Twenty-two internally displaced (IDP) families were transferred to the Payag sang Kapag-on Village at Barangay Napoles, Bago City, Monday morning, March 31.
The 22 families composed of 80 individuals are evacuees from Purok Manokan at Barangay Ilijan in Bago City situated within the six-kilometer Kanlaon Volcano danger zone.
They were previously housed at the Regional Evacuation Center in Barangay Lag-asan in Bago following Kanlaon Volcano’s eruption in December.
The Bago City government established the about P4 million Payag sang Kapag-on Village on its seven-hectare property that will serve as temporary resettlement site for IDPs affected by Mount Kanlaon, Dr. Merijene Ortizo, head of the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, said on Tuesday.
Instead of modular tents, the local government utilizes modernized nipa huts or “bahay kubos” mainly for sustainability, and to provide privacy and natural ventilation for the families, while fostering a communal living environment, she said.
There are 50 bahay kubos for the displaced families, a community kitchen and portable toilets, two child friendly spaces, open kubos for the camp management team and medical team, and another kubo for the security team in the village, she said.
She said the Negros Occidental provincial government provided the P1.2 million for the community kitchen and portable toilets at the village.
Kanlaon is under Alert Level 3 and 2,612 families with 8,335 individuals from the volcano’s 6-kilometer danger zone remain in 22 evacuation centers on Negros Island, Regional Director Donato Sermeno III of the Office of Civil Defense Negros Island Region said.
There are 2,678 evacuees in Canlaon City in Negros Oriental, 77 in Bago City, 1,111 in La Carlota City, 4,264 in La Castellana, and 205 in San Carlos City in Negros Occidental, Sermeno said.
Of the evacuees 81 families are from the 4-kilometer permanent danger zone who will have to be permanently relocated, he said.
There 45 families are from Canlaon City and 36 from La Castellana, he said.*