Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 20) — Government volcanologists said evacuees displaced by the Taal Volcano eruption have to wait for government sefety clearance to go home or reopen businesses even if the alert level is downgraded
Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) Director Renato Solidum reminded residents and local authorities in Batangas and Cavite that safety checks are a must after a calamity.
“For whatever disasters, when the threat is over… The local government must ensure that when people can go back at some point after the threat has passed, they have to check if there are lingering hazards in the area,” Solidum said.
“They need some time to reevaluate the situation before they would order people to go back. That’s the standard procedure… May mga hazards pa, and volcanic eruptions and consequences are lingering disasters. Hindi ‘yan bagyo na kapag dumaan, tapos na [It’s not like a typhoon which is over once it has passed],” he added.
Solidum cited fissures or cracks in the ground that may have weakened structures, as well as thick ashfall.
The Phivolcs chief saidTaal remains on alert level 4, signaling that a hazardous eruption may occur within months or days. The alert level has not been adjusted since Sunday, when the volcano emitted a tall column of steam and ash that blanketed towns in Batangas and Cavite with heavy ashfall.
People within a 14-kilometer (km) radius from the main crater have been forced to leave their homes, with 112,757 staying in evacuation centers within Calabarzon.
READ: Foregone income from Taal eruption may hit ₱6.7B – NEDA
Solidum previously said that Phivolcs would need at least two weeks to see if Taal is really calming down. However, he said the threat of a strong and deadly eruption remained.
“If you look at all the parameters, it doesn’t really say that everything (in the volcano) is on a downward trend… There’s pressure from the magma moving up,” the Phivolcs chief said in a briefing Monday night.
Tagaytay safe from danger
Several businesses in Tagaytay City have resumed operations over the weekend, even if the Department of Interior and Local Government issued an order to shut down establishments within the danger zone.
Some local executives have said they will defy this order, with those manning Tagaytay City insisting that they should be excluded from the shutdown.
Solidum clarified that establishments and homes on top of and beyond the Tagaytay ridge — a high point known as a popular tourist spot — are “safe from base surges,” or when hot gases, volcanic fragments and ash travel sideways at 60 kilometers per hour — as fast as a car moving at average speed, state volcanologists said.
Phivolcs: Hazardous eruption will ‘definitely’ kill anyone in Taal danger zone
Interior Secretary Eduardo Año has also said that since Tagaytay is out of the 14-km danger zone, he is leaving it to local officials to decide if businesses can be allowed to reopen.
“It’s a high ridge wall, lava cannot fly that high,” Año said about Tagaytay’s location.
However, Interior Director Edgar Allan Tabell said authorities are still reviewing rules banning commercial establishments to return resume operations.
“We are looking into the possibility of harm on the part of employees and the people that are enticed to come… We will be taking this up with the local officials,” Tabell said. He admitted that while local executives are in charge of the well-being of their constituents, danger may be imminent for visitors coming to Tagaytay
