Marcos finds Mayon Volcano response ‘satisfactory’

President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. said Wednesday that measures being implemented amid the continued unrest of Mayon Volcano had been "satisfactory."

Marcos went to Albay to check the situation of evacuees. He also conducted an aerial inspection of the volcano.

"I think that the response that we have put together is satisfactory, that we were able to prepare and we were able to achieve so far 'yung sinasabi ng province na walang casualty," Marcos said in a situation briefing in Albay province.

"We will follow that principle in everything that we're doing," he added.

Marcos lauded the coordination between the national government agencies and the local government units.

"That will maximize the resources that we can apply to this problem. Let's develop all of these ideas that we talked about here today," Marcos said.

As regards Albay's quick response funds, Marcos said the national government should already take the load off of the province and not wait for its funds to deplete.

"Huwag na natin paabutin ng 14 days, huwag na nating ubusin 'yung pera ng LGU, kung puwede na tayong pumasok, pumasok na tayo. Take the load of the province and take the load of the municipalities because very limited lang naman 'yan," Marcos said.

"I bring up the funding for the quick response because mukha talagang the working number is 45 days which means, the minimum is 45 days and possibly it will be 90 days. We're talking six weeks to 12 weeks. This is not a short time," he added.

A total of 37,231 individuals or 9,571 families in 26 barangays in the Bicol Region have been affected by Mayon Volcano’s activities.

At present, Mayon Volcano is under Alert Level 3 due to its magmatic unrest.

Meanwhile, Marcos said children staying in the evacuation centers should remain productive while they are in the facilities. If possible, classes should be held for them, he said.

"Noong pumunta kaming evacuation center, daming bata. Siguro hindi naman puwedeng wala na namang ginagawa 'yung mga bata, I was thinking we could hold classes for them during, while they're evacuated or kung di man, kahit playschool man lang para may ginagawa 'yung mga bata," Marcos said.

Gilbert Sadsad, regional director of the Department of Education, told Marcos that they have enforced measures to continue the learning of students while in the evacuation centers.

"We device schemes on how they can continue their learning in one of the evacuation center," Sadsad said. —NB, GMA Integrated News