Taal alert level down to 3 but threat of eruption remains
Published Jan 26, 2020 12:00 am
By Aaron Recuenco, Ellalyn De Vera-Ruiz, Hanah Tabios, Charissa Luci-Atienza, and Hannah Torregoza
BATANGAS CITY – Two weeks after the phreatic eruption of the Taal Volcano, state volcanologists lowered on Sunday the alert status to Level 3 due to noticeable decrease in its activities in the past few days.
The main crater of the Taal Volcano is seen during an aerial survey done by government officials, more than a week after the eruption of Taal Volcano in Batangas. (Mark Balmores / File Photo / MANILA BULLETIN)
As a result, hundreds of thousands of evacuees displaced by the eruption have been allowed to go back to their homes in order to clean their houses and their communities from the tons of ashes that have been dumped by the volcano since January 12.
“Considering the latest advisory of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) that the alert level has been lowered from Level 4 to Level 3, residents of all towns under lockdown now have the option to return to their respective residences and place of work,” Batangas Gov. Hermilando Mandanas announced in a press briefing here.
But Mandanas said that the towns of Agoncillo and Laurel will remain under lockdown since some of the barangays of the two towns are within the seven kilometer danger zone of the volcano.
The town of Agoncillo has an estimated 40,000 residents while the town of Laurel has almost 39,000 residents.
The areas which were opened to residents were Alitagtag, Balete, Cuenca, Lemery, Malvar, Mataas na Kahoy, San Nicolas, Sta. Teresita, Taal, Talisay, Lipa City, and Tanauan City.
Based on the latest data, there are 408,949 families from.108,779 families staying in more than 600 evacuation centers in Batangas, Laguna, Cavite and Quezon.
Batangas has 322,000 evacuees while other provinces host almost 87,000 evacuees.
READ MORE: Many Taal eruption victims opt to remain in evacuation centers despite lowered alert level
The figure, however, does not include hundreds of thousands more people who opted to stay with their relatives.
Batangas Vice Gov. Mark Leviste said that they are now giving the mayors and barangay captains the decision on whether or not they would allow their constituents to go back.
“What the governor gave was an option, general rule on the return of the evacuees. It is now the decision of the mayors and the barangay captains if they would allow the return,” Leviste said.
The decision to lower the Alert Level from 4 to 3 was supposed to to have been made three to four days ago but was hampered by the strong earthquakes and the ash plumes and gases spewed by the volcano on Friday.
Eruption threat remains
According to Phivolcs, Taal Volcano’s condition in the two weeks following the phreatomagmatic eruption last January 12 and 13 has generally declined into less frequent volcanic earthquake activity, decelerated ground deformation of the caldera and volcano island edifices, and weak steam or gas emissions at the main crater.
Several specific parameters have been considered in the lowering of Taal Volcano’s alert status which include a decline from 959 to 27 significant earthquake events per day in the past two weeks.
The Taal Volcano network likewise recorded a downtrend in volcanic earthquakes from 944 to 420 events daily between January 17 and 24 with a corresponding decline in the daily total seismic energy released.
In lowering Taal Volcano’s alert status, Phivolcs said there is a decreased tendency towards hazardous explosive eruption “but should not be interpreted that unrest has ceased or that the threat of a hazardous eruption has disappeared.”
“Ang posibilidad ng pagsabog ay mababa pero hindi po natin inaalis,” Phivolc’s head and Undersecretary Renato Solidum said in a press briefing on Sunday.
Should an uptrend or pronounced change in monitored parameters forewarn a potential hazardous explosive eruption, the alert status may be raised back to alert level 4.
However, should there be a persistent downtrend in monitored parameters after a sufficient observation period, the alert level will be further lowered to alert level 2.
Phivolcs reminded the public, especially those within the volcano island and nearby lake shores, to be on the alert against sudden steam-driven and even weak phreatomagmatic explosions, volcanic earthquakes, ash fall and lethal volcanic gas expulsions.
Phivolcs also reminded the civil aviation authorities to advise pilots to avoid flying close to the volcano as airborne ash and ballistic fragments from sudden explosions and wind-remobilized ash may pose hazards to aircrafts.
Taal Commission
Deputy Speaker and Batangas Rep. Vilma Santos-Recto cited on yesterday the urgency to create a Commission that will closely keep an eye on the rehabilitation and the recovery of the areas
“If we are thinking of long-term rehabilitation, the proposed P30 billion supplemental budget is not enough. That is why we are proposing to create the Taal Commission. Under the Taal Commission bill, there will be assurance that P50 billion to P100 billion will be released for Taal alone, for the victims of the Taal eruption,” Santos-Recto said.
“During the time of GMA (Gloria Macapagal Arroyo), they created the Mount Pinatubo Commission and it greatly helped. When the lives of the cabalens became stable, the Commission was abolished. This is what we also proposed,” the House leader said.
Animal rescue
Senator Nancy Binay said that the government should include animal rescue and evacuation in its disaster risk reduction plans to ensure that animals are given protection during calamities.
READ MORE: Binay pushes for inclusion of animal rescue in gov’t disaster response plans
In filing Senate Resolution No. 295, Binay said the Senate should lead an inquiry into the status of the animals left behind during the recent eruption of Taal Volcano.
The senator said animal welfare groups have called for greater awareness on the difficulties they encountered in trying to rescue animals affected by the recent eruption of Taal volcano.
