Kanlaon Volcano’s unrest has caused 6,032 Negrenses to remain in evacuation centers*Ronnie Baldonado photo
Negros Island Region local governments units are struggling to care for 6,032 evacuees affected by Kanlaon Volcano’s unrest, as P203 million in promised national government aid has remained unreleased since May.
Donato Sermeno III, Regional Director of the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) Negros Island Region, said on Tuesday, July 8, that the funds from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) have not yet been downloaded.
The LGUs have been told to individually follow up on their release, he said.
“Canlaon City and La Castellana have no more funds to sustain their evacuee operations,” Sermeno said.
The prolonged displacement is also leading to restlessness among evacuees.
In La Castellana, Negros Occidental, 89 evacuees escaped from their evacuation center to return to their homes within the prohibited 6-kilometer expanded danger zone around Kanlaon.
“Only 70 percent of the escapees have returned to their evacuation center,” said John de Asis, head of the La Castellana Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, on Tuesday.
It’s difficult to convince the remaining evacuees, who are staying with relatives outside the danger zone, to return to the evacuation center, he said.
De Asis noted the difficulty in keeping internally displaced residents, many of whom have been in evacuation centers since December 2024, from going home.
The additional national funds, he said, would greatly assist La Castellana with essential needs like food, medical care, and educational aid for the evacuees.
The Negros Occidental provincial government has so far been providing meals for the evacuees.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. approved the P203,881,186 in additional funding for LGUs at risk from Kanlaon’s unrest in May, then-OCD Administrator Undersecretary Ariel Nepomuceno had said.
He said the allocations were as follows:
• La Carlota City: P63,097,000
• Himamaylan Tent City: P62,539,736
• La Castellana: P48,521,100
• Canlaon City: P29,723,350
Currently, 6,032 evacuees remain in evacuation centers – 3,293 in La Castellana, 233 in La Carlota, and 81 in Bago City in Negros Occidental, and 2,425 in Canlaon City, Negros Oriental, Sermeno said.
Representatives of government agencies that are part of the National and Regional Task Force Kanlaon held a consultation-dialog in Bacolod City on Monday to address the volcano’s impact on affected LGUs.
Among the topics discussed was La Castellana’s proposal for evacuees to return to homes along the highway located beyond 5.2 kilometers of the extended danger zone, instead of the full 6 kilometers.
However, Phivolcs maintains that no human activity should occur within the 6-kilometer danger zone, and left the final decision to the concerned LGU, Sermeno said.
Discussions also included the site verification for permanent relocation sites, with the provincial government prepared to purchase approximately 20 hectares in Talaptap, La Castellana.
The controversial delay in the DBM’s release of the P203 million was also a key point.
A timeline for the completion of a Kanlaon Recovery and Development Plan, hoped to be finalized by November, was also tackled, Sermeno said.*