Livestock traders taking advantage of the unrest caused by Mt. Kanlaon’s activity in Canlaon City, Negros Oriental, have been banned from entering the city, an official announced on Thursday, January 16.

Edna Lhou Masicampo, the city’s designated information officer, said the decision followed a meeting between Mayor Jose Chubasco Cardenas and about 45 internally displaced persons (IDPs) who reported being forced to sell their livestock at unfairly low prices.

The evacuees claimed the traders, known locally as “compradors,” intercepted them at border checkpoints on Wednesday, January 15, bypassing the city’s designated stockyard and auction market.

The IDPs, allowed to return briefly to their farms after the Task Force Kanlaon lifted the entry ban on the six-kilometer Permanent Danger Zone, were caught off guard as traders awaited them at the borders.

Fear of a potential major eruption left the farmers with no choice but to sell their livestock at lower prices.

Reports revealed cows worth P35,000 to P40,000 each were sold for P25,000, while goats valued at P6,000 each were bought for only P3,000.

Cardenas has directed the police and the municipal agriculture office to investigate the incident which led to the identification of the traders, Masicampo said.

Meanwhile, Undersecretary Ariel Nepomuceno, OCD administrator, in a meeting with the mayor, urged to fast-track the construction of an evacuation center that can accommodate the IDPs instead of being scattered at different camps.

Masicampo said the proposal needs the help of the provincial government as it would be costly to build an evacuation without external help.

Currently, 1,299 families and 4,186 individuals are at eight evacuation centers while 728 families or 2,287 individuals are staying with relatives outside the permanent danger zone. (PNA)