As Mayon explosion looms, Bicolanos try to salvage Christmas spirit

As Mount Mayon plays Grinch, at least 8,000 families in 23 evacuation centers in Albay, Bicol, are settling in for Christmas away from home. Government relief goods, in fact, are being packaged as noche buena packs, so certain are officials that the danger will not pass any time soon. Albay Governor Jose Salceda has ordered local authorities to start packing up to 10,000 Christmas meals for the displaced families. This is aside from the daily ration of five kilos of rice to each family. Early Saturday morning, Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) secretary Esperanza Cabral also made the rounds of evacuation centers in Legazpi City and Guinobatan, Camalig, and Daraga towns. “They accept that they are in clear danger," she said, but added that they still looked “happy". According to Cabral, around P442,446 worth of relief support/augmentation assistance for the displaced families were released through the provincial DSWD office of Albay. The DSWD will also preposition some P98 million worth of relief items to augment its standby calamity fund of PP22 million. Relief items included 2,400 one-liter bottles of mineral water (worth P52,800); 88 boxes of biscuits (P47,520); 413 boxes of noodles (P158,592); 1,000 family food packs (P153,534) and 3,000 face masks (P30,000). Cabral said she has also released P500,000 to DSWD-FO V in addition to its P300,000 standby funds and P1.65 million worth of pre-positioned food supplies (P450,251) and non-food items (P1.2 million) for release to the affected population. The Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC) has also joined the relief effort, providing potable drinking water for the evacuees, seminars on proper hygiene, and an upcoming medical mission before Christmas. On a more sober note, Cabral noted that the evacuees still lack some basic needs. She said that the public schools used to house the evacuees are not congested, with each classroom accommodating an average of five to six families or 20-25 people, but are lacking adequate bathroom facilities. "We do not know if they will still feel happy in evacuation centers after maybe three months," Cabral said. Mount Mayon has been spewing ash plumes 2 km high and lava flows 4 km downslope from the crater since renewed volcanic activity early Monday. - Nikka Corsino/TJD, GMANews.TV