The Philippines Looks for Safer Homes for Volcano Residents
Interior Secretary Eduardo Ano said officials have been asked to look for a safer housing area for about 6,000 families that used to live and worked mostly as tourist guides, farmers and fish pen operators on Volcano Island
By Aaron Favila and Jim Gomez •
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A family work to repair their ash-covered home which was damaged by the eruption of the nearby Taal volcano, in Buso Buso on Jan. 19, 2020.
Philippine officials said Sunday the government will no longer allow villagers to return to a crater-studded island where an erupting volcano lies, warning that living there would be “like having a gun pointed at you."
Taal volcano has simmered with smaller ash ejections in recent days after erupting on Jan. 12 with a gigantic plume of steam and ash that drifted northward and reached Manila, the capital, about 65 kilometers (40 miles) away. While the volcano remains dangerous, with large numbers of local villagers encamped in emergency shelters, officials have begun discussing post-eruption recovery.
Interior Secretary Eduardo Ano said officials in Batangas province, where the volcano is located, have been asked to look for a safer housing area, at least 3 hectares (7 acres) in size, for about 6,000 families that used to live in four villages and worked mostly as tourist guides, farmers and fish pen operators on Volcano Island. The new housing site should be at least 17 kilometers (10 miles) away from the restive volcano to be safe, he said.
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A fishing boat sails along a lake as the Taal volcano erupts, Jan. 14, 2020, in Talisay, Philippines.
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Clouds of volcanic ash rise up from damaged trees in Laurel, Batangas province, Philippines on Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2020. The Taal volcano spewed lava half a mile high as thousands of people flee villages darkened and blanketed by heavy ash.
Aaron Favila/AP
A resident clears volcanic ash from his roof in Laurel, Philippines on Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2020. The Taal volcano spewed ash half a mile high as thousands of people flee villages darkened and blanketed by heavy ash.
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A resident cleans volcanic ash from his fishing boat after the Taal volcano erupted, Jan. 14, 2020, in Talisay, Philippines.
Ezra Acayan/Getty Images
A house near Taal Volcano’s crater is buried in volcanic ash from the eruption on Jan. 14, 2020, in Taal Volcano Island, Philippines. The Philippine Institute of of Volcanology and Seismology raised the alert level to four out of five, warning that a hazardous eruption could take place anytime, as authorities have evacuated tens of thousands of people from the area. An estimated $10 million worth of crops and livestock have been damaged by the on-going eruption, according to the country’s agriculture department. (
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Houses near Taal Volcano’s crater is seen buried in volcanic ash from the volcano’s eruption on Jan. 14, 2020, in Taal Volcano Island, Philippines.
Bullit Marquez/AP
Evacuees stay at an evacuation center in Tanaun, Philippines, Jan. 14, 2020. The Taal Volcano is spewed ash half a mile high and continues to tremble with earthquakes as thousands of people flee villages darkened and blanketed by heavy ash.
Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology
Lava spews from the crater of the Taal volcano over Lake Taal, Philippines, Jan. 13, 2020. Authorities say there is a chance of a larger eruption following the initial miles-high burst of ash on Sunday and lava eruptions on Monday.
Aaron Favila/AP
A family rides through clouds of ash as they evacuate to safer grounds in Lemery, Philippines, Jan. 13, 2020. Red-hot lava gushed from the volcano after a sudden eruption of ash and steam that forced residents to flee and shut down Manila’s airport, offices and schools.
Ted Aljibe/AFP via Getty Images
A youth rides an outrigger canoe at the base of the Taal volcano while the volcano spews ash as seen from Tanauan town in Batangas province, Jan. 13, 2020. The Philippines was on alert January 13 for the “explosive eruption” of a volcano south of Manila, which officials said could be imminent after a massive column of ash forced a halt to flights at the capital’s main airport.
NOAA
Satellite imagery over the Philippines shows the moment the Taal volcano erupted on Jan. 12, 2020, blasting steam, ash and pebbles miles into the sky.
Kester Ragaza/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images
The Taal volcano booms to life, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2020, spilling a thick blanket of volcanic ash over nearby towns and cities just south of the capital of Manila.
