Phivolcs bares theft of seismic devices

CLARK FIELD, Pampanga — Thieves are not sparing even special volcanic and seismographic equipment installed on the slopes of the country’s active volcanoes.

Such life-saving equipment, including solar panels and special batteries, have been stolen in Mt. Pinatubo in Pampanga and the volcanoes of Taal in Batangas, Mayon in Albay and Bulusan in Sorsogon.

"We are again appealing to the local governments where our seismographic and volcanic monitoring stations are located. The stolen equipment are expensive and vital to monitoring that can mitigate volcanic risks," said Jaime Sincioco, supervising science research specialist and officer-in-charge of the volcanic monitoring and eruption prediction division of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs).

Sincioco said the stolen devices were part of grants from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

"These are state-of-the-art equipment which provide the Phivolcs with the capability to get reliable data to enable (local) disaster management councils to map out plans to mitigate disaster in populated areas," he said.

Majority of the stolen equipment were those installed in the Phivolcs’ unmanned stations.