Aetas ignore warnings on Pinatubo lake breaching

BOTOLAN, Zambales — Believing they know Mt. Pinatubo better, Aetas living on its slopes here are reportedly ignoring warnings of scientists that the volcano’s crater lake could unleash as much as 30 million cubic meters of water and swamp their villages and other parts of this town.

Aetas are reportedly still hunting for labuyos or native chickens near the crater lake’s Maraunot notch which, experts said, could be breached as the lake rises to a dangerous level.

Erlin Rico, municipal administrator and vice chairman of the Botolan municipal disaster coordinating council, said Aetas, who have returned to their settlements on Pinatubo’s slopes, insist that the Maraunot notch is rock-solid and will not collapse even if the crater lake overflows.

Rico quoted Aeta elder Francis Balintay, 66, barangay captain of the Villar Aeta settlement, as saying that the Maraunot notch will not give way because it is made up of "solid rocks as large as jeepneys."

"The Aetas believe that the trees and other vegetation which have grown on the slopes and in the crater would also serve as protection against the collapse of the crater," Rico said.

But scientist Kevin Rodolfo said that while the rocks at the Maraunot notch, also known as breccia, seem solid, they are "fragmented" and are "not held together."

Rodolfo, of the National Institute of Geological Sciences, denied reports that the collapse of the crater lake could wipe out the entire Botolan town.

"We just do not know what will happen. It could be flash floods, diluted lahars or isolation. But what we do know is that the crater lake is now perilously close to overflowing," he said.