Philippine troops went house to house
Thursday threatening to use force to move hundreds of residents from
the steaming slopes of a lava-spilling volcano. Some farmers begged
to stay to guard their livestock while their families spent
Christmas Eve in a shelter.
Volunteers distributed games and ice cream to children in some 45
evacuation centers and were preparing meals to try to restore some
holiday cheer.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ordered officials to search for
all those still refusing to leave their farms within a 5-mile
(8-kilometer) danger zone around Mayon volcano in the central
Philippines.
Security forces were under orders to use force if necessary to
ensure no one is hurt by flowing lava or red-hot rocks, said Jukes
Nunez, a provincial disaster management official.
Volcanologists warned the weeklong moderate eruption of the
8,070-foot (2,460-meter) Mayon could escalate within days as the
volcano belched out 20 gray ash columns Thursday, some of them a
mile (1.5 kilometers) high.
In Mabinit, a village within Mayon's danger zone, some of the
farmers pleaded with soldiers accompanied by human rights workers to
allow one man in each household to guard belongings while their
families are in evacuation shelters farther away.
"We can't just leave our livestock and belongings because they
may be stolen, so we asked the military to allow the men to stay
behind," said Nelson Esquivel, 53. "I will just run down when the
volcano erupts."
Military spokesman Capt. Razaleigh Bansawan said the men were
given time to tend to their farms and gather belongings, but all of
them were later moved out and Mabinit was sealed off.
He said the evacuation of about 1,000 people in seven other
villages within the zone was ongoing. People were complying, he
added.
Government workers have fanned out across some 45 schools and
gymnasiums with games, movies and music concerts, hoping to keep
47,000 evacuees entertained over Christmas holidays, a time when
many in this majority Roma Catholic country are missing traditional
family gatherings in their homes.
Children in one evacuation center gleefully lined up for ice
cream Thursday, and other activities were taking place to keep them
busy.
Dinner packs of noodles, apples, oranges and corned beef will be
distributed at the shelter later Thursday for Christmas Eve dinner,
said Nunez.
