Government agencies comprising the National and Regional Task Force Kanlaon tackled various responses to address the Kanlaon Volcano crisis in a joint meeting held at a hotel in Bacolod City yesterday.

Organized by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), the activity served as a consultation-dialogue on the impacts of the eruption on affected local government units (LGUs) in Negros Island.

DILG Undersecretary for Local Government Marlo Iringan said that through the dialogue, they “aim to listen to the concerns from the ground and gauge the needed help.”

He said existing programs will be aligned for an integrated, complementary and responsive effort to address Kanlaon Volcano concerns.

On the part of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Disaster Response Management Bureau Director Maria Isabel Lanada underscored the agency’s central role in disaster response mechanisms, particularly in the eruption of Kanlaon Volcano.

Lanada presented the DSWD’s social welfare key initiatives, focusing on the accomplishments in disaster response and early recovery operations.

Among those who attended the consultation-dialogue were the local chief executives and representatives from the affected LGUs, including the municipalities of La Castellana, Moises Padilla and Murcia, as well as the cities of La Carlota, Bago and San Carlos in Negros Occidental and Canlaon in Negros Oriental.

La Castellana is the hardest-hit LGU, having the largest number of internally displaced persons from at least five barangays, with more than 3,000 persons, who are residents within the extended six-kilometer extended danger zone, still staying in evacuation centers.

Kanlaon Volcano remains under Alert Level 3 since its explosive eruption last December 9, indicating that “magmatic eruption has begun and may progress to further explosive eruptions.”

In April this year, President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. created the National Task Force Kanlaon to oversee and coordinate all government programs, activities and projects to reduce the impact of volcanic activities and hasten the recovery of affected communities.

The Department of National Defense serves as the chairperson of the task force, while the Office of Civil Defense is the secretariat tasked to extend the necessary technical, administrative and operational support.

Other agency members include the departments of Science and Technology, Environment, Public Works, Social Welfare, Labor, Interior, and Health. (PNA)