`WE JUST LONG FOR OUR RURAL WAYS,' MAYON EVACUEES CONFESS

`WE JUST LONG FOR OUR RURAL WAYS,' MAYON EVACUEES CONFESS
By Cet Dematera

LEGAZPI CITY---Mayon evacuees who openly admit that they prefer to play `cat-and-mouse,' or `hide-and-seek' with the patrolling government troopers as they sneak into the volcano's declared danger zone than stay safe in their evacuation camps confessed here yesterday that they brave to defy order from authorities not for any other reasons but more so because they `long' for the daily routine they are used to in their rural villages.

Even the veteran evacuee, Salvador Agao,62, who had experienced life in the evacuation center since Mayon's 1978 eruption, admitted that he still finds so much difficulty and discomfort whenever he and his family have to evacuate and take temporary shelter outside their home in Matanag, a Legazpi City village with sitios just at the foot of the lava-spewing volcano.

"Aside from gathering some firewood, fetching tap water and feeding our farm animals, we really go back and stay for a few hours to savor fresh air and feel the comfort of a rural life," Agao told The STAR in mixed Bicol dialect and Filipino.

His confession was shared by his villagemates who even added that the artificial (electric fan) ventilation in their evacuation rooms can not equate the rural air, and the chirping of birds and crickets, the blowing of horns and honks by the passing vehicles in the city proper or poblacion.

"Of course we know the danger of a rumbling and exploding volcano. We know our mountain. Most of us here first saw light looking up its smoking mouth. But we also know when to run and where to hide just in case," they boasted, but submitted that they had to follow authorities' order of forced evacuation.

Boy Nuñez,40, of Quirangay, an upper-slope Camalig village; and Lita Pesino,55, of crater's seven-kilometer away Barangay Amtic in Ligao City, both agreed that they feel something is lacking when they do not call to feed and account for their chicken each day in the morning.

"We were born at the footslope of `Mayong' (their local name for Mayon). We cannot explain really why we want to visit and stay in our villages for at least an hour. Maybe, we are just missing our rural ways," they added.

In fact, rural talks have it that the sitio in San Isidro, a Mayon footslope village in Sto. Domingo town, was named `Boring'(derived from English word boredom) by villagers' relatives who reportedly get bored whenever they visit the place to temporarily stay away from their hectic city life.

With this, Albay Gov. Joey Salceda reiterated his order for a stiffer ban of any human activity within Mayon's permanent danger zone (PDZ).

"We will do everything in our disposal to bring them to the evacuation centers in order to achieve our ultimate goal of zero casualty amidst the looming Mayon eruption," Salceda told The STAR.

Salceda said he had already released the initial amount of P4-million for the evacuation and foods of farm animals, as yet another step to keep the evacuees away from danger zone whenever they sneak back their homes to feed them.

The official also ordered yesterday to ration drinking and bath water of 24 liters a day for every evacuee, as he also nodded to start the distribution of firewoods to all the evacuation camps across Albay.

"I really wanted them to stay away from danger. If I need to re-create their rural life, I will do it," the economist governor said.

The restive Mayon volcano had already claimed the lives of about 1,200 people who were buried inside the Cagsawa Chruch in Daraga town during its Feb.1, 1814 eruption.

Again, Feb.2, 1993, Mayon silently spewed the deadly pyroclastic flow which instantaneously killed the 77 farmers tilling their lands at its upper slope. As yet, another close to 1,500 people died with others remained missing when super typhoon Reming's flood waters loosened and plowed villages around the majestic but deadly mountain.