“We need to make sure that our disaster preparedness program also includes the proper evacuation and rescue of animals, especially after seeing how hard it is for animal rights organizations and rescue volunteers to help animals left behind in the areas severely affected by Taal Volcano’s eruption,” Binay said.
READ MORE: Gov’t to stay on alert despite lowering of Taal alert level
The main crater of the Taal Volcano is seen during an aerial survey done by government officials, more than a week after the eruption of Taal Volcano in Batangas. (Mark Balmores / File Photo / MANILA BULLETIN)
As a result, hundreds of thousands of evacuees displaced by the eruption have been allowed to go back to their homes in order to clean their houses and their communities from the tons of ashes that have been dumped by the volcano since January 12.
“Considering the latest advisory of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) that the alert level has been lowered from Level 4 to Level 3, residents of all towns under lockdown now have the option to return to their respective residences and place of work,” Batangas Gov. Hermilando Mandanas announced in a press briefing here.
But Mandanas said that the towns of Agoncillo and Laurel will remain under lockdown since some of the barangays of the two towns are within the seven kilometer danger zone of the volcano.
The town of Agoncillo has an estimated 40,000 residents while the town of Laurel has almost 39,000 residents.
The areas which were opened to residents were Alitagtag, Balete, Cuenca, Lemery, Malvar, Mataas na Kahoy, San Nicolas, Sta. Teresita, Taal, Talisay, Lipa City, and Tanauan City.
Based on the latest data, there are 408,949 families from.108,779 families staying in more than 600 evacuation centers in Batangas, Laguna, Cavite and Quezon.
Batangas has 322,000 evacuees while other provinces host almost 87,000 evacuees.
READ MORE: Many Taal eruption victims opt to remain in evacuation centers despite lowered alert level
The figure, however, does not include hundreds of thousands more people who opted to stay with their relatives.
Batangas Vice Gov. Mark Leviste said that they are now giving the mayors and barangay captains the decision on whether or not they would allow their constituents to go back.
“What the governor gave was an option, general rule on the return of the evacuees. It is now the decision of the mayors and the barangay captains if they would allow the return,” Leviste said.
The decision to lower the Alert Level from 4 to 3 was supposed to to have been made three to four days ago but was hampered by the strong earthquakes and the ash plumes and gases spewed by the volcano on Friday.
Eruption threat remains
According to Phivolcs, Taal Volcano’s condition in the two weeks following the phreatomagmatic eruption last January 12 and 13 has generally declined into less frequent volcanic earthquake activity, decelerated ground deformation of the caldera and volcano island edifices, and weak steam or gas emissions at the main crater.
Several specific parameters have been considered in the lowering of Taal Volcano’s alert status which include a decline from 959 to 27 significant earthquake events per day in the past two weeks.
The Taal Volcano network likewise recorded a downtrend in volcanic earthquakes from 944 to 420 events daily between January 17 and 24 with a corresponding decline in the daily total seismic energy released.
In lowering Taal Volcano’s alert status, Phivolcs said there is a decreased tendency towards hazardous explosive eruption “but should not be interpreted that unrest has ceased or that the threat of a hazardous eruption has disappeared.”
“Ang posibilidad ng pagsabog ay mababa pero hindi po natin inaalis,” Phivolc’s head and Undersecretary Renato Solidum said in a press briefing on Sunday.
Should an uptrend or pronounced change in monitored parameters forewarn a potential hazardous explosive eruption, the alert status may be raised back to alert level 4.
However, should there be a persistent downtrend in monitored parameters after a sufficient observation period, the alert level will be further lowered to alert level 2.
Phivolcs reminded the public, especially those within the volcano island and nearby lake shores, to be on the alert against sudden steam-driven and even weak phreatomagmatic explosions, volcanic earthquakes, ash fall and lethal volcanic gas expulsions.
Phivolcs also reminded the civil aviation authorities to advise pilots to avoid flying close to the volcano as airborne ash and ballistic fragments from sudden explosions and wind-remobilized ash may pose hazards to aircrafts.
Taal Commission
Deputy Speaker and Batangas Rep. Vilma Santos-Recto cited on yesterday the urgency to create a Commission that will closely keep an eye on the rehabilitation and the recovery of the areas
“If we are thinking of long-term rehabilitation, the proposed P30 billion supplemental budget is not enough. That is why we are proposing to create the Taal Commission. Under the Taal Commission bill, there will be assurance that P50 billion to P100 billion will be released for Taal alone, for the victims of the Taal eruption,” Santos-Recto said.
“During the time of GMA (Gloria Macapagal Arroyo), they created the Mount Pinatubo Commission and it greatly helped. When the lives of the cabalens became stable, the Commission was abolished. This is what we also proposed,” the House leader said.
Animal rescue
Senator Nancy Binay said that the government should include animal rescue and evacuation in its disaster risk reduction plans to ensure that animals are given protection during calamities.
READ MORE: Binay pushes for inclusion of animal rescue in gov’t disaster response plans
In filing Senate Resolution No. 295, Binay said the Senate should lead an inquiry into the status of the animals left behind during the recent eruption of Taal Volcano.
The senator said animal welfare groups have called for greater awareness on the difficulties they encountered in trying to rescue animals affected by the recent eruption of Taal volcano.
“We need to make sure that our disaster preparedness program also includes the proper evacuation and rescue of animals, especially after seeing how hard it is for animal rights organizations and rescue volunteers to help animals left behind in the areas severely affected by Taal Volcano’s eruption,” Binay said.
READ MORE: Gov’t to stay on alert despite lowering of Taal alert level