Without traffic, our house is only a 15-minute drive to Tagaytay. The road to that cool and popular holiday town south of Manila, dotted with hotels, restaurants, and pasalubong stores, offer locals and tourists a vantage view of the idyllic, bluish Taal Lake and, the world’s smallest, Taal Volcano.
It was a usual lazy Sunday for me, meant to be spent lounging in bed. Except for the continuous thunder-like rumbling sound in the late afternoon that I was hearing from afar, nothing seemed unusual. That is, until I got a call from my friend, multi-awarded photographer George Tapan, who was asking me for updates about the erupting Taal.
It was only then that I realized that the pitter-patter I was hearing on our roof wasn’t rain, but the sound of tiny rocks and ash pelting down on our house and the entire village.
Monday was, as I feared, glum, with the ash cloud from Taal blanketing and sandblasting our village. The entire mood was draped in a veil of gray. The air had the stench of sulfur, similar or even worse than that after the New Year revelry. Our village had turned desolate and barren with ash-covered vegetation. Rooftops that were blue or red had turned dark gray and even black. Our garden was covered with a 2-inch-thick layer of ash. The streets, I surmised, were worse. As I write this, the back-breaking clean up we had to do remains unfinished. Perhaps, it will take the whole week to completely flush out the minerals kept for years in Taal Volcano’s belly only to be violently regurgitated.
Despite this painful climatic intrusion into our otherwise peaceful life, our family is thankful that we only have to endure temporary inconveniences. Our main concern really is our dutiful dog, who, thankfully, was unharmed. My heart bleeds for those who live in and around ground zero. While no human deaths have been reported so far, I pity the dead and dying animals who had been the residents’ beasts of burden. Their homes, their crops—their main sources of income—have been laid to waste.
Coffee farmers in Batangas and Cavite were hit hard. Government has recorded around 752.45 hectares of lands devoted to the crop were ravaged, resulting in the loss of some 3,563 metric tons of coffee. Initial estimate from the Department of Agriculture (DA) placed the value of the damage at P74.5 million: 99 percent of which is by the coffee industry, and the rest noted in livestock and corn.
The impact on the economy is as devastating: P7.63 billion in Batangas alone, excluding public and private damage costs, according Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia. The value of the agricultural damage wrought by Taal Volcano has already increased to P577.39 million, affecting 2,772 hectares and 1,967 animal heads. Other affected commodities include rice, cacao, banana and high-value crops.
Catastrophes could unmask the worst, and highlight the best in how we deal with them. Already, grandstanding politicians are asking for a public hearing to interrogate the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) for not raising alarm about the looming explosion.
Did Phivolcs commit lapses in its duty? I thought so, too. Perhaps, we were so occupied with the hustle and bustle of daily living that we sometimes gloss over dire warnings of dangers until they hit us. Phivolcs said that it had raised Alert Level 1 as early as March 2019, and advised people of heightened unrest just last month. In fact, Phivolcs—its personnel and equipment—had left the volcano island specifically to demonstrate how chancy the place is. Also, three elementary schools were moved to the mainland, again to emphasize the risk posed by the volcano.
What riles me the most is how “enterprising” opportunists had been buying wholesale N95 face masks only to sell them at exorbitant prices. There has got to be a way where this practice is prevented or immediately stopped, and perpetrators are put behind bars.
Still, the good Samaritan spirit outshines all these. Reports of residents offering their homes to the evacuees, food stalls offering free food, transport groups offering free rides, donations pouring in, and all acts of bayanihan rightfully recorded, posted and shared in various social-media platforms.
Days of calm after the eruption do not mean that we should let our guard down. As I write this, it’s being reported by Phivolcs that Taal Volcano’s magma or molten rock is rising, and an explosive eruption is imminent. The agency is maintaining its alert level on Taal at 4 out of 5, which means that “a hazardous explosive eruption is possible within hours to days.” Level 5 means a hazardous eruption is under way.
Phivolcs Director Renato Solidum said “residents who fled their villages around the volcano on Sunday should not take the easing of activity on Taal as a sign that danger was now over.” An Alert Level 4 warns of a possible hazardous explosive eruption. “If that really happens,” Solidum added, “they can’t return to the area because it will be really devastated.”
According to him, Taal’s previous eruptions had lasted months, so it was impossible to predict an end to the current activity. The alert warning of a potentially catastrophic explosive eruption, he said, might remain in place for weeks, depending on developments: “In the past 24 hours, “ he pointed out, “geologists had recorded lava fountaining and hydrovolcanic activity—interaction of water and magma.”
Four decades after its last eruption, Taal Volcano is again showing us its fiery, violent side. Let us hope that Taal goes back to sleep soon and for a much longer time. In the meantime, let us meet whatever grim future Taal offers us with prayer, vigilance and common sense.
We also need urgent and compassionate action from the government, not a boastful, braggadocio—mindless, irresponsible and insensitive comment—from the highest officer of the land to pee and eat Taal’s ashfall just to prove that he’s up to the task.
For comments and suggestions, e-mail me at mvala.v@gmail.com