LEGAZPI: An erupting Philippine volcano belched red-hot lava and clouds of ash and debris at least four times Wednesday, prompting the number of displaced villagers to swell to more than 74,000 and causing officials to brace for a humanitarian emergency they fear could last for months.
Mount Mayon has been acting up for more than a week, ejecting ash and lava fountains up to 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) from the crater in a picturesque but increasingly dangerous eruption. There have been no reports of injuries and law enforcers have struggled to keep villagers and tourists from sneaking into danger zones.
Pyroclastic flows — superheated gas and volcanic debris that could incinerate anything in their path — reached 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the crater in one area, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said.
“It’s a logistical nightmare,” Office of Civil Defense regional director Claudio Yucot said of the government’s effort to look after the still-swelling number of evacuees in at least 66 emergency shelters in nine cities and towns in northeastern Albay province, where Mayon lies.
Based on its previous eruptions, Mayon’s restiveness could last from two to four months, prompting Albay and national authorities to take steps to ease the impact on schools, public health and safety, livelihood and law and order, officials said.
Temporary learning centers will be set up in dozens of schools turned into evacuation centers to allow classes to continue, and farm animals will be brought to areas closer to their owners in evacuation camps to prevent more losses to villagers’ livelihoods, Yucot said.
One town in Albay, Camalig, has already set up an area for rescued farm animals, he said.
Authorities have struggled to prevent villagers from sneaking back to check on their homes and farms, with one official recommending that electricity and water supplies be cut in communities within the no-entry danger zones around Mayon to discourage residents from returning.
Although Mayon has erupted about 50 times in the last 500 years, sometimes violently, it has remained popular among climbers and tourists.
In 2013, an ash eruption killed five climbers who had ventured near the summit despite warnings. Its most destructive eruption, in 1814, killed more than 1,200 people and buried the town of Cagsawa in volcanic mud. The belfry of Cagsawa’s stone church still juts from the ground in an eerie reminder of Mayon’s fury.
Scottish tourist Rachel Rae and her son traveled from their home outside Manila to Albay, lured by the dramatic images of Mayon’s eruption that appeared in the news.
“This is a great opportunity to come and see something that we have never seen before, probably may not have a chance again to do,” Rae said in Cagsawa, where she and her son watched Mayon from a distance.
The Philippines, which has about 22 active volcanoes, lies in the “Ring of Fire,” a line of seismic faults surrounding the Pacific Ocean where earthquakes and volcanic activity are common.
In 1991, Mount Pinatubo in the northern Philippines exploded in one of the biggest volcanic eruptions of the 20th century, killing hundreds of people, covering entire towns and cities in ash and prompting the US government to abandon its vast air and naval bases on the main northern Luzon island.
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Philippines braces for long emergency as volcano erupts
Philippines braces for long emergency as volcano erupts
Carnival tribute to Brazil’s Lula in Rio sparks political backlash
- Opposition claims tribute to Lula is illegal early campaigning
- Lula’s aides take precautions to avoid election law violations
RIO DE JANEIRO: When Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva learned that a samba school in Rio de Janeiro would base its carnival parade this year on his journey from factory worker to president, he broke into tears and then smiled for pictures holding the school’s flag.
But, as Rio’s world-famous carnival parade approached, the tribute became a political headache.
Opposition parties and politicians have filed a flurry of lawsuits alleging that Lula is benefiting from what they describe as an illegal form of early campaigning ahead of this year’s presidential election. The president hopes to be elected for his fourth nonconsecutive term in October.
Courts have already rejected all but one of the lawsuits, including one that asked judges to stop the parade from taking place. But more could be filed if critics believe politicians used the event, scheduled to happen on Sunday night, to ask for votes, which would be illegal.
Still, Lula is planning to watch samba school Academicos de Niteroi sing and dance to his and his mother’s life stories on Sunday in Rio, his aides told Reuters, but he won’t be speaking at any moment. The president’s wife Rosangela “Janja” da Silva’s plans to take part in the parade are under review, people familiar with the government’s thinking told Reuters.
“It’s not campaigning,” said Tiago Martins, a carnival parade designer at Academicos de Niteroi. “It’s a plot that tells the life story of a warrior of a man, who despite all obstacles got to the presidency.”
Critics disagree, pointing, for example, to mentions of the number 13 in the song’s lyrics, the same one that Lula and his Workers Party use on the ballot box.
“This is the kind of thing you see in a Soviet republic, in North Korea, an ode to the great leader,” said lawmaker Marcel Van Hattem, a leader of the opposition Novo Party, which filed one of the lawsuits against Lula.
PARTY WITH RESTRAINT, MINISTERS ARE TOLD
The parade designed by Academicos de Niteroi describes the president’s childhood in the country’s impoverished Northeastern region and his mother’s journey to Sao Paulo with her children in search of a better life.
“I saw myself in my children’s eyes, frightened and empty. With my heart in pieces, I set out in search of love and of my dreams,” the lyrics say.
Artists at Academicos de Niteroi sought the president’s authorization to use his life’s story last year, before going forward with their plan. After they received it, Lula welcomed Martins and other members of the samba school for a dinner at his Alvorada presidential residence in September.
