NAN-F-20
Volcano
Manila, Jan. 29, 2018 (dpa/NAN) Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday vowed to help tens of thousands of people who were displaced by eruption of the country’s most active volcano.
Duterte, who visited the displaced persons at an eastern province, gave officials in Albay province, 330 km south of Manila, an initial 20 million pesos (400,000 dollars) for food and other relief supplies.
The money was meant to carter for nearly 82,000 residents who were forced to flee their homes due to the eruption of the Mayon volcano.
He said the money should also be used to increase surveillance of diseases as well as improve hygiene and sanitation in evacuation centres to protect the health of the displaced residents.
“In every catastrophic event, whether man-made or nature, we face the same problem, it is a recurring one.
“First is the problem of human beings that is the most difficult work of government, how to handle human beings in a crisis.”
“Usually when there is a congregation there, near each other, infection can break out in a matter of days, it is always demanded of the situation that we safeguard the health of the people,’’ he said.
Mayon has been belching ash and lava since Jan. 13, prompting the mass evacuation from three cities and six towns at the foot of the volcano.
Non-stop rains over the weekend also triggered mudflows.
Renato Solidum head of the Philippine Insitute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said the activity of Mayon was not as intense as the past week.
He said the alert remained at level 4, which means a hazardous eruption was still possible.
“We cannot say that the activity has weakened, visually it may seem that the unrest has weakened, but actually the lava emission is continuing.”
The 2,463-metre volcano has erupted about 50 times since 1616.
The last deadly eruption was in May 2013 where five hikers were killed and seven people injured in that incident.
Mayon’s most violent eruption was in 1814, when more than 1,200 people were killed and a town was buried in volcanic mud.
An eruption in 1993 had killed 79 people. (dpa/NAN)
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Edited by Celine-Damilola Oyewole/Grace Yussuf