THE NEWS DATELINER

Albay Gov to pursue Doppler radar
By Rey M. Nasol

LEGAZPI CITY – Albay governor Joey Salceda who is a zero-casualty advocate is pursuing the Doppler radar installation to fully enable the weather forecasting agencies against devastating rains that occur even in the absence of a typhoon.

“The weather system is so deceiving nowadays and low pressure areas don’t necessarily have its name, fortunately the disaster preparation systems in our province are in place,” Salceda said referring to the community rain gauges coupled with the alertness of barangay disaster councils and the municipal disaster councils.

Salceda said the DCCs and BCCs were quick in responding to the emergency situation Wednesday and the province had attained a zero casualty report.

“We suspended classes in elementary and high school and the Bicol University College of Agriculture and Fisheries (BUCAF) has been cleared for classrooms used as evacuation center for those living at the low lying areas in Guinobatan, Albay,” Salceda said.

There were some 909 persons reported to have been pre-emptively evacuated to BUCAF from Barangay Maguiron.

“We ordered six army trucks to Manito Jamboree site to fetch the stranded school pupils there. The lesson today is that even a Low Pressure Area (LPA) can bring so much rainfall. I suggest that rainfall content be clearly included in PAGASA forecasts and bulletins,” Salceda explained.

“We are again reminded of the need to put up the Doppler radar which costs some P600 million from the Japan Internation Cooperation Agency (JICA) being the source of the grant,” Salceda said.

Salceda said that with the Doppler radar in place somewhere in Catanduanes province, forecasted would have longer (at least 6 hours) lead time to determine the rain content of tropical cyclones and give ample time for disaster authorities to decide and implement the appropriate preventive measures.

The governor said that although rain gauges are good instruments to determine the rainfall rate, it however, do not tell weathermen the amount of rain before it falls.

Salceda said Thursday morning the classes have been resumed in all levels across the province of Albay and that the routes going to Tabaco City from Legazpi as well as those going to Manila were restored after clearing operations of lahar and boulders were immediately conducted in Barangay Padang, Legazpi City and in Camalig town.

The Doppler Radar System will provide the region with early warning both for disaster mitigation and climate change adaptation, said Albay Governor Joey Salceda.

The JICA set aside the total amount of P594,353,777 during a meeting of the Regional Development Council here last May 6, according to Science and Technology Secretary Estrella Alabastro.

Aside from the radar, the fund will be used for other projects under the Comprehensive Partnership in Science and Technology on Climate Change and Countryside Development project, she said.

The Bicol region is battered frequently by typhoons. The Pagasa has warned that at least five more tropical cyclones would enter the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR). (RMN)



Mayon's toxic gas soars back with 1,272 tons a day rate
By Rey M. Nasol

LEGAZPI CITY -- Mayon volcano continues to manifest signs of abnormality with very high level of sulfur dioxide emission (SO2) on Wednesday, high and low frequency volcanic quakes, that prompted disaster authorities to strictly enforce the “no entry” rule in designated danger zone areas surrounding the volcano.

Police and military personnel manning the 12 checkpoints along the danger zone at the volcano’s down slope are closely on guard for any human activity inside the designated “no man's land" areas covering the towns of Camalig, Daraga, Sto. Domingo, the cities of Ligao, Tabaco and Legazpi.

Col. Marlou Salazar, commanding officer of the Army's 901st Brigade said earlier that the task force Mayon had prepositioned 35 trucks in case an evacuation order is given by Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council (PDCC) chairman Joey Salceda, once the volcano's alert status is raised to level 3.

Quakes and high level of sulfur dioxide disgorged by Mt. Mayon were clear signs that the volcano continues to be on heightened state of restiveness, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said Wednesday.

Phivolcs bulletin on Wednesday said the volcano released 1,272 tons of Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) for the past 24 hours monitoring period from Tuesday till Wednesday, which is way above the fluctuating range recorded during the past several days. The said rate of emission is record high during the last two-months observation period.

Gas emission trends from Mayon’s crater showed high unrest with 971 ton per day on the 12th of October, 853 tos per day on Oct. 11 2009, and 505 tons per day on Oct. 10, all are way above the baseline data of only 500 tons per day.

The agency seismic instruments detected only six high and low frequency volcanic earthquakes, bringing the total to 56 quakes recorded since last October 5.

Scientists said the volcano’s abnormality levels are indication of a possible eruptive state.

Phivolcs scientists are continuously observing Mayon volcano's fluctuating seismic precursors such as quakes, gas emission and ground deformation as these are indications that the volcano's seismic activity may possibly lead to an explosive eruption.

Phivolcs advisory said high and low frequency harmonic quakes were detected by seismic instruments, signifying that magma intrusion is developing in the volcano’s crater vent.

Ed Laguerta, Phivolcs resident volcanologist, said the agency seismic networks have recorded about over a hundred earthquakes rocking the volcano this October.

He said the agency is still assessing the abnormal state of the volcano based on given parameters like ground deformation, volcanic quakes and gas emission, and crater glow.

Precise Leveling results indicate the volcano edifice remains inflated at 6.0 mm swelling at the Buang lines while Lidong lines posted a 1.0-mm inflation.

The volcano did not exhibit crater glow due to cloudy sky prevailing in the volcano’s crater.

Alert level 2 remains hoisted over Mayon Volcano and Phivolcs strongly recommended that the 6-km Permanent Danger Zone including the 7-km extended danger zones be off limits to any human activity due to threat from sudden explosions and rockfalls from the upper slopes of the volcano.

