The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) yesterday said it cannot yet downgrade the alert status of Kanlaon Volcano in Negros Island nearly a month after its “explosive eruption.”
In a radio interview, Phivolcs director Teresito Bacolcol said it is still too early to tell if the unrest of Kanlaon Volcano has already become less intense.
The volcano had an explosive eruption last December 9, prompting the raising of its alert status from Alert Level 2 (increasing unrest) to Alert Level 3 (magmatic unrest).
Over the weekend, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) provided psychosocial activities and educational film showing for 3,675 children aged between 0 to 18 years old who are currently staying in the evacuation centers in Western and Central Visayas. Of which this number 1,892 are in 10 evacuation centers Canlaon City in Negros Oriental.
There are 3,125 children, aged between 3 and 17 years old or school aged children, who are currently staying in 34 evacuation centers in the two regions.
The move aims to help the children cope with the stress and trauma from the calamity.
Meanwhile, Bacolcol said the monitoring parameters (volcanic quakes, sulfur dioxide emission and ash emission, among others) continue to fluctuate.
On Sunday, Phivolcs recorded 37 volcanic earthquakes which is higher compared to the 27 the previous day. Its sulfur dioxide emission was measured at 3,639 tons on Sunday, higher than last Saturday’s 3,469 tons. It had no ash emission on Sunday, an improvement from last Saturday when one ash emission was recorded.
“Sometimes it (monitoring parameters) goes up, sometimes it goes down. So we have yet to see a trend, either downtrend or uptrend in the monitoring parameters,” said Bacolcol.
“That’s why it remains under Alert Level 3. We cannot lower it (alert status) as of now because we have not seen a downtrend in the parameters,” added Bacolcol.
Nevertheless, Bacolcol noted that under Alert Level 3, there is still a possibility of hazardous eruption.
On the possibility of raising the volcano’s alert status to Alert Level 4, Bacolcol said: “The possibility is always there. That depends on the seismic activity, ash emission activity, and sulfur dioxide emission (of the volcano),” said Bacolcol.
“Right now, there is no certainty it will be raised to Alert Level 4,” added Bacolcol.
The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said the Kanlaon unrest has affected 12,226 families or 46,787 individuals as of yesterday. Of the number, 9,962 families or 31,099 individuals have been displaced by the volcano’s eruption. But, as of yesterday, the number was down to 6,479 families or 20,912 individuals.
The NDRRMC placed the estimated cost of damage to agriculture at P33.5 million.
A total of 34 cities and municipalities have declared a state of calamity.
DSWD has also facilitated religious activities across multiple evacuation centers over the weekend while evacuation site visits were conducted on Monday to assess and provide additional assistance as well as ensure that there are Women-Friendly Spaces (WFS) and Child-Friendly Spaces in each evacuation camp.
The DSWD-Disaster Response Operations Management, Information, and Communication (DROMIC) record showed that as of January 6, there are 4,070 families or 13, 246 persons who are temporarily staying in the evacuation centers.
A total of 12,226 families or 446,787 persons from 26 barangays in the two regions that have been affected by the Kanlaon eruption in December.
DSWD said P101.4 million worth of aid have also been provided for the affected families in the two regions which includes the P70.19 million form the agency, P13.06 from the local government units (LGUs), P14.66 million from non-government organizations (NGOs), and P3.49 million from other partners.
