Manila provides Christmas dinner to Mayon evacuees

Manila: For the thousands of families staying at the evacuation centres in Albay, 2009 may not be the most excellent Christmas they've had, but the best that the government can do is make temporary living away from their homes more bearable.

This Christmas Eve, they shared dinner together just like in the past — courtesy of the government.

Amid the ominous gloom and spectacle of Mayon's brewing eruption, more than 9,000 families were to share their Christmas Dinner at the various evacuation centres in Tabaco City, Ligao City, Malilipot, Camalig and Guinobatan.

"Despite them being away from their homes and at the evacuation centres for several days, we tried to ensure that the evacuees will be having their dinner together on Christmas Eve, together with their family," Albay Governor Joey Salceda said in a report by the Bombo Radio Station from Legazpi City.

Salceda said traditional Filipino Christmas "Noche Buena (Spanish for ‘Good Night')" family dinner packs, containing cheese, imported apples and oranges, noodles, and hot chocolate will be given away at the evacuation centres.

The evacuees had their dinner with the spectacle of the amber glow of lava oozing from Mayon's famous cone serving as a backdrop.

Danger zone

The Army had earlier been given orders to keep the seven- to eight-kilometre permanent danger zone around the volcano free from human activity and are enforcing a curfew, but reports said some residents are violating the restrictions and are taking the risk of entering the so-called "no-man's land", areas.

According to Salceda, the government is trying every means possible to keep the evacuees from returning to their homes with the threat of a full blown eruption still imminent.

Threat

"We are trying to organise events that would keep the evacuees preoccupied and their minds off the homes that they have temporarily left," he was quoted in earlier reports.

"We are asking entertainers to help us," he said.

But keeping the evacuees' attention diverted from the threat of eruption could be the most difficult thing to do at the moment. While they can close their eyes to the spectacle of the volcanic eruption, they can never isolate their senses from the rumblings that they can feel from the ground beneath their feet.