The number of evacuees displaced by the escalating eruption of Mayon Volcano in Albay has breached the 80,000 mark, and their pressing need for assistance has assumed serious urgency.
Partial records of the Albay Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council show the number of evacuees housed in evacuation centers stands at 79,121 persons belonging to 21,693 families, with several thousands more having taken refuge in homes of relatives outside the danger zone. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology has raised Mayon’s danger level category to Alert Level 4 and extended its danger zone perimeter to 9 kilometers.
The situation has prompted Rep. Joey S. Salceda of the Second District of Albay to reiterate his appeal for relief assistance and donations for the evacuees, now housed in various government evacuation centers around the province, to augment limited local resources, even as the Department of Social Welfare and Development has started distributing relief assistance.
Salceda said there is a need for steady supply of food items, drinking water, gas masks and other relief assistance, especially since no one can tell when the calamity would end. In past Mayon eruptions, evacuees were compelled to remain in evacuation centers for months. In 2006 the evacuation period lasted 147 days, and in 2009, 185 days.
The evacuees come from identified risk areas around Mount Mayon. Of their total number, 10,000 families, or 38,188 individuals, come from Legazpi City (4,076 families/15,530 persons), Daraga (3,296/13,305) and Camalig (2,979/11,218)—all in the Second District. The other evacuees are from Guinobatan (3,147/10,724), Tabaco City (1,701/6,750), Santo Domingo (2,853/11,292), Ligao City (1,332/5,755), Mililipot (1,261/4,926) and Bacacay (124/559).
The Team Albay Youth Organization Inc. (Tayo), a youth group under Salceda’s Albay Second District Office, now accepts relief donations for the evacuees. Donors can contact Tayo, at its address at Door 2, Citispire Bldg., Imelda Roces Avenue, Gogon, Legazpi City, with telephone number 092- 6654715.
Donors may also deposit their cash donations into Tayo’s Metrobank account with Account No. 595-7-59500460-4. For Legazpi, donors can contact Mayor Noel Rosal at 0917-5581777; Daraga, Vice Mayor Carlwyn Baldo at 0918-9637372; and Teresa Bausa at 0939-2041088; for Camalig, through Mayor Ding Baldo, or call 0917-8500235.
“We urge and appeal to kindhearted individuals and organizations to please assist our evacuees with their basic necessities so that they can go through this calamity easier, even as Albay’s DNA is resilienc—the Albayano strength of character and knack for survival that have been proven many times over, but not without support from kind individuals and humanitarian groups, as this kind of disaster normally takes longer periods of time,” Salceda appealed.