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By APD writer Melo M. Acuña
As government disaster mitigation officials moved to evacuate residents from two towns within the 14-kilometer radius of restless Taal Volcano, 24,508 individuals or 5,458 families are housed in temporary shelters in three other Batangas towns as of midday today.
Several roads have remained closed in Batangas and Cavite provinces due to ashfall while 539 flights, 237 of which were international flights were cancelled due to volcanic ash from the 311-meter Taal Volcano which has remained under Alert Level 4 which means hazardous eruption may take place in a matter of hours or days.
In a phone interview, Science and Technology Undersecretary and PHIVOLCS Director Dr. Renato Solidum said Taal Volcano has remained under Alert Level 4.
“We have not seen signs to reduce or increase the alert level,” Dr. Solidum said in an interview at 2:00 P.M. today.
Three cities and four towns in Cavite and Batangas provinces experienced power interruption since yesterday afternoon.
Aside from the suspension of classes in Metro Manila, Southern Tagalog and Central Luzon regions, Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea suspended work in all government offices today in the ashfall affected areas.
Metro Manila residents bought N95 masks to prevent volcanic dust inhalation while drugstores have reportedly had a hard time meeting the demand.
Eleven flights have been cancelled with nine other flights rescheduled at the Clark International Airport in Pampanga province.
Meanwhile, at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) and the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP), announced the partial resumption of operations from 10:00 A.M. for departures and 12:00 Noon for arrivals.
“This, however, will be subject to terminal capacity of the four NAIA terminals and airline consent,” the joint statement disclosed. With the current situation, the separation time between flights will be longer “in order to give MIAA and CAAP better capability to manage terminal and runway capacities.”
Priority will be given to departure flights so that the NAIA ramps may be cleared of planes parked at the airport since last night. Second priority to be given to regular scheduled flights today as this arrangement will also allow MIAA and CAAP better capability to allocate slots.
Transport Secretary Arthur P. Tugade instructed MIAA and CAAP to consult airline operations so they can come up with a workable and systematic schedule of recovery flights.
MIAA, through its independent slot coordinator, Airport Coordination Australia (ACA), requested airline operators to subject, at the soonest time, their flight cancellations today to give the slotting committee more room to allocate slots to airlines willing to mount recovery operations.
MIAA personnel began clearing runways, taxiways and ramps of ashfall since 4:00 AM as clearing activities are still ongoing.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
