Authorities are keeping a close watch on 10 entry points into Kanlaon Volcano’s 6-kilometer extended danger zone where all human activity has been prohibited amid the threat of another eruption, Regional Task Force Kanlaon head Raul Fernandez said Wednesday, May 28.
The Office of the Civil Defense has temporarily suspended the 10-hour daily window that allowed evacuees to return to carry out farming and other livelihood activities in the 6-kilometer extended danger zone until further notice.
Residents who had been evacuated out of the danger zone had been allowed to return during the day from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. to tend to their farms and animals.
The suspension will be until the situation at Kanlaon Volcano where numerous volcanic earthquakes have been recorded lately normalizes, Fernandez said.
Fernandez said the Regional Incident Management Team is now focusing on the checkpoints to ensure no entry into the area amid the possibility of an impending eruption.
The six entry points are on the Negros Occidental side and four are in Negros Oriental, he said.
However, “we cannot ensure a 100 percent no entry because of the vastness of the area”, he said.
Fernadez said the suspension of the 10-hour window will be lifted when it is determined that entry is safe.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) reported that from 12 a.m. Monday to 12 a.m. Tuesday there were 22 volcanic earthquakes recorded at Kanlaon with a sulfur dioxide flux of 947 tons.*