Thieves cripple communications of volcanologists at Mayon

LEGAZPI CITY — Thieves cut phone lines to steal about 30 meters of copper wire around lava-spilling Mayon volcano, crippling the communications of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) at the Lignon Hill Observatory here.

"The copper wire may be worth a few hundred pesos, but it may spell the difference between life and death for residents near Mayon," said Ernesto Corpus of Phivolcs.

Other officials said the theft, discovered early yesterday, prevented them from transmitting observations and updates to Manila headquarters.

Upon learning of the theft, Albay Gov. Fernando Gonzales blew his top and ordered Legazpi City police chief Senior Superintendent Francisco Guarin to arrest the suspects immediately.

Gonzales, 65, who is known for his coolness and understanding, fumed after learning that the communication line to Phivolcs was cut off yesterday morning after thieves cut and stole meters of the telephone cord Sunday night.

Two weeks ago, the governor personally asked Digitel Telecommunications to connect the landline after thieves cut and stole the telephone line for the second time.

Gonzales installed a single side band communications system and donated a handheld radio to maintain communication from the Provincial Disaster Coordinating Center to Phivolcs.

"Well, this is an unfortunate incident because somebody cut the line to Phivolcs for the third time," he said.

"I just heard that there is already a suspect," he told The STAR during an interview at the Gastoff Restaurant here.

"And they will now file the charges since they had already found the evidence that the telephone wires are being kept by somebody. So, I’m hoping that this will be the end of it."

Gonzales said that he is really upset about the incident "because it’s the communications that is being affected, especially these precarious times when the communication from Phivolcs is very critical for the evacuation preparation."

Gonzales has given the mayors the discretion to take care of those who voluntarily leave their homes since there is no official order yet to evacuate those inside the six-kilometer permanent danger zone.

Guarin said that police detectives had already identified three suspects after they conducted a search on the junk shop where the copper wire was sold.

"We found telephone lines at the junk shop," he said. "If the telephone lines came from Phivolcs, then the police have now an evidence to warrant the filing of a case."

Journalists complained that they cannot interview Ed Laguerta, Phivolcs resident volcanologist, because the thieves removed the plastic cover of the telephone line and took the copper wires.

"Yaon na naman so mga patal (The fools have stuck again)," Mario Arguelles, Bicol correspondent of a Manila daily said in the vernacular after learning that Phivolcs cannot be reached by telephone again.

"I kept dialing the numbers 8242383 and 8240790 again and again, and nobody answers. The ringing just stopped. We have a dead line."

Laguerta also asked the police to provide security to prevent thieves from cutting the telephone line.

Without a telephone connection, Phivolcs cannot send its bulletin, especially critical information like raising the alert level or evacuation orders.

Volcanologists reported yesterday that more than 7,000 tons of sulfur dioxide (SO2) emission recorded in the past 24 hours over Mayon has doubled from more than 3,000 tons the other day.

It indicates that the magma inside Mayon’s crater continues to travel towards the surface as lava flows had already cascaded some four kilometers down slope with the incandescent fragments already burning plantations at the foothills, volcanologists added.

Ernesto Corpus, Phivolcs volcano monitoring division chief, said the very high SO2 emission indicates that massive magma degassing is taking place inside the volcano that in effect could speed up magma intrusion towards the crater.

"Degassing is the force needed by a volcano to push up magmatic materials towards its surface," he said. "If the degassing is high, the intrusion rate is also faster."

Corpus said the possibility of an explosion remained high amid the continuing lava flow, and that in 1993, when the eruption killed at least 78 farmers, Mayon eventually simmered down after a short duration of lava and pyroclastic flows. — Celso Amo, Cet Dematera, AP