In Bago City, Kanlaon evacuees live in ‘bahay kubo’

HOME FOR NOW Families evacuated following Mt. Kanlaon’s eruption on Dec. 9, 2024, are relocated on Monday from a shelter at the city proper to the temporary resettlement site called “Payag sang Kapag-on Village” in Barangay Napoles, where each family is housed in a modern “bahay kubo” (nipa hut). —THE CITYBRIDGE/FACEBOOK

BACOLOD CITY—While most localities on Negros Island still have to deal with shelter needs of families affected by the eruption of Mt. Kanlaon in December last year, Bago City in Negros Occidental has built its own temporary resettlement site for its evacuees.

On Monday, 22 families composed of 80 individuals from Purok Manokan of Barangay Ilihan situated within the volcano’s 6-kilometer permanent danger zone (PDZ) were transferred from the Regional Evacuation Center in Barangay Lag-asan to the “Payag sang Kapag-on Village” in Barangay Napoles.

The city government has established the Payag sang Kapag-on Village on its 7-hectare property, which would serve as a temporary resettlement site for persons affected by the eruption of Mt. Kanlaon on Dec. 9, 2024.

For sustainability

“Instead of modular tents, the local government utilizes modernized nipa huts, or “bahay kubo,” mainly for its sustainability,” according to The Citybridge, the city government’s official newsletter, in a Facebook post on Monday.

Costing P4 million to build, the city government constructed 50 bahay kubo, a community kitchen and toilets, two child-friendly spaces, open huts for the camp management team and medical team, and another hut for the security team in the village, according to Dr. Merijene Ortizo, head of the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office.

NEW HOME This family is one of the 22 families in Bago City, Negros Occidental displaced by the Mt. Kanlaon eruption in December last year who are relocated on Monday to their individualized ‘bahay kubo (nipa huts) at the city’s newly opened “Payag sang Kapag-on Village” in Barangay Napoles. —THE CITYBRIDGE/FACEBOOK

Those in Bago City are among the least 2,612 families composed of 8,335 people living in 22 evacuation centers in Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental who live within the 6-km expanded PDZ and have been prohibited from returning to their village since the eruption of the volcano last December. Most of the displaced families are residents of La Castellana (4,264 persons).

La Castellana shelters

This developed as the Negros Occidental provincial government decided to allocate P14 million to begin the building of a shelter facility for residents in La Castellana town who have to be evacuated from the PDZ each time the volcano gets restive.

Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz said the amount was taken from the P50 million provided by the Office of the President and would be used for the materials and labor at the shelter site in Barangay Manghanoy of La Castellana.

“La Castellana is providing the property for the relocation site,” Diaz said in an interview on March 28.

The provincial government, he said, was just waiting for the specific design and program of works to be submitted by the municipal government of La Castellana.

Diaz said the provincial government was also seeking clearance from the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) and Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology on the proposed site in Barangay Manghanoy to ensure that the area is safe from volcanic activity.

The OCD has earlier proposed that permanent evacuation areas be built for those expected to be the hardest hit by a major Mt. Kanlaon eruption, as they could not continue to use school buildings and disrupt learning activities.