ALBAY DECLARED UNDER STATE OF CALAMITY

LEGAZPI CITY — The provincial board of Albay has declared the province under a state of calamity by 3:00 PM Thursday (December 17), to allow the local government spends five percent of its budget for mitigation and relief efforts in the wake of the impending full blown eruption of Mayon Volcano.

Albay Governor Joey Salceda, Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council (PDCC) chair, said the local government has been under an earlier declaration of state of imminent danger since July 10 this year when Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) raised Alert Level 2 for Mayon.

“But now with Phivolcs raising the alert status for Mayon to 3 and in no time to Alert Level 4, it high time we have to implement intensified emergency operation, evacuation procedures and relief measures to all affected residents,” Salceda added.

Phivolcs has described Alert Level 3 indicating the volcano is in a state of relatively high unrest that could lead to a dangerous eruption in weeks. Alert Level 4 means intense unrest characterized by "persistent tremor, many low frequency-type earthquakes, erratic sulfur emissions, intense crater glow, incandescent lava fragments at the summit area" and that a "hazardous eruption is possible within days."

The danger zone is extended to 8 kilometers or could be more.

PDCC has since imposed a 24-hour curfew, which will be carried out through the Joint Task Force Mayon starting midnight Thursday within the 6-kilometer radius permanent danger zone and the extended danger zone up to eight kilometers around the volcano.

“We consider these areas as high-risk zones and need to be deserted by residents and farmers as soon as possible amid the ongoing evacuation efforts,” Salceda said in a meeting with the Task Force Mayon composed of the Philippine National Police, the Philippine Army and the Philippine Navy, which have been providing vehicles together with private organizations such as the Ako Bikol, a philanthropic group of volunteers operating in the province.

However, Salceda told the task force to exercise all means of encouraging stubborn residents to move out of their homes because contingency and relief assistance were already in place at their respective evacuation shelters composed of 600 classrooms in 45 evacuation sites, mostly elementary school buildings.

Salceda said the task force would apply the law of economy of force, which meant that residents would not be bodily hauled out of their homes or farms and would just be encouraged to move to evacuation centers through reassurances that they would be safe at emergency shelters.
Albay Health and Emergency Management (AHEM) teams were also deployed to provide the necessary health and emergency care.

“Although the alert status is still at level 3, the province’s preemptive measures are already adopting the kind of response and preparedness similar to that in alert level 4, so that we are a step ahead,” Salceda said. (MALoterte, PIA V)