Police hunt thieves of Phivolcs equipment
LEGAZPI CITY: The Philippine National Police in Bicol is hunting down thieves who ran away with two 150-watt solar panels at the Mayon Volcano station.
Brig Gen. Anthony Alcaneses, Bicol police regional director, ordered Albay provincial director Col. Wilson Asueta to ran after and arrest the robbers.
Paul Karson Alanis, resident volcanologist of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, reported to the police the missing 150-watt solar panels at the Mayon Resthouse Observatory located at Barangay Buang,
Tabaco City.
The Mayon Resthouse Observatory hosts instruments for earthquake monitoring, global positioning system and tiltmeters.
With loss of power, no data could be transmitted from the station, consequently affecting the monitoring of Mayon Volcano
The Mayon Rest House, where the planetarium is located, is 4 kilometers away from the volcano’s crater. It is on top a small hill between the volcano and the Legazpi City Airport.
Phivolcs scientists in Bicol are closely monitoring the activity of the
Mayon Volcano over a moderate unrest. The volcano is exhibiting crater glow for several days now.
The glow was remnant of the molten rocks on top of the crater emitted during the 2018 eruption. Mayon remains at alert level 2, meaning it is still in moderate unrest since 2018 after its magmatic eruptions.
Two years ago, two other solar panels vital for supplying electrical current to equipment monitoring sulfur dioxide emission in the air of Mayon Volcano were stolen from the Phivolcs observatory station in Guinobatan town in Albay province.
Last January, thieves also stole a solar panel and two deep cycle batteries from another station in Barangay Lidong in Sto. Domingo town.
Eduardo Laguerta, former Phivolcs resident volcanologist in Bicol, said the solar panels in Guinobatan might have been lost between September 17 and May 8 a year ago where the last data transmission was recorded.
“The recorded data is our basis in determining whether magma is developing and making its way up to the volcano’s summit, especially now that the volcano is still exhibiting crater glow,” he noted.