• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The Office of the Civil Defense is eyeing unoccupied Yolanda housing project units under the National Housing Authority, located in several local government units of Negros Occidental, as potential relocation sites for evacuees in case of another Kanlaon volcano eruption.
Task Force Kanlaon commander, Raul Fernandez, who also chairs the OCD 6, said he requested an inventory of government housing units in E.B. Magalona, Manapla, and the cities of Silay, Victorias, Cadiz, Sagay, and Escalante, as well as the regional evacuation center in Bacolod City, during a meeting with the concerned LGUs on Thursday .
For the municipality of La Castellana alone, Mayor Alme Rhummylan Nicor Mangilimutan reported that 37,000 town residents could be up for evacuation, should Alert Level 4 be raised at Kanlaon Volcano.
The OCD is also establishing a tent city for the affected La Castellana residents in Himamaylan City, aside from using the Himamaylan National High School.
A memorandum of agreement is also being eyed for signing with the cities of Bago and Talisay City for a similar purpose, Fernandez disclosed.
Despite these developments, he admitted that they are still short of housing units for evacuees.
Mangilimutan earlier proposed that the displaced residents of her town could be evacuated in northern Negros, aside from the tent city in Himamaylan and Binalbagan.
Alert Level 3 remains hoisted at Kanlaon volcano.
However, farmers were already allowed by OCD to go back and harvest their crops within the permanent danger zone of Kanlaon, giving them a window time between 6 a.m. to 4 p.m., which is supervised by the Incident Management Teams of various local disaster units.
Donato Sermeno, OCD regional director for Negros Island Region, said the police is also patrolling the danger zones, aside from establishing checkpoints in the area.*