LEGAZPI CITY—The provincial government of Albay will not force the evacuation of more than 6,000 people holed out at Mayon Volcano’s 6-kilometer permanent danger zone despite the raising of Alert Level 2.

This, despite the ban on any human activity in the area by the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) starting on Thursday.

Early last week, the volcano showed intense crater glow and Phivolcs recorded hundreds of volcanic tremors, prompting it to declare Alert Level 2.

But Gov. Joey Sarte Salceda said the provincial government would not enforce evacuation under Alert Level 2.

Mayon resident volcanologist Ed Laguerta said Alert Level 2 was raised because the frequency of volcanic earthquakes has increased, indicating that the movement of lava below the surface may lead to ash explosions and the hazardous magmatic eruption.

Laguerta said the 6-kilometer permanent danger zone is supposed to be “no man’s land,” but residents in the area keep coming back after they had been relocated.

He said residents refuse to leave the place even during Alert Level 3, citing the October 2006 eruption when Legazpi City Mayor Noel Rosal led evacuation teams to force residents to evacuate with threat of arrests from accompanying policemen.

Cedric Daep, head of the Albay Safety and Emergency Management Office, said the residents keep coming back because of the fertility of the soil at the no man’s land, where agriculture crops grow abundantly and profitably.

Napoleon Abellano, a farmer from barangay Mabinit, Legazpi City, said farmers like him could not just easily leave the place because they have yet to harvest their crops. Other residents claim they could easily determine when Mayon Volcano would erupt, saying an indication is when wild animals in the area like snakes, wild pigs and birds become uneasy and start moving out of their lairs.

In February 2004, Mayon Volcano erupted without warning, killing more than 80 people in Legazpi City.

Then-Albay governor Romeo Salalima threatened to file a class suit against Phivolcs officials for failing to detect Mayon’s activity and issue warnings.

Then-President Fidel Ramos, however, defended Phivolcs, saying it was the local officials’ duty to enforce the law that declared Mayon’s 6-kilometer permanent danger zone a no man’s land.

Salceda said under tight watch are 1,675 households or some 6,000 people inside the risk area in the cities of Ligao, Legazpi and Tabaco and the towns of Daraga, Camalig, Guinobatan, Santo Domingo and Malilipot.

He said that should Phivolcs declare Alert Level 3, mass evacuation would be enforced.