BATANGAS CITY — Local chief executives, from mayors down to the barangay level, will be held accountable if any of their constituents would be trapped in the danger zones in their respective areas in case of hazardous eruption of the Taal Volcano, a Batangay government official warned Tuesay.
Joselito Castro, head of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO), said there is an existing order for the 14-kilometer radius of the volcano and any casualty in case eruption occurs would fall under the responsibility of the local officials.
“We will use the order from the DILG (Department of the Interior and Local Government) as the legal basis in running after them,” Castro said in an interview here.
The DILG order mandates forced evacuation within the declared danger zone and the maintenance of zero-people policy inside.
In the past days since a lull in the activity of the Taal Volcano, the PDRMMO has been receiving reports of local residents returning to their homes and even outsiders roaming around the areas declared as danger zones.
Reports were also received about local residents still engaged in fishing activities and in some cases, residents sneaking into the Volcano Island.
This was further aggravated when the vice mayor of Talisay town of Batangas was quoted criticizing the scientific data of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) and questioning the DILG order.
Talisay Vice Mayor Charlie Natanauan’s statement that Phivolcs officials are not God to predict volcano eruption is already going viral in the social media. Natanauan is appealing for his constituents to go back to their homes.
But Castro explained that as local officials, they have the responsibility and obligation to ensure the safety of their constituents in times of disasters.
Local officials, he said, are also mandated to follow the order of the DILG.
The danger poses by Taal Volcano eruption is the reason why mandatory evacuation is being done, according to Castro.
As of Tuesday morning, there are 143,866 people from 38,835 families who are reported to be staying in various evacuation centers.
More than 12,000 families, on the other hand, opted to stay with their relatives in non-affected areas of the province and other areas that include Metro Manila. (Aaron Recuenco)
