HUNDREDS of residents of Juban town in Sorsogon, who were displaced by last Sunday’s phreatic or steam-driven eruption of Bulusan Volcano, returned home yesterday as the situation in the area continued to improve.
The 104 displaced families, composed of around 400 individuals, were assisted by the Juban municipal disaster risk reduction office and personnel from the PNP, the military, and the Philippine Coast Guard in returning to their homes.
“The 104 families who were evacuated due to the phreatic eruption of Bulusan Volcano last Sunday morning have returned to their homes in Barangay Putting Sapa,” the Sorsogon public information office said.
“While the evacuees have returned already, they are advised to wear mask to avoid respiratory illnesses that may be caused by ash from the volcano,” the office said in its Facebook page.
Mark Timbal, spokesman of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, said the evacuees are living outside the four-kilometer danger zone, and were evacuated after the eruption due to ash emitted by the volcano westward.
“There is no danger at present… It’s (volcano) is silent. Every now and then, there’s smoke coming out but it’s not eruption type,” said Timbal.
He said there are around 60 families living inside danger zone, particularly on the side of Bulusan town. He said they were not evacuated because they were located east of the volcano and were not affected by the ashfall.
Timbal also said the local government has a program to relocate them. He said the 60 families will have to be evacuated if Alert Level 2 is raised in Bulusan Volcano, from the current Level 1.
Timbal said the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) continues to monitor the volcano, considering more phreatic eruptions are expected to occur in the next days, weeks or months, based on Bulusan’s eruption history.
Phivolcs said it recorded 11 volcanic quakes from 5 a.m. Tuesday to 5 a.m. yesterday, up by four from previous 24-hour period.
The national government has distributed almost P306,000 worth of assistance to the affected residents — P283,876 from the Department of Social Welfare and Development and about P22,000 from local government units.
Some P740,000 worth of funds, P320 million worth of family food packs, and P701 million in non-food item relief goods are on standby and ready for distribution.
At least 3,280 families or 16,400 persons from 11 barangays in Sorsogon have been affected by the eruption.
Damage to the agriculture sector was placed at P16.85 million as of yesterday.
The Department of Agriculture’s Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Operations Center the damage is equivalent to 695 metric tons of food in 389 hectares of affected areas tended by 473 farmers and fishers.
Bulk of the damage is from rice at 90.64 percent, equivalent to P15.28 million, followed by 8.76 percent from high-value crops at P1.48 million, and the remaining 0.59 percent from the fisheries sector, at around P100,000.
The DA said affected farmers and fisherfolk will received assistance in the form of rice, corn and assorted vegetable seeds; drugs and biologics for poultry and livestock; credit lines; indemnification from the Philippine Crop Insurance Corp.; and a quick response fund to rehabilitate affected areas. — With Jocelyn Montemayor and Jed Macapagal
