Rep. Joey S. Salceda of the Second District of Albay has appealed for relief assistance and donations for Mayon Volcano evacuees, now housed in government evacuation centers around the province, to augment limited resources of local communities.
After the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) raises Alarm No. 4 in areas surrounding the restive volcano, Salceda said there’s a need for steady supply of relief goods—food items and drinking water—especially since no one can tell when the calamity would end, as in the past Mayon eruptions when evacuees stayed for months in evacuation centers. As of January 18, there were 6,973 families, or 26,971 persons, housed in evacuation centers based on reports from Municipal Disaster Risk reduction and Management offices and the Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office.
The evacuees come from identified risk areas around Mount Mayon. About half of the evacuees come from Camalig and Daraga towns. Camalig has the largest displaced population of 1,995 families, or 7,332 persons, followed by Daraga with 1,384 families, or 5,697 persons. Salceda said should the alert level escalates to Alert 4, Camalig would actually need to evacuate some 4,800 more families, since its entire poblacion is within Mayon’s 9-kilometer Permanent Danger Zone.
In the worst Mayon eruption in 1814 records at the National Archives show that over 700 perished, 400 of whom were from Camalig, followed by Budiao with 200, Cagsawa with 100 and Guinobatan with 12.
The Team Albay Youth Organization (Tayo) Inc., a youth group under Salceda’s Albay second district office, had already started accepting relief donations for the evacuees. Together with the Filipino-Chinese communities, Tayo has recently provided psychosocial and relief assistance, aside from hygiene kits, to 2,949 families to evacuees at the Camalig North Central School, Anoling and Bariw in Camalig; and at the Guinobatan East, West and Binogsacan in Guinobatan.
Donors can contact Tayo Inc. at its address at Door 2, Citispire Building, Imelda Roces Avenue, Gogon, Legazpi City, with cell-phone number 0927-6654715. For cash donations, donors may deposit them to the Team Albay Youth Organizations Inc., Metrobank account with account number: 595-7-59500460-4. For Daraga, donors can contact; Vice Mayor Carlwyn Baldo at 0918-9637372, and Teresa Bausa at 0939-2041088. For Camalig, donations could be course through Mayor Ding Baldo, or call 0917-8500235.
The partial list of evacuees as of January 18 also includes 1,252 families, or 4,353 persons, from Guinobatan; 565 families, or 2,182 persons, from Tabaco City; 791 families, or 3,056 persons, from Malilipot; 215 families, or 890 persons, from Santo Domingo; and 811 families, or 3,461 persons, from Ligao City.
The number of evacuees could grow, depending on the volcano’s condition. Based on experience, on the average the evacuation period could reach 47 days under Alert Level 2 and 94 days under Alert Level 3. In 2006 the evacuation period lasted 147 days, and in 2009, 185 days.
“We urge and appeal to kind-hearted 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 resiliency—the Albayano strength of character and knack for survival that have been proven many times over, but not without support from generous kind-hearted individuals and humanitarian groups, as this kind of disaster normally takes longer periods of time,” Salceda said.
As in the past, Mayon’s eruption could take weeks or even months, and local governments have to maintain their evacuees in evacuation centers within that period, providing them their basic necessities—primarily food, clean water, health and security requirements— which means they need help.