LGUs warned against allowing residents to return to volcanoes' danger zones

THE Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) on Wednesday maintained that the Permanent Danger Zones (PDZs) around active volcanoes, particularly Mayon and Taal, must not be inhabited.

These fish cages in Barangay Buso Buso and Gulod in Laurel town and in Barangay Bañaga in Agoncillo town in Batangas supply tilapia in Metro Manila. PHOTO BY MIKE DE JUAN These fish cages in Barangay Buso Buso and Gulod in Laurel town and in Barangay Bañaga in Agoncillo town in Batangas supply tilapia in Metro Manila. PHOTO BY MIKE DE JUAN

Phivolcs Director Teresito «Toto» Bacolcol issued the statement in an interview with The Manila Times amid the decision of the Albay provincial government to allow the evacuees to return to their homes.

Last Oct. 5, 2023, Albay Gov. Edcel Greco Lagman issued an advisory to all concerned municipal and city mayors ordering them for the «decampment of their respective evacuees immediately.»

«I acknowledge the need of evacuee families for normalcy even as they have been residing for more than three months in evacuation centers across the province,» the governor said.

«I hereby instruct all these displaced families to return to their respective homes pursuant to the decampment orders,» he added.

Lagman's decision was apparently based on reports reaching him over the «decreasing signs of Mayon's restiveness.»

But the Phivolcs director said Mayon remains under abnormal condition.

«That is why, its alert status remains under Level 3 because its parameters have not shown steady decrease in numbers,» Bacolcol said.

Under Level 3, Phivolcs said there is an increased tendency towards hazardous or explosive eruption.

He stressed that Phivolcs would never recommend for the return of the residents inside Mayon's six-kilometer PDZ.

«Even if it is Alert Level 0, we always recommend that the PDZ must always be free from residents because a sudden eruption is always possible like what happened in 1993 when it erupted without warning,» the Phivolcs chief said.

He said there were casualties in that explosive eruption.

Bacolcol said the monitoring and enforcement of PDZ lie mainly with the concerned LGUs.

«They know better if there are people who insist