As they sang the song they had written for the parade, Lula became emotional and cried, people who were in the meeting told Reuters. He later described it as a tribute to his mother, Dona Lindu, rather than to himself.
Lula’s aides acknowledged the political sensitivity of the moment to Reuters. After the lawsuits multiplied, the president’s team consulted legal advisers to clarify what restrictions apply during the pre-campaign period.
Ministers attending the parade were instructed to remain seated in the audience, refrain from participating in the parade itself, avoid public funds for travel, and not make any election-related gestures, statements, or live posts on social media. Lula will not speak publicly at the parade.
OPPOSITION SAYS THE TRIBUTE CROSSES LEGAL LINES
Opposition figures argue the precautions show the government knows the tribute crosses legal lines.
They complain that Academicos de Niteroi received hundreds of thousands of dollars of public funds to do the parade.
But government lawyers stressed that all of Rio’s samba schools taking part in official parades received the same amount of resources and that funds are not tied to artistic choices.
All cases have been thrown out because judges either agreed with the government’s arguments or pointed to procedural issues. One case is still pending before the federal accounting court, though a preliminary ruling also rejected blocking funds to the parade.
While Lula has attended Rio’s carnival parade before as president, it is not common for presidents to do so.
One former president, Itamar Franco, famously got into trouble in the 1990s after being photographed next to a woman wearing no underwear at the parade.
For Martins, the carnival parade designer, the political clash has overshadowed what, for him, is a deeply personal artistic achievement.
“The samba says it: there are children of the poor becoming doctors, and me, a child of the poor, becoming a carnival designer,” he said. “We wanted to tell the story of a man who did a lot for the poor and for Brazil.”
But, as Rio’s world-famous carnival parade approached, the tribute became a political headache.
Opposition parties and politicians have filed a flurry of lawsuits alleging that Lula is benefiting from what they describe as an illegal form of early campaigning ahead of this year’s presidential election. The president hopes to be elected for his fourth nonconsecutive term in October.
Courts have already rejected all but one of the lawsuits, including one that asked judges to stop the parade from taking place. But more could be filed if critics believe politicians used the event, scheduled to happen on Sunday night, to ask for votes, which would be illegal.
Still, Lula is planning to watch samba school Academicos de Niteroi sing and dance to his and his mother’s life stories on Sunday in Rio, his aides told Reuters, but he won’t be speaking at any moment. The president’s wife Rosangela “Janja” da Silva’s plans to take part in the parade are under review, people familiar with the government’s thinking told Reuters.
“It’s not campaigning,” said Tiago Martins, a carnival parade designer at Academicos de Niteroi. “It’s a plot that tells the life story of a warrior of a man, who despite all obstacles got to the presidency.”
Critics disagree, pointing, for example, to mentions of the number 13 in the song’s lyrics, the same one that Lula and his Workers Party use on the ballot box.
“This is the kind of thing you see in a Soviet republic, in North Korea, an ode to the great leader,” said lawmaker Marcel Van Hattem, a leader of the opposition Novo Party, which filed one of the lawsuits against Lula.
PARTY WITH RESTRAINT, MINISTERS ARE TOLD
The parade designed by Academicos de Niteroi describes the president’s childhood in the country’s impoverished Northeastern region and his mother’s journey to Sao Paulo with her children in search of a better life.
“I saw myself in my children’s eyes, frightened and empty. With my heart in pieces, I set out in search of love and of my dreams,” the lyrics say.
Artists at Academicos de Niteroi sought the president’s authorization to use his life’s story last year, before going forward with their plan. After they received it, Lula welcomed Martins and other members of the samba school for a dinner at his Alvorada presidential residence in September.
As they sang the song they had written for the parade, Lula became emotional and cried, people who were in the meeting told Reuters. He later described it as a tribute to his mother, Dona Lindu, rather than to himself.
Lula’s aides acknowledged the political sensitivity of the moment to Reuters. After the lawsuits multiplied, the president’s team consulted legal advisers to clarify what restrictions apply during the pre-campaign period.
Ministers attending the parade were instructed to remain seated in the audience, refrain from participating in the parade itself, avoid public funds for travel, and not make any election-related gestures, statements, or live posts on social media. Lula will not speak publicly at the parade.
OPPOSITION SAYS THE TRIBUTE CROSSES LEGAL LINES
Opposition figures argue the precautions show the government knows the tribute crosses legal lines.
They complain that Academicos de Niteroi received hundreds of thousands of dollars of public funds to do the parade.
But government lawyers stressed that all of Rio’s samba schools taking part in official parades received the same amount of resources and that funds are not tied to artistic choices.
All cases have been thrown out because judges either agreed with the government’s arguments or pointed to procedural issues. One case is still pending before the federal accounting court, though a preliminary ruling also rejected blocking funds to the parade.
While Lula has attended Rio’s carnival parade before as president, it is not common for presidents to do so.
One former president, Itamar Franco, famously got into trouble in the 1990s after being photographed next to a woman wearing no underwear at the parade.
For Martins, the carnival parade designer, the political clash has overshadowed what, for him, is a deeply personal artistic achievement.
“The samba says it: there are children of the poor becoming doctors, and me, a child of the poor, becoming a carnival designer,” he said. “We wanted to tell the story of a man who did a lot for the poor and for Brazil.”
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