reyes, that the town is having difficultly feeding the evacuees.
“The mayor of Agoncillo is asking for help. He said he is having difficulty feeding (evacuees) so that could be the reason behind the low number of evacuees in the town,” said Jalad.
Evacuation started on Thursday last week after the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) raised the alert to Level 3 after the volcano spewed a one-kilometer plume of gases and steam. Volcanic activity started late last month, and the volcano is continuing to release sulfur dioxide gas.
Jalad assured the local government units that the national government, including the Department of Social Welfare and Development, will help attend to the needs of evacuees.
Jalad said the NDRRMC has also asked the assistance of the Department of Interior and Local Government to hasten the evacuation of the residents from the high-risk barangays.
He said there is a need to evacuate the residents to prevent casualties in case of violent eruption which he said is “possible.”
NDRRMC spokesman Mark Timbal said 1,026 families or 3,617 persons are in evacuation centers.
“Majority of our evacuees come from Laurel and Agoncillo. The count also includes evacuees from municipalities that had voluntary evacuations,” said Timbal.
Timbal said 537 other families or 1,966 persons have also left their homes but are staying with their relatives.
Phivolcs, in an advisory issued at 8 a.m. yesterday, said 17 volcanic earthquakes were recorded in the past 24-hour monitoring period.
