Over P40 million worth of humanitarian and cash aid is poised to be distributed to the communities in Negros Island affected by the explosive eruption of Kanlaon Volcano on Monday evening.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) will each allocate P20 million from their social amelioration programs, namely the Ayuda para sa Kapos ang Kita Program and the Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers, respectively.

Additionally, at least P4 million worth of food packs will be sourced from the Disaster Assistance Fund of Speaker Martin Romualdez’s office.

“By providing these food packs, we aim to address the urgent needs of our communities and ensure that no one goes hungry during this challenging time,” said the House chief.

Romualdez, who facilitated the funds, clarified that the assistance would be evenly distributed between the first and fourth districts of Negros Island, which bore the brunt of the eruption.

The explosive eruption occurred at 6:51 p.m. on Monday, sending a massive plume of ash, gas, and steam five kilometers into the sky, as reported by the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs). This eruption, lasting six minutes, was followed by a relatively strong volcano-tectonic earthquake.

The eruption produced a “voluminous and incandescent plume that rapidly rose to 5,000 meters above the vent and probable short pyroclastic density currents approximately two to three kilometers down the southern and southeastern slopes.”

Communities on the volcano’s western slopes experienced ashfall and a strong sulfur smell.

Currently, Kanlaon is among the 24 active volcanoes in the Philippines and is under Alert Level 2. This level indicates “increasing unrest,” driven by shallow magmatic processes that could potentially lead to further explosive eruptions or hazardous magmatic eruptions.