Residents near volcano allowed to save belongings

PHILIPPINE authorities allowed residents near Taal Volcano, whose eruption since Sunday forced thousands of people to evacuate, to return home to save their livestock and belongings.

Batangas Police Director Colonel Edwin Quilates said people in 16 towns that lie within the 14-kilometer danger zone were given two hours to save whatever they can.

Residents, whose names were recorded at security checkpoints, would be escorted out of the zone if they stay beyond the limit, Mr. Quilates said.

He said he had ordered police to observe maximum tolerance because the people have suffered enough.

“I advised our policemen to keep calm because we know how stressful the situation is in affected areas,” Mr. Quilates said.

Thousands of residents near the volcano were forced to leave their homes on Sunday after the volcano spewed a thick column of ash 14 kilometers into the sky. The ash fall reached as far as cities near the capital, forcing the nation’s financial markets to suspend trading and the Manila airport to close on Monday.

The Philippines lies in the socalled Pacific “Ring of Fire,” a belt of volcanoes around the Pacific Ocean where most of the world’s earthquakes strike.

Taal Volcano continued to spew short-lived dark gray ash plumes, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said in its 8 a.m. report on Thursday. Alert level 4 remained in place, which means forced evacuation within the 14km danger zone.

The agency has recorded 566 volcanic earthquakes in the Taal region since January 12, 172 of which were felt with intensities ranging from 1 to 5, it said.

These earthquakes signified “continuous magmatic intrusion beneath the Taal edifice” that could lead to further eruptions, it said.

The Interior and Local Government department on Wednesday ordered the evacuation of residents in the towns of Agoncillo, Alitagtag, Balete, Cuenca, Laurel, Lemery, Malvar, Mataas na Kahoy, San Nicolas, Sta. Teresita, Taal and Talisay and the cities of Lipa and Tanauan.

Looting had not been reported since Taal Volcano erupted on Sunday, he said.

Policemen have rescued almost a hundred horses trapped on Taal Volcano Island in the past two days, police Directorate for Community Relations chief Major General Benigno Durana Jr. said.

Their owners had attempted to rescue them but were earlier blocked by policemen from entering the island, which President Rodrigo R. Duterte has declared a ‘no man’s land.”

Mr. Quilates said at least 400 cops in Batangas province were directly affected by the calamity. To ease their burden, Batangas police have opened their provincial office in Batangas City as an evacuation center for the families of affected police officers. Mr. Quilates said 90% of the more than 2,000 policemen assigned in Batangas province live there. — Charmaine A. Tadalan, Genshen L. Espedido and Emmanuel Tupas, Philippine Star