OCD-NIR readies evacuation as Kanlaon unrest grows

By Glazyl M. Jopson

BACOLOD CITY — The Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council-Negros Island Region, chaired by the Office of Civil Defense-Negros Island Region, has been advised to prepare for possible evacuation measures and a higher alert status for Kanlaon Volcano after the unusual sighting of a crater glow, or “banaag,” on Sunday night.

The matter was discussed during a Pre-Disaster Risk Assessment-Scenario Building meeting with the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology on Monday.

In a phone interview with Daily Guardian on Monday, OCD-NIR Director Donato Sermeno III said around 6,100 residents may have to be preemptively evacuated if the volcano’s activity escalates.

“We have no evacuation for now. We are just waiting for the advice from Phivolcs if the crater glow would be persistent and if there would be significant changes on the volcano’s activities,” he added.

Sermeno said the estimate is based on previous evacuations covering the local government units of La Castellana, Bago City, La Carlota City, Murcia, and San Carlos City in Negros Occidental, and Canlaon City in Negros Oriental, where the volcano is situated.

He said the meeting focused on assessing the readiness of concerned agencies and local governments, including the sufficiency of food and nonfood items in case the alert level is raised.

With the volcano’s recent activity, Sermeno advised the public not to be complacent.

“Expect for the worst,” he said.

Based on the Phivolcs advisory on Monday, it was the first time that a crater glow had been observed with the naked eye at 7 p.m. Sunday, caused by superheated volcanic gas.

Phivolcs said crater glow is a common precursor of magmatic eruption at Mayon Volcano.

Since Nov. 4, 2024, invisible emissions of superheated volcanic gas plumes from the Kanlaon Volcano summit crater have occasionally been detected at night by infrared and high-resolution camera monitoring by the Kanlaon Volcano Observatory.

Superheated gas activity has persisted this year and has become more frequent since April 13, 2026.

While this is a new development, Phivolcs said monitoring parameters have remained at approximately the same level since Kanlaon’s last moderately explosive eruption on March 15 this year.

Since then, seismicity has remained at a steady rate of six volcano-tectonic earthquakes per day, while sulfur dioxide, or SO2, gas emissions averaged 1,646 metric tons per day and increased slightly to 2,382 metric tons per day this past week.

Ground deformation parameters have been unsteady but still indicate sustained and slow-rate inflation of the volcano edifice since 2022.

Nonetheless, Phivolcs warned that if the crater glow becomes sustained and intensifies, it would indicate that magma is close to or at the crater and could signal increasing chances of magmatic unrest within days.

While the volcano is under Alert Level 2, the alert status may be raised to Alert Level 3 should a magmatic eruption be forecast by sustained and intensifying crater glow at the summit crater, according to Phivolcs.

Phivolcs stressed that a magmatic eruption could generate life-threatening volcanic hazards such as pyroclastic density currents, or PDCs, lava flows, ballistic projectiles, ashfall, rockfall, and other hazards.

Entry into the 4-kilometer-radius Permanent Danger Zone remains strictly prohibited, and those within the PDC hazard zones should be vigilant and ready for evacuation if the chances of a magmatic eruption increase.

Local governments and disaster risk reduction partners must prepare their response measures, paying special attention to vulnerable members of the community, including the elderly, people with medical conditions, expectant mothers, and infants.

The agency also advised increased vigilance against potential syn-eruption lahars and sediment-laden streamflow in channels draining the edifice should intense rains occur during eruptive unrest.