4K residents from 12 barangays evacuated
OVER 4,000 individuals from Batangas have been evacuated since Saturday due to the series of phreatomagmatic eruptions of Taal Volcano, which prompted authorities to raise the alert at the volcano to Level 3 from Level 2.
The evacuees are from 12 barangays of Agoncillo, Laurel and Balete towns, said Joselito Castro, head of the Batangas provincial disaster risk reduction and management office.
Originally, residents of only five high-risk barangays were to be evacuated. These are Bilibinwang and Banyaga in Agoncillo town, and Boso-boso, Gulod and East in Laurel town, which Castro said are four to five kilometers from the volcano.
Evacuation operations were continuing as of yesterday afternoon.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) recorded two more phreatomagmatic events at Taal at 4:34 a.m. and 5:04 a.m. yesterday, producing 800-meter and 400-meter plumes, respectively.
Fourteen volcanic earthquakes were recorded from 8 a.m. Saturday to 8 a.m yesterday.
Phivolcs director Renato Solidum said yesterday’s events indicate that more eruptions are possible “thus we have to be on alert.”
He said Phivolcs is looking at at least three scenarios.
“If this (eruption) continues, we will maintain Alert Level 3,” he said.
The second scenario, he said, is they are going to downgrade Taal’s alert status to Alert Level 2 in two weeks if Taal volcano’s unrest will subside.
“If there is a sudden magmatic flow, the island will be inflated, and there will be more frequent earthquakes, we may raise Alert Level 4,” Solidum said on the third scenario.
“But as of now, we are not seeing any parameters for that,” he said.
Solidum compared last Saturday’s eruption to that in January 2020. “…It’s not that strong; it’s not also that weak. It still poses risk to people in the (Taal Volcano) island, if there are people in the island,” said Solidum.
Authorities have prohibited the stay of people at the Taal Volcano Island following the volcano’s activity in July last year.
The phreatomagmatic eruptions last Saturday produced plumes as high as 3,000 meters.
Phivolcs promptly raised raised Alert Level 3 (magmatic unrest) which means “there is magmatic intrusion at the main crater that may further drive succeeding eruptions.”
In January 2020, Taal spewed ash and steam that reached 15 km, which warranted the declaration of Alert Level 4. Over 100,000 people were evacuated due to the risk of a hazardous eruption.
In July last year, Phivolcs also raised Alert Level 3 in Taal due to increased volcanic activity and emission of steam-rich plumes, displacing over 20,000 individuals.
On the evacuation, Castro said 1,033 families or 3,493 individuals from the 12 barangays are staying in evacuation centers while 139 other families or 679 individuals are staying with relatives.
Castro said about 35 percent of the residents in the high-risk barangays have been evacuated.
He also said classes in these five barangays are suspended based on a memorandum from the Department of Interior and Local Government.
The Batangas Social Welfare and Development Office said close to 3,000 individuals. mostly from Agoncillo and Laurel in Batangas, are staying in 12 evacuation centers in the Calabarzon Region.
DSWD Batangas head Joy Montalbo, in an interview with radio DZBB, said 288 families or 1,218 individuals were evacuated from Laurel and 498 families or 1,767 individuals from Agoncillo, as of 5 p.m. of Saturday.
Montalbo said aside from attending to the basic needs of the evacuees, DSWD ensures that the minimum health protocols such as physical distancing and wearing of face masks are observed. — With Jocelyn Montemayor
