Mayon evacuees start decamping

LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines – Over 7,000 families who fled Mayon Volcano will start decamping today after Albay’s Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council decided yesterday to send home residents living outside the six-and seven-kilometer permanent danger zones.

Cedric Daep, chief of the Albay Public Safety and Emergency Management Office, said evacuees from Barangay Buang and portions of Barangays Comon and Nagsipit in Tabaco City, Miisi in Daraga, Baligang in Ligao City, Maninila in Guinobatan and Calbayog in Malilipot, all located within the six-kilometer danger zone would remain in the evacuation centers.

Daep clarified that those who would be sent home but have farms in the permanent danger zone would continue to receive support from the government.

“This is their economic dislocation compensation. But they have to get certification from their respective barangay captains and social welfare officials that they are legitimate farmers,” Daep told The STAR.

He said the decampment would mean more work for the Army soldiers who would immediately evacuate residents anew in case the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) issues an advisory to do so.

Daep said they could not yet give the exact number of those to be sent home due to the identification of new markers in the boundaries around Mayon.

“We will get the data from the local government units after they are done with their revalidation of residents in the six, seven and eight-kilometer distance from Mayon’s crater,” he said.

Phivolcs-Bicol resident volcanologist Ed Laguerta said alert level 3 stays due to Mayon’s surface inflation and magma push toward the crater.

Arnel Garcia, chief of Bicol-social welfare and development office, said they released food packs despite the plan to decamp over half of the 13,000 families staying in evacuation centers.