OCD asks Negros execs to rethink sending home Kanlaon evacuees
BACOLOD CITY—The Office of Civil Defense (OCD) has appealed to the local chief executives of Bago City and La Castellana town in Negros Occidental to urgently reconsider their decisions to allow evacuees from outside the 6-kilometer danger zone of Mt. Kanlaon to go home.
Undersecretary Ariel Nepomuceno said government officials must take anticipatory actions to prepare for the worst-case scenario in light of the heightened volcanic activity at Mt. Kanlaon.
“We are constrained to sound the alarm and urge local officials to reassess this decision. The safety of our citizens must come first,” he said in a statement on Sunday.
Nepomuceno stressed that “lives are far more important than properties and livelihoods.”
“I appeal to all residents, even those outside the 6-kilometer extended danger zone, to take this situation seriously and evacuate immediately. We want no casualties in the event of an eruption,” he said.
He stressed, “No responders will attempt to get inside the danger zones to execute rescue operations should an eruption occur. It is crucial for everyone’s safety to evacuate immediately.”
In La Castellana, 622 families composed of 1,969 individuals returned to their homes outside of the 6-kilometer Mt. Kanlaon danger zone last week.
Mayor Rhummyla Nicor Mangilimutan said they were looking at allowing 4,000 of 6,734 evacuees in La Castellana to go home but only half of the initial target did so as of Sunday.
In Bago City, there were 461 evacuees from outside the danger zone who went home on Jan. 8.
Confused
Both Mangilimutan and Bago Mayor Nicholas Yulo said they were confused by Nepomuceno’s appeal as those allowed to decamp were from outside the danger zone.
They noted that the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) and the OCD’s advice was not to allow any human activity inside the 6-kilometer danger zone.
“All of those who went home were from outside the 6-kilometer danger zone,” Mangilimutan said.
Yulo, for his part, said Bago is not bringing those living beyond the 6-kilometer danger zone back to evacuation centers unless the danger zone has been expanded.
“I cannot understand. Now, they are saying that there are changes in their policy as far as evacuation is concerned because the policy they gave us was for no human activity within the six kilometer radius,” he said.
“The evacuees that we sent home were from outside the six kilometer radius. Are they saying they have extended the danger zone? We are just following the policy recommended by Phivolcs,” he said.
“I’m not sure what is happening. They should clarify their policy in relation to evacuation. We are just following the guidelines. We are in a dilemma, a quandary over the OCD statement.”
Philvocs’ warning
The Phivolcs on Saturday warned of another sudden eruption similar to the one that occurred on Dec. 9, 2024, after an abrupt increase in Mt. Kanlaon’s ground deformation.
The OCD stressed they would rather have the evacuees in Negros Occidental from outside Mt. Kanlaon’s 6-kilometer danger zone move to a “tent city” than be allowed to go home.
OCD-Western Visayas Director Raul Fernandez said the threat of a Mt. Kanlaon eruption remains based on the frequency of its earthquakes as well as ash and sulfur emissions.
“Let us not be complacent. All indicators still point to an imminent eruption. We want to have a manageable situation,” he said.
But Fernandez, also the chairman of Task Force Kanlaon, said the decision to send home the evacuees outside the 6-kilometer danger zone lies with the local government officials.
“What we can do is give advice. It will be the local officials who will be accountable to their people,” he said.
The bulk of the 1,350 tents for the “tent cities” being readied for Mt. Kanlaon evacuees have arrived in Negros last week.
The tent cities are located in the cities of Himamaylan and San Carlos in Negros Occidental and Vallehermoso town in Negros Oriental.
The tent cities are being prepared for a possible declaration of alert level 4 that would expand the Mt. Kanlaon’s danger zone to 10 kilometers and increase the number of evacuees.
Currently, there are still about 10,000 residents coming from the 6-kilometer danger zone houses in various evacuation centers in Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental.
Fernandez said it will cost P15.3 billion a month to feed a surge in evacuees if alert level 4 is raised.
Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed that around 29,200 families or 124,053 individuals would be covered by a 10-kilometer radius evacuation should the volcano erupt again and alert level 4 is declared.
Alert level 4 means a magmatic process can progress into a highly hazardous eruption.
