Ben’s love affair with Mt. Kanlaon
CANLAON CITY — Benjamin Tanatan Jr. has devoted more than half of his life to the study of Mt. Kanlaon on Negros Island.
He was 21 years old when he started working with the then Commission on Volcanology, which later became the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs).
He worked his way up until he retired two years ago as the Science Research Analyst of the Kanlaon Observatory in this city of Negros Oriental.
As a stay-at-home retiree, Tanatan said Mt. Kanlaon continues to haunt him.
“I dreamed that Kanlaon had a very loud eruption. I don’t know if it will come true—I’m no Rudy Baldwin,” he said, in reference to the controversial online personality who claims to have had visions that became real.
On June 3 this year, a nighttime eruption of Mt. Kanlaon prompted volcanologists to place the volcano under alert level 2, indicating low-level unrest.
Phivolcs plucked Tanatan out of retirement to get a chance to work for Mt. Kanlaon once again.
“I was happy and excited when they called me back,” said Tanatan, now 67 years old.
While he couldn’t get his old seat back, Tanatan said he didn’t care about positions for as long as he could work again.
He and workmate Edward Demerin take turns manning the Kanlaon observatory 24/7.
Tanatan was rehired as a job order employee, with periodic six- month contract.
Love of his life
Since the volcano erupted in June, Tanatan said he has spent more time with the volcano than with his wife.
As the longest serving Phivolcs employee dedicated to the study of Mt. Kanlaon, Tanatan said he missed his job and his workmates.
“Na in love na ako sa Kanlaon volcano! (I’m already in love with Kanlaon volcano),” he said with a laugh.
“When you love your work, as I did mine, you will miss your work, your workmates, when you retire.”
Mt. Kanlaon has erupted more than 40 times although most of them were phreatic in nature, or explosions caused by surface waters coming in contact with hot rocks.
The last time the volcano erupted was on Dec. 9 this year.
Tanatan, a native of La Castellana, a town at the foot of Mt. Kanlaon, recalled first seeing Kanlaon erupt in 1969.
“I was still in the elementary grades then but I distinctly remember how the ash covered the roads, roofs and everything else,” Tanatan said.
He also witnessed the 1978 eruption, which was stronger than the 1969 eruption. This was followed by the 1996 eruption where three mountaineers, two of them foreigners, were killed.
Gathering strength
This time, however, Tanatan felt different about Mt. Kanlaon as the rise in the magma from deep within the volcano has caused the volcano to swell near the top.
“Between Dec. 9 and (Dec.) 15, it has had a series of ash puffs, which could mean that it is gathering strength,” he said.
Tanatan feared that the volcano would replicate a magmatic eruption as it did in 1902.
That eruption, classified as a Strombolian eruption, saw the ejection of glowing cinders, lava bombs, gas fumes and lapilli.
Lava also flowed out of the volcano, depositing them on the sides near the crater.
Tanatan, however, said he would defer to the opinion of scientists in the national office of Phivolcs, saying their observatory does not have instruments to detect what lies underneath the volcano, except for two high-powered cameras that record volcanic activity.
“Kanlaon volcano and I have been together for 44 years but it still hasn’t shown me its lava. That’s what I’m waiting for,” he said.
