By JEN BAYLON
Kanlaon Volcano’s recent explosive eruption caused damage to agriculture amounting to P128.6 million, data from the Negros Occidental Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (OPA) showed yesterday.
In the OPA’s report, submitted to Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson, as of Monday, January 6, it revealed that 450.34 hectares of high-value commercial crops bore the brunt of the destruction, amounting to P124,931,974.
Around 123.68 hectares of rice and 6.85 hectares of corn also sustained damage, reaching P3,059,362.02 and P503,352.50, respectively, while fisheries recorded losses amounting to P130,005, data said.
The eruption affected three local government units (LGUs) in the province, encompassing 22 barangays and 1,382 farmers and fisherfolk.
Rice farmers in Bago City reported damage totaling P1,812,483.02 in 93.30 hectares, while corn and high-value crop losses amounted to P153,352.50 and P99,385,700, respectively.
La Carlota City recorded losses worth P16,652,006 for high-value crops, while rice damage reached P251,279.
La Castellana suffered damage worth P8,894,268 for high-value crops, and P995,600 in rice losses.
The fisheries sector also reported losses from 0.1794 hectares, affecting 14 fisherfolks from six barangays in three LGUs.
Decampment rules
The Negros Occidental provincial government is complying with the guidelines for allowing evacuees from Kanlaon Volcano’s six-kilometer danger zone to go home, Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson said.
However, Lacson expressed concern over the proposal by the Office of Civil Defense in Western Visayas (OCD-6) to put up a tent city for evacuees in Himamaylan City.
“Who will manage it? Who will provide for the needs of the evacuees?” Lacson said.
“They are living beyond the six-kilometer radius. It has been getting more difficult to make them understand why they are inside the evacuation centers,” he said.
Lacson said displaced residents are getting tired already of living inside evacuation centers a month following Kanlaon’s explosive eruption on December 9, 2024.
“Right now, they feel that they are better off in their areas because they are beyond the six-kilometer radius … They are better off back there in terms of livelihood,” he said.
Earlier, OCD-6 Regional Director Raul Fernandez said he does not recommend the return of the evacuees to their homes.
Fernandez said he wants the evacuees to instead transfer to the tent city the OCD-6 will put up in Himamaylan City.
Donato Sermeno, director of the OCD in Negros Island Region (NIR), said on Thursday, January 9, that more than 2,500 evacuees had decamped and already went home.
Data showed that 128 families in Bago City and 278 from Negros Oriental’s Canlaon City went home.
In La Castellana town, 622 families or 1,969 residents returned to their homes outside the six-kilometer Kanlaon expanded danger zone.
John de Asis, head of the La Castellana Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, said residents from Barangays Sag-ang, Mansalanao and Cabagna-an returned to their homes.
La Carlota City Mayor Rex Jalando-on said that seven families from Barangay Yubo had already been home after temporarily staying at the evacuation center in neighboring Barangay Cubay.
The decampment of evacuees residing outside the six-kilometer extended danger zone was agreed upon during a meeting of the mayors of La Castellana, Bago City and La Carlota City with Lacson on Tuesday, January 7.
A report from the Department of Health in the region (DOH-NIR) showed a total of 3,834 families, composed of 12,141 individuals, are still staying in 25 evacuation centers.
Those outside the evacuation centers are pegged at 8,724 families or 28,476 individuals, the DOH-NIR said./JB, WDJ