Police Inspector Joenel Moratalla, a member of Task Force Mayon, carefully carried a child and handed him over to a soldier in the military truck as the two helped facilitate the evacuation of residents in Matnog village here.
Moratalla and his men, in partnership with soldiers under the 901st Infantry Brigade, evacuated the villagers here after the provincial government of Albay enforced forced evacuation of the people living within the six-kilometer-radius permanent danger zone and 7-8-km-radius extended danger zone.
After the evacuation of threatened villagers, their role now is to patrol within the classified danger zones of Mayon volcano to prevent residents from venturing into the restricted areas.
Since his graduation from the Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA) in 2008, Moratalla has always been given this assignment of securing the evacuees and preventing them from going back to their homes.
Every time there is a disaster, policemen and soldiers are always at the forefront as they man for 24 hours “no man’s land” zones of the Mayon volcano.
Albay Governor Joey Sarte Salceda ordered no-human activity within the danger zones as Mayon volcano's restiveness intensified and the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology has warned that the volcano may explode anytime.
Jocelyn Alaurin, 35, also of Barangay Matnog and a mother of two children -- the younger being six months old, said that for more than a week now they have been experiencing earth tremors with rumbling sounds.
“We can’t sleep well here since Mayon volcano started to eject glowing volcanic materials. Though, it’s hard to stay in evacuation site, we have to go to safe ground for our safety,” she said.
At least 7,575 families or 36,119 people have been evacuated by the government forces in various evacuation camps of the provincial government.
The town of Camalig has the highest number of evacuees, with 2,286 or 11,875 people; followed by Daraga, with 1,869 families or 7,476 persons; Guinobatan, 1,144 families or 5,933 persons; Malilipot, 916 families or 4,763 people; Tabaco City, 767 families or 2,988 persons and Ligao City, 593 families or 3,084 people.
Ed Laguerta, Phivolcs chief resident volcanologist in Bicol, said the Mayon volcano’s unrest has been intensifying since alert level 3 was hoisted on Monday.
This means that magma is at the crater and that hazardous eruption is possible within weeks.
A temporary slowdown, however, was experienced during the latest 24-hour observation period wherein Mayon Volcano’s seismic network recorded only 22 volcanic earthquakes and 70 rockfall events.
As a result of Typhoon “Mario,” rain clouds covered the summit, preventing visual observation.
Sulfur dioxide (SO2) flux was measured at an average of 757 tons per day on Sept. 17 although SO2 emission rates peaked at 2,360 tons/day on Sept. 6.
Ground deformation data showed inflationary changes in the edifice from February 2014 based on precise leveling surveys on the 3rd week of August 2014, and edifice inflation from January 2012 baselines based on continuous tilt measurement.
“All the above data indicate that the volcano is exhibiting relatively high unrest due to the movement of potentially eruptible magma,” Laguerta said.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=686017
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