Worse not yet over for Pinatubo, claim scientist, civic group

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga — As Central Luzon folk mark the explosive eruption of Mt. Pinatubo a decade ago today, scientists and people’s organizations in the region have warned that "the worse is not over yet."

"It is completely wrong and misleading to say that the Mt. Pinatubo disaster has ended," said Aida Ishikawa, executive director of the Central Luzon Center for Emergency Aid and Rehabilitation Inc. (CONCERN), in a forum here.

In fact, she said, "the disaster has become more menacing to lives and properties."

Dr. Kelvin Rodolfo, a lahar expert and consultant of the National Institute for Geological Sciences (NIGS), warned against "complacency" among people living near lahar channels, particularly in Pampanga and Zambales, amid reports that danger from lahar flows has been mitigated.

The anti-lahar megadike at the Pasig-Potrero River in Pampanga, Rodolfo told The STAR after the forum, "has really never yet passed the test of a severe typhoon since 1995 when lahar flows buried Barangay Cabalantian in Bacolor and parts of San Fernando."

He added that new fishponds have sprouted only a few feet from the base of the U-shaped megadike, making the P1.4-billion anti-lahar structure vulnerable to collapse.

The megadike was designed to protect 10 Pampanga towns from lahar flows.

Ishikawa lamented the government’s inability to control widespread and prolonged flooding in Pampanga, Tarlac and Zambales.

"As a result, the region has seen a regular worsening cycle of lahar-induced floods that have affected an average of one million residents yearly since 1992," she said.

The forum was held to mark the devastating eruption of Mt. Pinatubo on June 15, 1991, when ashfall blanketed the entire Central Luzon.

Three days earlier on June 12, the volcano sent a dark, mushroom-like cloud seven kilometers into the air — a portent of worse things to come.

Ishikawa said that "as floods occur in increasing regularity and seriousness in at least 500 villages, the government’s disaster management program has not been comprehensive and has largely been limited to the megadike."

She said the defunct Presidential Task Force on Mt. Pinatubo spent P7 billion of P13 billion allocated to it, or 52 percent, on lahar-confining structures "that proved to be structurally unsound and deficient, if not the subject of allegations of corruption."

In contrast, she said the Mt. Pinatubo Commission, its reports showed, spent only P3 billion for resettlement, P2 billion for livelihood, and P34 million for social services.

According to CONCERN, 8,000 more lahar-displaced families are still awaiting permanent resettlement which, Ishikawa said, "suggests imprudent fund use and fraudulent practices in the awarding of housing units (at resettlement sites)."

CONCERN urged the Arroyo administration to redirect the disaster response management programs started by its predecessors.

"We would like it to use public funds efficiently by channeling them to livelihood programs, disaster preparedness training and more effective flood-control measures," she said.