Courtesy Joshua Bobadilla
Lightning race across a billowing ash cloud as the Taal volcano erupts, spewing fume, ash and pebbles miles-high into the sky over Lake Taal, Philippines, Jan. 12, 2020.
Courtesy Joshua Bobadilla
Lightning race across a billowing ash cloud as the Taal volcano erupts, spewing fume, ash and pebbles miles-high into the sky over Lake Taal, Philippines, Jan. 12, 2020.
Courtesy Joshua Bobadilla
Lightning race across a billowing ash cloud as the Taal volcano erupts, spewing fume, ash and pebbles miles-high into the sky over Lake Taal, Philippines, Jan. 12, 2020.
Courtesy Joshua Bobadilla
Lightning race across a billowing ash cloud as the Taal volcano erupts, spewing fume, ash and pebbles miles-high into the sky over Lake Taal, Philippines, Jan. 12, 2020.
@spoky_who via Twitter
Video shot by a Twitter user shows lightning strikes as the Taal volcano erupted on Jan. 12, 2020.
An ash cloud from the Taal volcano looms over a wedding party, Jan. 12, 2020, in Tagaytay, Philippines. (Courtesy Randolf Evan Photography)
A couple take their wedding photos right as the Taal volcano erupts behind them, on Jan. 12, 2020, in Tagaytay, Philippines. (Courtesy Randolf Evan Photography)
The island has long been declared by the government as a national park that’s off-limits to permanent villages. The government’s volcano-monitoring agency has separately declared the island a permanent danger zone, but impoverished villagers have lived and worked there for decades.
“We have to enforce these regulations once and for all because their lives are at stake,” Ano said, adding that closely regulated tourism work could eventually be allowed on the island without letting residents live there permanently.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has approved a recommendation for the island to be turned into a “no man’s land,” but he has yet to issue formal guidelines. After an initial visit last week, Duterte plans to return to hard-hit Batangas province on Monday to check conditions of displaced villagers, Ano said.
Although it’s one of the world’s smallest volcanoes, the 311-meter (1,020-foot) -high Taal is the second most-active of 24 restive Philippine volcanoes. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology has placed Taal and outlying cities and towns at alert level 4, the second-highest warning, indicating a more dangerous explosive eruption is possible within hours or days due to fewer but continuous earthquakes and other signs of restiveness.
“They lived on the volcano itself with 47 craters. That’s really dangerous. It’s like having a gun pointed at you,” Renato Solidum, the head of the volcanology institute, told The Associated Press.
Taal left more than 200 people dead in a powerful 1965 eruption, then again exploded in 1977. Officials of the government institute said they began issuing advisories about Taal's renewed restiveness as early as March last year, helping local officials prepare and evacuate thousands of villagers rapidly from Volcano Island hours before the volcano erupted thunderously.
Dramatic time lapse footage shot in the Philippines show lightning strikes amid a massive rising column of ash cloud as the Taal Volcano erupted on Jan. 12.
Lucia Amen, a 45-year-old mother of six, said she started packing up clothes in bags in November after hearing from her children that their teachers were warning that the volcano was acting up again. When the volcano erupted, she said she was ready with her family and rapidly moved out of Laurel town, which lies near Volcano Island.
Amen wept quietly Sunday while attending Mass in an evacuation center in Tagaytay city in Cavite province, saying she was worried about her children as the eruption dragged on.
A senator from Batangas, Ralph Recto, has recommended the creation of a commission to oversee the recovery of the volcano-devastated region. It will be similar to a government body that was established after Mount Pinatubo’s 1991 eruption north of Manila.
A town in the Philippines is seen covered in ash in drone footage. The town and surrounding areas *were* evacuated before the eruption of the Taal volcano and no deaths are reported.
A long-dormant volcano, Pinatubo, blew its top in one of the biggest volcanic eruptions of the 20th century, killing hundreds of people and devastating the Philippines' main rice-producing region.
The disaster-prone Philippines lies along the Pacific "Ring of Fire,” a string of faults around the ocean basin where many of the world’s earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur.
Associated Press videojournalist Joeal Calupitan contributed to this report.
