to -house Thursday threatening to use force to move hundreds of residents from the steaming slopes of a lava-spilling volcano. Some farmers begged to stay to guard their livestock while their families spent Christmas Eve in a shelter. In its bulletin Thursday night, the Philippine Institute on Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) reported that Mayon had a dramatic series of “lava fountaining” which reached a maximum height of 500 meters from the lips of the volcano four times thatn Wednesday night. “There are no pyroclastic materials that can flow from these fountains of lava. We can all be assured that this is not dangerous,” said Jimmy Sincioco, officer-in-charge of Phivolcs Volcano Monitoring and Eruption Prediction Division. But authorities said they have to move the holdout residents who begged to stay to make sure that they were not caught flatfooted if a sudden explosion occuirs. He explained that Mayon's spewing of incandescent lava indicated “volatile pressure of gas content” inside the volcano, the same phenomenon witnessed in 2000 and 2001 just before the volcano erupted. He noted that in 2001, Mayon also ejected fountains of lava that lasted for hours which intensified before finally exploding, producing tall eruption columns and pyroclastic flow amid “earthquakes, harmonic tremors and booming sounds.” As foreign tourists marveled at nature's spectacular show of the volcano, authorities began distributing holiday packages for the families affected by the volcano's activities in Legazpi City. Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC) officials and volunteers visited five evacuation centers. “We cannot prevent natural disasters, but what we can do is take action to alleviate human suffering and prepare the people for the worst,” said Senator Richard Gordon, PNRC chairman. A total of 9,000 families received holiday food packages, water bottles, blankets and sleeping mats. “We are not distributing relief goods. These are Christmas packages…What we are doing is we are uplifting human dignity, that is why we decided against giving out relief goods. Instead, we handed out food for the Noche Buena,” said PNRC Secretary General Gwen Pang. Volunteers distributed games and ice cream to children in some 45 evacuation centers and were preparing meals to try to restore some holiday cheer. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ordered officials to search for all those still refusing to leave their farms within a 5-mile (8-kilometer) danger zone around Mayon volcano in the central Philippines. Security forces were under orders to use force if necessary to ensure no one is hurt by flowing lava or red-hot rocks, said Jukes Nunez, a provincial disaster management official. Volcanologists warned the weeklong moderate eruption of the 8,070-foot (2,460-meter) Mayon could escalate within days as the volcano belched out 20 gray ash columns Thursday, some of them a mile (1.5 kilometers) high. In Mabinit, a village within Mayon's danger zone, some of the farmers pleaded with soldiers accompanied by human rights workers to allow one man in each household to guard belongings while their families are in evacuation shelters farther away. “We can't just leave our livestock and belongings because they may be stolen, so we asked the military to allow the men to stay behind,” said Nelson Esquivel, 53. “I will just run down when the volcano erupts.” Military spokesman Capt. Razaleigh Bansawan said the men were given time to tend to their farms and gather belongings, but all of them were later moved out and Mabinit was sealed off.