Mayon Volcano, famous for its nearly perfect conical shape, has a height of over 2,400 meters.

The volcano, said to be the most active in the country, has erupted at least 50 times since 1616. Its worst eruption buried Cagsawa town and killed 1,200 people in 1814. An eruption in 1993 killed more than 70 farmers.

Mayon erupted again in 2006.



Camping tots stay put at jamboree site
By Rey M. Nasol

CAMALIG, Albay -- The Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council of Albay has declared a ‘code blue’ at a landslide-prone town and has recommended a stop to all camping activities at a jamboree site for very young school children in Manito town.

Governor Joey Salceda told this writer that he has already declared a ‘code blue’ which means people should stay put in their houses and the children were advised not to travel back home to Legazpi and their respective places of origins.

Salceda’s advisory early this morning said, “the organizers are hereby advised to limit activities on camp site and control the movement of pupils.”

Albay Public Safety and Emergency Management Office (APSEMO) director Cedric Daep also told the INQUIRER that he has recommended for a suspension of travel of the affected campers in Manito to avoid river channels and seaboards along the road going back to Legazpi.

Salceda said that the PDCC and the local disaster councils were already advised to execute measures to prevent untoward incident related to low pressure area that has pounded moderate to heavy rains.

“The Municipal Health Office (MHO) of Manito is placed under ‘code blue’ and together with the Provincial Health Office (PHO) are hereby instructed to provide teams on site with standby emergency vehicles,” Salceda said.

Salceda said that he had to see to it that Manito hospital must be in full support to PHO. “Unecessary movement outside camp site is hereby discouraged, DepEd is hereby instructed to put school buildings open as temporary safe shelters.”

Salceda, maintaining a zero casualty plan said the province is in close coordination with Manito MDCC for support and that Manito should be on alert status for the higher vulnerability.

This writer also tried to proceed to Legazpi but roads were impassable particularly in front of the municipal hall of Camalig with roaring sounds and rampaging chocolate-like flood together with boulders at knee deep.

The flood in Camalig has isolated the towns of the third district of Albay that prevented students, workers and travelers going to and from Legazpi City.

The APSEMO is also accounting for related flash flood incidents in Maipon, Guinobatan town and the perennially flooded portion of Barangay Padang in Legazpi City which also isolated the city of Tabaco and the rest of the first district of Albay.

Daep said that for the past 12 hours monitoring, the different rain gauges installed around the province have recorded an average of 7.2 milimeters with peak of 68 mm from 2 am until 9 am. “There were even higher recorded rains in other parts of the province and that the average is 7.2 on our readings but we still have to compare it with the official findings of the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa),” Daep said.

Director Bernardo Alejandro of the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) Bicol has also advised for an evacuation of the camping tots in Manito and added that military trucks were already fielded to assure the safety of the children from their camps to their temporary shelters.

A radio caller sought help of Director Alejandro to safely evacuate five families from Padang area who have fled to St. Calire monastery at the boundary of Sto. Domingo and Legazpi. Said residents are from areas near the spillway which was ravaged by ‘Reming’ in Nov. 30, 2006.

In response to the call, Alejandro assured a rescue team and vehicle to transfer the affected residents at the area to safer ground.

The provincial engineering office has immediately fielded heavy equipment to allow light vehicles to pass trough Camalig area. Motorcycles and small cars were able to traverse the flooded area at around 10:30 am. However rains continue to pound the province posing still undetermined damages to the perennially flooded areas.



Peasant group fears another aggravated rice crisis looming
By Rey M. Nasol

LEGAZPI CITY -- The militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas-Bikol (KMP-Bikol) sounded alarm bells on the alleged looming aggravated rice crisis as agricultural damage caused by Tropical storms Ondoy and Pepeng, have already reached P18 billion.

According to Felix Paz, chairman of KMP-Bikol and concurrent national council member of KMP, “As with last year we are about to experience another round of the aggravated rice crisis but this time climate change has become a very major factor compounded by the fact that it is the government’s policy of massive land use conversion of agricultural lands and crop conversion that has caused this crisis in the first place. From 6 million hectares of Philippine rice lands, now it is just 4 million hectares and still decreasing,”

“The country’s average daily rice requirement is 35,000 metric tons (MT) and initially the Department of Agriculture (DA) said that they will just get from the unaffected provinces but as it is almost all the major rice producing provinces have been affected and now another low pressure area is battering Bicol, Visayas and Mindanao. The so-called buffer stock is good for 60 days but considering the extent of the damage and the need to feed the victims this will fall short of what is needed. This is the reason behind the DA’s move to again import more rice this early, but this is again just last year a band aid solution,” Paz said.

“It is like a slap on the Filipino people’s face that we as an agricultural country is the top rice importer in the world and yet that is our staple. To date we are again to import 250,000 MT of rice but this will also be coming from countries like Thailand, China and Vietnam which are also being ravaged by the same storms, of course when push comes to shove they will of course prioritize the food for their own people, leaving us with little or nothing at all,” the peasant leader said.

“As of now farmers have only harvested 5.7 million metric tons (MT) of rice in the fourth quarter of 2009 or almost 10 percent off the target of 6.4 million MT and with four to five more storms coming our way then we are in for tough times. What must be done now is to strictly enforce the price ceiling on basic goods especially rice and for the long term stop the massive land use conversion and crop conversion policies of the regime. Another aspect is for the government to have a comprehensive climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction plan to prevent one crisis from aggravating another,” Paz added.