By AARON B. RECUENCO
LEGAZPI CITY – Some evacuees have started to return home, prompting volcanologists to warn them the threat of explosive eruption from Mayon volcano remains despite a decrease in activities in the past few days.
From a high of 40,000, the number of evacuees is down to 27,643 , most of them from 32 barangays in Albay, including Daraga, Camalig, Guinobatan and Malilipot.
Mariton Bornas, of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS), said there is still inflation on the edifice of Mayon which indicates high magma pressure building up inside the volcano.
She added the volcano still pushes out lava which has already reached three kilometers from the crater and also emitted some six million cubic meters of volcanic materials as of yesterday morning.
This means, Bornas said, a scenario of hazardous eruption is still highly possible.
“I would like to dispel any notion that since there were decreases in its activity, the explosive eruption is already unlikely. That is not true. We are still looking at several parameters,” said Bornas.
“We have to look at all the parameters on a daily, hourly basis for changes because anything could still happen anytime,” she added.
She noted how Mayon Volcano has only offloaded six million cubic meters of volcanic materials.
In comparison, she cited how, during the 2006 eruption, Mayon released some 60 million cubic meters of volcanic materials.
Bornas said Phivolcs personnel monitoring Mayon Volcano have been using various instruments to accurately observe and monitor its activities.
“We are proud to say that Mayon Volcano is one of the more well-observed volcanoes,” said Bornas.
Many of the evacuees have indicated their desire to return to their homes.
“We don’t want to stay for long because we do not want to bank on relief goods for our daily meal,” said Mary Ann Almayda, 22, who resides in Barangay Lidong in Sto. Domingo, Albay.