Duterte to visit Mayon after resting “for a day or two”

January 27, 2018

Coping with migraine after arriving from India Saturday morning, President Rodrigo Duterte cracked a joke about Mayon Volcano before saying he will visit the area after resting for " a day or two."

"Mayon is so hard-headed. I ordered the volcano not to erupt because I would be leave," said Duterte. "Ok, you can erupt as long as everybody has complied with the safety zones and nobody is near enough to be hurt."

"Mayon is threatening to erupt. If it were human, I would kick him," added Duterte. "Just erupt. No more view. Well, this is the correct answer, I'm just joking so my headache caused by migraine will go away."

Duterte said after a few days rest, he will decide Sunday  when he will go to Mayon.

"The problem is where will we land?  Maybe close to the sea"," mused Duterte. "Isn't that a bit far? The ashes (are) there. But it's the wind current that you have to worry about because it will bring the ashes to you, where you are."

"But if it’s safe to go there and even if it’s not, you give me the space to land. If I am cleared, I will go there in about one or two days," said Duterte.

Mayon Volcano began showing renewed activity two weeks ago. It has been displaying lava fountains and ashclouds a few times daily. Alert Level 4, which expands the danger zone to eight kilometers, has been raised by state volcanologists.

Volcanologist Mariton Bornas, chief of volcano monitoring at the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) in Legazpi, told Daily Manila Shimbun in a phone interview, heavy rains prompted a lahar advisory was issued at 10:30 am after they noticed "very loose deposits of ash and lava blocks" at the upper watershed areas.

"There were reports of lahar flows. It may be lahar flows at the top but because of rain, it becomes muddy steam flows when it reached the ground," she said.

Duterte said he assured Albay Governor Al Francis Bichara that funds to take care of the evacuees have been given.

"So the delay, the hitch must be somewhere else. But it's not us because I said to release the funds immediately. DMS