Philippines must weather the storm

Over and over in the Philippines, it's the poor who have faced the brunt of the landslides and floods that devastate this verdant archipelago. This time, torrential rainstorms triggered by Typhoon Durian set off devastating mud slides along the walls of the active Mayon volcano, wiping out entire villages in a widening arc of misery.

At least 1,000 are feared dead, hundreds more are missing, a million people affected as their homes have been ripped up, their fruit and rice fields covered in rock and sludge.

President Gloria Arroyo has declared a state of national calamity, dispatching miners to the rescue, relief teams to tend the survivors crowding into schools and churches for shelter. She has released $20 million for relief work, promised to keep up the hunt for survivors. But, Arroyo's administration would do far better if it gathered up the courage to tell those who farm in the immediate vicinity of the volcano the bad news. This part of the province, which has faced a series of typhoons this year and a threatened volcanic eruption in September, when it spewed rocks and lava, is uninhabitable.

Arroyo must declare the immediate vicinity of the Mayon volcano a no-go area. At least, until the storm passes.