GMA sends ‘Bulusan Express’ to Sorsogon for massive relief, rescue effort

President Arroyo ordered yesterday the "Bulusan Express," a massive relief and rescue effort backed by aircraft and trains, to rush to Sorsogon as huge boulders came tumbling down from Mt. Bulusan and authorities warned of a possible major eruption in the coming weeks.

The President issued the order after receiving a briefing from National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) executive director Glenn Rabonza and officials of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) at the VIP lounge of the Centennial Terminal of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport an hour before her morning departure for a week-long official visit to Italy, the Vatican and Spain.

She said that though much steam is coming from Mt. Bulusan owing to the heavy rains in the area, "right now the volcano is quiet" and it is unlikely that there will be a magma-driven explosion, at least in the next few days.

"I am instructing a Bulusan Express, which means two C-130s (cargo planes), eight helicopters, including the presidential helicopter, and a train whose coaches will be filled up with relief goods to be transported from Manila to Bicol," Mrs. Arroyo told reporters after the briefing.

She was flanked by Vice President Noli de Castro, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, Presidential Chief of Staff Michael Defensor, Rabonza and other officials.

She said Phivolcs can give ample warning before any major explosion.

The President also ordered the Presidential Security Group to deploy a medical contingent to the area and for concerned agencies to send rice from stockpiles of the National Food Authority and used clothes or "ukay-ukay" seized by the Bureau of Customs to evacuation centers.

She also instructed Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr., who is also the Cabinet official responsible for the Bicol Region, to prepare to release calamity funds.

The Government Service Insurance System and the Pag-IBIG Fund were also told to grant emergency loans to members in the affected areas.

Armed Forces units in the area, Mrs. Arroyo said, have temporarily shifted their operations from counter-insurgency to disaster and relief operations owing to the continued evacuation of residents living near the restive volcano.

The President noted that Typhoon "Domeng," which has reached Bicol, may affect the situation in the area owing to the heavy rains it brought.

Rabonza said the NDCC is currently focused on six barangays, with a total population of 5,800, located just outside the four-kilometer danger zone around Mt. Bulusan under the second level of four-step alert.

The NDCC, he said, would move to phase two, which involves covering a wider radius of eight kilometers from the summit once the alert is raised to the third stage, covering an additional 40 barangays with a total population of 56,000.

Rabonza said local government units (LGUs) are ready with equipment and personnel on standby in case of a massive eruption that could come in a matter of weeks.

He said Phivolcs has updated its lahar hazard map, copies of which were also provided to LGUs, showing where lahar, flash floods, and pyroclastic materials will likely hit. The map will serve as basis for evacuation of residents.

Phivolcs deputy director general Bartolome Bautista said the steam coming from the summit is stronger now because of the rains brought by Domeng. He said steam was caused by water coming into contact with the magma in the volcano.

He said the rains would not cause the eruption, noting that Phivolcs has five seismographs around the volcano to detect an impending eruption.

Bautista said frequent and numerous eruptions have been detected but are confined mostly in the summit.

Mrs. Arroyo said volcanologists did not believe that the 1,565-meter Bulusan volcano was likely to erupt in the next few days but they should prepare for such contingencies.

There have been periodic emissions at Bulusan since March but these have become more frequent this month.

Phivolcs said it had detected four volcanic earthquakes in the past 24 hours. It warned that prolonged rainfall might trigger life-threatening mudflows.

It reiterated that residents should stay at least four kilometers away from the crater and even areas outside this danger zone might be affected.

About 100 residents fled from Cogon village after hearing boulders and rocks rumbling down Mt. Bulusan amid heavy rains late Saturday, said Mayor Lilia Gonzales of Irosin town, where Cogon is located.

Army and government trucks helped residents flee, and no one was injured and no houses were damaged by the mudflow and boulders, some as big as a car, that tumbled down the volcano. These boulders and rocks, ejected during Bulusan’s previous ash explosions, were washed down from the volcano by the heavy rains, she said.

"The villagers heard the rocks cascading down Bulusan and they ran for their lives, thinking they would be crushed," Gonzales said over the telephone.

The 100 villagers were brought to a school away from the volcano, joining 400 other residents who were evacuated days earlier following Bulusan’s intermittent blasts of ash and rocky debris. — With Celso Amo, AFP, AP