Yearender: Mayon's unrest, Mindanao quakes, the Mindoro oil spill, and other disasters in 2023

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — This year started with a mess at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport after a power outage put flights on hold.

Political controversies erupted left and right, capped by the Marcos administration announcing, in an unprecedented move, the agreement to resume peace talks with communist rebels.

As 2023 comes to a close, CNN Philippines also looks back at some of the disasters the country faced, from volcanic unrest to powerful earthquakes, and even fires and boat incidents.

Mayon’s unrest

Over 20,000 people in Albay had to be evacuated as the province saw the quick escalation of Mayon Volcano’s unrest in early June, with the volcano’s alert level status upgraded to Level 2 and Level 3 within a week.

READ: The beauty is a beast: Mayon Volcano's unrest in 2023

Courtesy: Jericho Salas

In December, state volcanologists lowered the alert status to Level 2 after they recorded a “general decline in unrest” since November.

Aside from Mayon, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) raised in October an Alert Level 1 status over Mount Bulusan in Sorsogon, around 70 kilometers southeast of Mayon. Taal Volcano, which is located in Batangas, also spewed volcanic smog or vog in September.

RELATED: Phivolcs needs ₱120B to monitor all volcanoes in PH

Consecutive earthquakes rock Surigao del Sur

In the last month of 2023, movement along the Philippine Trench triggered two major earthquakes that shook Surigao del Sur, reportedly killing three people, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC).

On the night of Dec. 2, a massive magnitude 7.4 quake jolted the waters off Hinatuan town in Surigao del Sur. Two days later, a magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck Cagwait, another town in the province. A series of tremors were also recorded in the two towns on the same day.

A state of calamity was declared in Hinatuan town as the earthquake caused over ₱1.1 billion worth of infrastructure damage and ₱153.15 million of agriculture damage.