By AARON RECUENCO • ALEXANDRIA SAN JUAN
BATANGAS CITY – Police forces were ordered to conduct a house-to-house search within the 14-kilometer danger zone of the Taal Volcano in a massive clearing operation aimed at ensuring zero casualty in case of hazardous eruption.
Brig. Gen. Vicente Danao, director of the CALABARZON (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon) regional police, said he had already instructed all his men to ensure that all the local residents are transported to the designated evacuation centers.
“Our first priority are those within the five to 10 kilometer danger zone which would be affected by the base surge in case of hazardous eruption,” Danao said in an interview.
“We need to clear these areas of people because this is for their own safety. You cannot outrun volcanic materials, our experts clearly said it, so your police are here to make sure that no one would be harmed,” he added.
Danao said that the deployment of his men to conduct house-to-house clearing operation is in compliance with the order of Interior Secretary Eduardo Ano to strictly implement a total lockdown of areas within the 14-kilometer danger zone.
This, after reports revealed that there are a number of people who either opted to remain in their house or go back.
Danao explained that the clearing operation is also for the safety of policemen and other law enforcement operatives deployed in the area since they could also become victims while trying to clear the danger zones of hard-headed residents.
Based on the DILG (Department of the Interior and Local Government) order, hard-headed residents can be bodily moved out of the danger zone if necessary.
Once the clearing operation is done, all the entry points would be blocked in order to prevent local residents from sneaking back.
But the policemen were instructed to move their blockade to the safer ground in case of hazardous eruption.
BIG BLAST STILL POSSIBLE
Despite the seemingly calm activity of Taal Volcano on Thursday, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) warned that an explosive eruption is still “30 percent possible” which can be very hazardous especially to those in the 14-kilometer danger zone.
Phivolcs officer-in-charge Renato Solidum, Jr. said the percentage was based on the data gathered through the agency’s monitoring parameters to serve as a guide for local government officials.
“Yung mga chances na ‘yun, 3 out of 10, ito ay inaaral natin. So ‘yun ‘yung nagiging gabay ng mga local government sa kanilang desisyon,” Solidum said in a press briefing.
“We look at the monitoring parameters that we have and binibigyan namin ng weight ang mga ito. We also have experts that provide their own opinion on what data would be showing to us, and mayroon din tayong reference on the historical data that we have and the deposits that some of us have studied. So, kino-combine namin ‘yan,” he added.
In the latest update of Phivolcs on Taal Volcano, it showed that 50 to 500 meters high “weak to moderate emission of white steam-laden plumes” was observed from the Main Crater that drifted southwest.
From Wednesday morning to Thursday morning, at least six volcanic tremors were plotted by the Philippine Seismic Network that registered at magnitudes 1.5 to 3.4, while the Taal Volcano Network have detected 467 tremblors, including eight low-frequency earthquakes.
