About 600 families from two towns have been evacuated as the threat of a phreatic eruption loomed on Taal Volcano, the Batangas Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office said Wednesday.
A phreatic eruption is an explosion driven by the heat from magma interacting with water, which can be from groundwater, hydrothermal systems, surface runoff, a lake or the sea and it pulverizes surrounding rocks and can produce ash, but does not include new magma.
Interviewed on GMA News TV’s "Balitanghali", heard nationwide, PDRRMO head Joselito Castro said the first batch of evacuees voluntarily left the island on Monday night.
According to Castro, around 600 families from Talisay and Agoncillo towns had already moved to the housing projects provided by the national government that are located in safe areas in Calabarzon.
He said concerned authorities were now checking how some of the concerned residents were not able to avail of the housing program.
Previously, nearly 50 families, or some 300 people, including children and women, were moved, the local disaster office said.
Meanwhile, newly installed Presidential Adviser for Southern Tagalog Casimiro Ynares Jr. appealed to residents at the foot of Taal Volcano to follow or voluntarily evacuate from their homes, as state seismologists continued to record increased activity in the area.
"Let us follow the pre-emptive evacuation. Life is more important than properties. The things we own can be reproduced, but we only get to live once,” Ynares said.
Ynares also said in a statement that every local government unit along the areas was ready and poised to provide assistance to the affected residents.
"Let us put our trust in our LGU's. President Rodrigo Duterte is fully aware of the situation and has already tasked various agencies to monitor and assist," Ynares added.
Some 60 people were already evacuated by the Philippine Coast Guard, Bureau of Fire Protection, Philippine National Police at Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office.
They were brought to the evacuation center in Talisay, Batangas.
Taal Volcano remained under Alert Level 1 on Wednesday, Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology director Renato Solidum said.
Sixty-nine tremors were recorded in the past 24 hours, and PHIVOLCS observed the increase in temperature and acidity in the main crater lake.
Meanwhile, amid the return of several residents to their home within Taal Volcano’s permanent danger zone in Batangas, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology on Wednesday still strongly recommended that entry into Taal Volcano island, especially the vicinity of the main crater and Daang Kastila fissure, “must remain strictly prohibited.”
The island is Taal’s permanent danger zone.
Alert level 1 (abnormal) is maintained over Taal Volcano.
Phivolcs reminded the public that at alert level 1, sudden steam-driven or phreatic explosions, volcanic earthquakes, minor ashfall and lethal accumulations or expulsions of volcanic gas could occur and threaten areas within the Taal Volcano island.
As of Wednesday morning, Taal Volcano Network recorded 69 tremor episodes with durations of one to five minutes within the past 24-hour period.
Activity in the main crater consisted of weak emission of white steam-laden plumes from fumaroles that rose 20 meters high.
Ground deformation parameters from continuous electronic tilt on the Taal Volcano island recorded a slight deflation around the main crater since October 2020, “but overall, very slow and steady inflation of the Taal region has been recorded by continuous GPS data after the eruption,” Phivolcs said.
Several displaced island residents went back to their home within the permanent danger zone to look after their livelihood, Vice Governor Mark Leviste told Unang Balita over GMA News 7.
