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Philippines’ most active volcano forces 18,000 people to flee to emergency shelters

A GENTLE eruption of the Philippines’ most active volcano that has forced nearly 18,000 people to flee to emergency shelters could last for months and create a protracted crisis, officials said today.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr flew to north-eastern Albay province to meet villagers who had been forced to evacuate from mostly poor farming communities within a 3.7-mile radius of the Mayon volcano’s crater since volcanic activity spiked last week.

Authorities enforced a mandatory evacuation of tens of thousands of villagers living within a permanent danger zone around the volcano.

The zone is supposed to be off-limits to people but has become the site of farming villages of mostly impoverished residents that have thrived for generations.

A tame but prolonged eruption would mean the large number of displaced villagers would have to stay away from their homes and in emergency shelters where they receive food packs, drinking water and other government-provided necessities.

“It’s a very difficult situation,” Daraga Mayor Carlwyn Baldo said.

About 2,900 residents of his town have fled to evacuation shelters, including school buildings that would need to be cleared of evacuees before classes resume in August and September.

“We can’t allow anybody to return home even if there’s just a crater glow,” Mr Baldo said.

“It’s dangerous. The volcano may suddenly erupt violently and put people in danger,” he said, adding he was considering setting up tents for the displaced now taking shelter in school buildings.

His rural Albay province town of 140,000 people could not afford the huge cost of providing food aid and other necessities to the evacuees without national government assistance, Mr Baldo said.

Along with frequent natural disasters, Mr Marcos’s government inherited an economy shattered by the coronavirus pandemic, which deepened poverty and unemployment.

The 8,077-foot volcano is a top tourist draw in the Philippines because of its picturesque conical shape but is the most active of the country's 24 known volcanoes.

It last erupted violently in 2018, displacing tens of thousands. An 1814 eruption buried entire villages and left more than 1,000 people dead.

Authorities were closely watching two other volcanoes elsewhere in the country today for signs of activity.

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