Safe sites to view lava flow from Mayon recommended

LEGAZPI CITY , Philippines  – Tourism and disaster management officials in Bicol yesterday welcomed the plan to put up new viewing sites for the lava fronts facing this city.

Maria “Nini” Ravanilla, director of the Department of Tourism in Bicol, said that her office would suggest to name them as “Mayonian lava viewing sites” to indicate a series of activities promoting “Ma­yo­­nian tourism.”

“We will recommend to our concerned officials here to construct safe sites to view lava where visitors and tourists can stay. And we will plan out activities that will help promote our Mayonian tourism,” Ravanilla told The STAR

She said the existing golf course just outside the new lava front could be a potential site.

The idea of putting up a lava viewing site developed following reports that both local and foreign tourists, including tour guides and media men, continued to troop to the new lava front that settled up to the six-kilometer permanent danger zone boundary of the Buyuan-Padang channel, or the portion of Mayon facing Legazpi City.

Even Cedric Daep, chief of the Albay Public Safety and Emergency Management Office (Apsemo), subscribed to the plan for as long as the viewing sites are a safe distance away and outside the PDZ.

“It is alright for us if they will put up viewing sites for the lava deposits as long as they are safe and outside the permanent danger zone,” Daep said.

Alex Baloloy, resident volcanologist here of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs), said the new lava front deposited at the Buyuan-Padang channel is closer to the portion of the national highway, or at 6.5 aerial kilometers from the main road, than the old lava deposit dumped by the 2006 Mayon eruption in Mabinit channel about 7.3 aerial kilometers from the highway.

The Bicol tourism officers confirmed that the influx of tourists in Albay had swollen to more than 200 percent in December, or while Mayon’s soft eruption was in progress, as compared to the arrivals in December 2008.

DOT’s random surveys, according to Ravanilla, estimated an average of 2,500 tourist arrivals a day in December, as compared to only about 1,000 tourists a day in December 2008.

Hotel occupancy during this month rose to about 80 percent, compared to 46 percent during the same month in 2008.

Ravanilla also said that the multiplier effects of the volcano tourism have generated about 3,000 jobs in hotels, restaurants, resorts, and transportation industry, among others.

“In fact Bicol might further improve its present tourism ranking of number six, to number four because of the recent Mayon eruption,” the DOT-Bicol director said.

Eerily silent

Moreover, Phivolcs said that the volcanic activities at Mayon continued to decline with only three volcanic earthquakes detected in the last 24 hours.

Phivolcs, however, maintained Alert Level 3 at Mt. Mayon despite the decrease in volcanic activities in the past few days.

Phivolcs director Renato Solidum said three volcanic earthquakes and 21 rock fall events related to the detachment of lava fragments at the volcano’s upper slopes were detected by the seismic monitoring network during the past 24 hours.

However, rains prevented the volcanologists from closely monitoring all of Mayon’s activities.

Phivolcs said steaming activity and crater glow were not observed due to thick clouds that covered the summit crater.

Phivolcs maintained Alert Level 3 over Mayon, which means that magma is close to the crater, and eruption is possible within weeks.

But despite the general order to allow some 47,000 evacuees to return home starting Saturday, Albay Gov. Joey Salceda has not allowed some 469 families from Barangay Anoling in Camalig and Barangay Bañadero in Daraga to return home.  – With Celso Amo