By Ephraim Aguilar
Inquirer Southern Luzon
LEGAZPI CITY—In a world that has gotten smaller for the 47,000 evacuees from Mayon Volcano, everything has to be shared—from food to sleeping mats, from bathrooms to the air they breathe.
And they are living together after escaping a common danger—a possible major eruption of Mayon that, scientists Saturday warned, remained a real threat because of the buildup of magma, clogging the volcano.
In their now smaller world in an evacuation center at Albay Central School, 367 displaced families from Barangay Matanag receive the same amount of food from relief agencies—regardless of the size of each family.
It is in such situations that the damayan (sharing) culture among Filipinos comes to the fore, sociologists say.
“Smaller families would share what they have with bigger families. We would help one another,” evacuee Cynthia Aydalla, a mother of four, told the Inquirer.
“We would buy vegetables from other evacuees. They would bring their harvests here in the evacuation center rather than sell them in the market,” she said.
Sharing little they have
Matanag is one of more than 30 villages within the 8-kilometer danger zone whose residents had to flee their homes to escape the threat from Mayon.
Once it happened that the Aydallas received six kilograms of rice, four packs of noodles, eight canned goods, and a 25-gram pack of coffee that were supposed to be good for three days.
That was also the same ration that Alex Abellena and his family of seven children received—an amount that wouldn’t last them more than two days.
Such a discrepancy has fostered a feeling of generosity among the evacuees.
One big family
In the cramped classrooms of San Roque Elementary School, lack of a comfortable sleeping space was also a problem.
The solution: The evacuees put together, like jigsaw puzzle pieces, whatever mats they had. In the absence of mats, they shared cardboard cartons to shield themselves against the cold floors.
“All evacuees would sleep together like one big family,” said Josie Perez, 41, of Barangay Mabinit.
Since a classroom houses as many as over 100 people, some would sleep in the hallways, Perez said. Others, including a one-month-old baby, slept on a stage.
Upon waking up, over 1,000 evacuees would form long queues to the only two functional bathrooms in the evacuation center.
“Some of us would wake as early as 1 a.m. to avoid the long queues. Others found it more convenient to go back to their houses in the danger zones to clean themselves up,” Perez told the Inquirer.
Culture of generosity
Dolly Laguilles, a sociology professor from Bicol University in Daraga, Albay, said: “It is true that crisis creates a political climate for giving. But in the evacuation centers, it may be more than that.”
She said the tales of generosity from crowded evacuation centers were real and deeply rooted to the Filipino way of life.
“Generosity is a Christian deed. Filipinos are innately generous people,” Laguilles said. “Calamities like this would simply test generosity, a value that has always been there, though, at times, it just has to be revived.
She added: “The damayan culture becomes a source of strength for the refugees. It helps them cope and stand strong.”
Uniquely Filipino
Laguilles said Filipino sociologists have unique terms to describe similar rural values of sharing—“pakikisama, damayan, and bayanihan.”
“These are unique Filipino values deeply embedded in the Filipino’s familial culture.”
She said the damayan culture preserved in rural communities was something urban Filipinos could learn from.
“Urban Filipinos value their space and privacy so much more than the rural folk,” Laguilles said. “That is why the refugees could adapt in crowded evacuation centers and could easily share what they have with one another.”
The sense of being faced with the same danger—that posed by an angry mountain—may have reinforced that communal feeling.
Buildup of magma
Volcanologists on Saturday said that while fewer earthquakes had been recorded from the volcano in recent days, magma continued to build up inside and any lull in activity could be followed by a bigger eruption.
A hazardous eruption remains possible within days, and residents who live near the volcano’s slopes should not be misled into leaving the evacuation centers and venturing back to their homes, warned volcanologist Ed Laguerta.
“The number of volcanic earthquakes has gone down, but this is just part of the eruptive cycle of Mayon,” he said.
1984 lesson
The number of quakes decreased from 871 recorded during the 24-hour period ending Friday morning to 406 recorded during the next 24 hours, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said.
Laguerta said instruments showed the volcano remained inflated despite having spilled more than 20 million cubic meters of lava over the last two weeks. That means the lava being released is being replaced by magma coming from beneath the volcano.
“We are looking not only at what Mayon is presently exhibiting because that fluctuates. We are also looking at its past characteristics,” he said, recalling that in 1984, a four-day lull was followed by a sudden, big eruption.
He added: “What is becoming clear is that (the volcano) is getting clogged. That is when the lava is rising but cannot get out.”
“Just because the volcano looks calm … it does not mean its activity is decreasing. We cannot be off our guard. After this calm period, it could explode with even more force,” Laguerta said.
Hissing, rumbling
Showing no letup in its “high level of activity,” Mayon hissed and rumbled, ejecting ash columns a kilometer high from its summit, Phivolcs said.
It said the rumblings continued to be heard at the Lignon Hill Observatory in Legazpi. A total of 406 earthquakes also shook the mountain and emissions of sulfur dioxide remained high at 8,993 tons per day.
Alert level 4, meaning a hazardous eruption is possible within days, remains enforced and no one is allowed to venture within the 8-km danger zone from the summit, it said.
“Areas just outside of this (danger zone) should prepare for evacuation in the event hazardous explosive eruptions intensify,” Phivolcs said.
Gov. Joey Salceda is offering P100,000 in cash to any barangay affected by the continuing eruptions that doesn’t suffer any casualties.
“If we achieve the zero-casualty target, then it would entice investors to come in because it is proven that we can move on in the mid of calamities, yet Albay is still worth investing,” Salceda said.
The 2,460-meter has erupted 49 times in recorded history. In 1814, more than 1,200 people were killed as lava buried the town of Cagsawa. With reports from Alcuin Papa, AP and AFP
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