Landslide threat in Albay: Forced evacuation in 2 villages ordered

LEGAZPI CITY – Albay Gov. Joey Salceda has ordered the forced evacuation of 124 families in two villages in Libon town, as a hillside there could erode anytime.

This, as the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) and the Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council’s landslide advance monitoring team found cracks on the hillside in Puroks 2 and 3 in Barangay Burabod, about five kilometers from the Libon town proper.

The hillside was also found to be sitting on a fault line.

“This is in line with our policy of zero casualty,” Salceda said.

The Sangguniang Panlalawigan placed the province under a state of calamity last Feb. 21 after continuous rainfall triggered flash floods and landslides.

“The policy to achieve zero casualty is very difficult to implement but I cannot allow another Guinsaugon in Albay, God forbids,” Salceda said, referring to a village in St. Bernard, Southern Leyte which was buried by a mudslide, killing hundreds, in 2006.

MGB geologist Arlene Dayao said the risk that a landslide may occur in Puroks 2 and 3 in Barangay Burabod is high.

Anthony Imperial, Ligao City disaster coordinating council officer, said cracks were also observed on a slope in Barangay Culliat in Ligao City.

Imperial noted that the kitchen of one of the houses in the village has already slid down due to a landslide.

“The cracks on the public elementary school building there threatens the people living below,” Imperial told a meeting of Albay mayors and Salceda here last Friday.

The road linking Libon and Pantao towns is still not passable due to landslides in Barangays Mararig, Cagoscos, and Biak-na-Bato.

Continuous rainfall for seven days starting last Feb. 14, spawned by the tail-end of a cold front and a low pressure area in Mindanao and aggravated by a lingering La Niña in the Pacific Ocean, has heavily saturated the soil in some areas of the province, causing landslides in 19 barangays.

Although floodwaters in low-lying areas like Libon have subsided, the heavy flooding has affected the soil cover of the linement of the normal fault in the Bicol region.

Ed Laguerta, resident scientist at Mayon Volcano, said the linement of the normal fault runs from Lake Bato in Camarines Sur to Oas town in Albay down to Buragwis in this city and to the Albay Gulf.

Under PDCC Advisory No. 9, Salceda ordered the police to carry out the forced evacuation of the 645 residents of Puroks 2 and 3 of Barangay Burabod.

Salceda also temporarily banned any form of human activity, including passage on foot or by vehicle through the two villages.

The duration of the ban will be determined by the PDCC’s landslide advance monitoring team or Libon’s Municipal Disaster Coordinating Council (MDCC) in coordination with the Barangay Disaster Coordinating Council of Burabod.

To implement the order, the MDCC of Libon has to organize a landslide warning and monitoring team and maintain close watch especially during bad weather.

To fortify these measures, the Libon municipal council has to declare a curfew in the affected villages, Salceda’s order stated.