PHIVOLCS: Stolen equipment will not hinder Mt. Pinatubo monitoring

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) said Thursday its monitoring operations will not be hampered despite its equipment being stolen from their observation station in San Jose, Tarlac.

During the Luzon leg of the Handa Pilipinas sa Bagong Pilipinas 2025 on Thursday, PHIVOLCS Director Teresito Bacolcol shared that there are still nine functioning stations monitoring Mt. Pinatubo.

The missing equipment was located at the northern station, which has no monitoring capacity as of the moment.

“Yung nanakaw, nadiscover namin kahapon, is for the northernmost [station]. So of course, the more instruments, the better the location, maiuulat natin yung lindol, mas accurate. Wala na tayo [reports] sa north kasi nga ninakaw,” Bacolcol shared.

(From what we discovered yesterday, what was stolen was from the northernmost [station]. So of course, the more instruments, the better the location, we can report the earthquakes more accurately. We have no more [reports] from the north since it was stolen.)

“Hindi naman mahahamper yung [operations] kasi we still have nine (stations). For the meantime, meron tayong ibang instruments for other volcanoes na ilalagay muna natin temporarily doon sa nanakaw,” he added.

([The operations] will not be hampered because we still have 9. For the meantime, we have instruments for other volcanoes that we can temporarily install in place of the stolen equipment.)

Equipment worth over P1 million from the San Jose Observation Station in Tarlac were discovered missing on Wednesday.

As of Thursday, Bacolcol said police still has no suspects.

“‘Di pa nahuhuli [ang magnanakaw], ([The thief] has not been caught yet,) but I think the police are doing something,” he said. — RF, GMA Integrated News