BATANGAS CITY – Authorities have prepared a three-month contingency measures for thousands of its evacuees who were forced to flee their homes when Taal Volcano erupted on Sunday.
Joselito Castro, head of the Batangas Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO), said the contingency measures include food, water, medicine and other basic needs of the evacuees which already reached more than 36,000 as of Tuesday.
“There was a time when Taal Volcano erupted for six months. We are preparing for at least half of that time as a worse-case scenario,” Castro said, referring to the 1754 eruption of the volcano described as the most destructive.
Castro said that they expect the number of evacuees to continue to rise in the coming days, especially that Batangas Gov. Hermilando Mandanas ordered on Tuesday to continue the forced evacuation of residents living within the danger zones of the volcano.
The Provincial Government of Batangas earlier placed the entire province under State of Calamity which give it an access to at least P160 million fund.
But Castro said the fund is not enough.
“With the number of evacuees and the time that they are expected to stay in the evacuation centers, that fund is not enough,” said Castro.
Thousands of families were practically turned dependents on the support of the government as their livelihood and other jobs were affected by the ashfall which covered several towns.
The official said that they are currently assessing as to how long the fund from Batangas province could last.
The assessment, Castro said, is important in order for them to determine the fund that they would ask from the national government, not only for the basic needs of the evacuees but also for the rehabilitation.
So far, evacuees are getting help from local government units, national government and donations from various non-government agencies.
In a PDRRMO meeting on Tuesday here, Mandanas said the towns and cities could use at least 30 percent of their calamity fund to assist the evacuees coming from other towns.
There were more than 100 evacuation centers in Batangas and most of the towns and cities are accommodating evacuees from other areas. Batangas City for instance became a refuge for evacuees from Taal, Lemery and other towns near the Taal Volcano.
Taal Volcano is currently under Alert Level 4 (hazardous eruption is imminent) and local authorities said the number of evacuees could balloon to more than 200,000 if Alert Level 5, or occurrence of hazardous eruption, is hoisted. (Aaron Recuenco)
