Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 6) — Two solar panels used to monitor the activity of the active Mayon Volcano have been stolen, state volcanologist Phivolcs said on Thursday.
Phivolcs said this will affect the monitoring of the volcano, which is on Alert Level 2, as no data will be transmitted from its Mayon Resthouse station.
It warned that Republic Act 10344 penalizes the stealing and tampering of government risk reduction and preparedness equipment.
“The public is strongly encouraged to help in taking care of our monitoring instruments and to promptly report any untoward incidents,” it said in a statement.
A crater glow was observed at Mayon Volcano this week. Phivolcs said this could mean that “remnant magma” may be silently rising to the shallow levels of the volcano.
As Mayon was still showing “moderate levels of unrest,” Phivolcs said alert level 2 was still over the volcano. It said while the volcano has calmed down since a magmatic eruption in 2018, slight changes have been observed since February 2019.
