April 9, 2025
BACOLOD – The skies turned dark early Tuesday, as a large plume of ash and debris was ejected from the crater of Mt. Kanlaon on Negros Island followed by what looked like pockets of fire on its slopes.
This was how Mayor Rhummyla Nicor Mangilimutan of La Castellana, Negros Occidental, the town closest to the volcano, described the third and recent explosion of the active volcano at 5:51 a.m., which she witnessed while on the second floor of a building in the town’s Barangay Cabacungan.
She said it was a scary sight as the winds blew the ash mostly toward the direction of La Carlota City, which was the worst hit by ashfall.
READ: What happens after Kanlaon Volcano eruption? Phivolcs gives 3 scenarios
Bernie Rojo, a village council member in Barangay San Miguel in La Carlota City, Negros Occidental, said he was shocked with what he witnessed. “When I went out of my house, I saw thick gray ash rising into the sky before it fell to the ground after about 10 minutes,” he told local reporters.
Sugar industry leader Manuel Lamata said his private plane had just taken off from Bacolod-Silay Airport when he suddenly saw the sky turn dark over Mt. Kanlaon. “It was very scary,” he said.
The eruption, which ended at 6:47 a.m., produced a voluminous plume that rose at least 4 kilometers above the vent before drifting west and southwest, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said in its advisory.
Pyroclastic density currents (PDCs), or the mixture of fragmented volcanic particles and hot gases and ash, descended on the southern slopes of the volcano within a kilometer of the crater in La Castellana.
“Large ballistic fragments were also observed to have been thrown around the crater within a few hundred meters and caused burning of vegetation near the volcano summit,” Phivolcs added.
Thin ashfall was reported in several villages in La Carlota City, Bago City and La Castellana, all in Negros Occidental while sulfurous fumes were “strongly” experienced in Barangay Cubay, La Carlota City, Phivolcs said.
The eruption on Tuesday was less intense than the major eruption of Dec. 9 last year but it lasted longer, said Mari-Andylene Quintia, Phivolcs resident volcanologist based in La Carlota City.
She said a 75-meter ash emission from the crater drifting southwest was observed from 1:11 p.m. to 1:32 p.m. on Tuesday.
Mt. Kanlaon straddles the cities of Bago, La Carlota and San Carlos and the towns of Murcia and La Castellana in Negros Occidental, and Canlaon City in Negros Oriental.
Phivolcs chief Teresito Bacolcol told The Associated Press (AP) there were no other key signs of restiveness, like a spike in volcanic earthquakes, that would prompt the alert on Kanlaon to be raised from the current level 3, which means a “high level of volcanic unrest.” The highest alert, level 5, means a “hazardous eruption is in progress.”
“The possibility of a bigger eruption is always there,” Bacolcol said, urging people to remain vigilant and stay away from a 6-km danger zone around Kanlaon.
Preparation
Local governments were advised to prepare communities within the hazard zone to evacuate should another eruption occur. Civil aviation authorities were also told to advise pilots to avoid flying near the summit due to ash from any sudden eruption that could pose danger to the aircraft.
At least 2,612 families (8,335 people) have been staying in different evacuation centers in Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental following the eruption of Mt. Kanlaon on June 3 and Dec. 9 last year.
Classes were suspended in La Carlota, La Castellana, Pontevedra, Bago City and Isabela.
Mayor Rex Jalandoon of La Carlota said he also suspended work in government offices to ensure the safety of residents.
Malacañang on Tuesday said the government was ready to assist local government units (LGUs) and residents on Negros Island affected by the eruption.
“As directed by President Marcos, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is closely coordinating with affected LGUs and continuously giving provisions or family food packs and nonfood items to our affected countrymen,” Palace press officer Claire Castro said at a press briefing.
The DSWD said more than 250,000 boxes of family food packs had been prepositioned in the DSWD’s warehouses in Western Visayas and Central Visayas regions “ahead of the ongoing explosive eruption.”