By Genalyn Kabiling  The government will prioritize the evacuation of people over animals from the danger zone around Taal Volcano for the meantime, a civil defense official said Tuesday. Evacuees flee the area most affected by ash fall due to the Taal Volcano eruption (JANSEN ROMERO/MANILA BULELTIN) According to Office of Civil Defense (OCD) Deputy Administrator for Operations Casiano Monilla, the animals left behind may be evacuated as soon as all people staying in the 14-kilometer radius of the volcano have been moved to safer ground. "Sa prioritization muna sa evacuation, we put premium sa buhay ng tao. That's why inuuna natin ang evacuation ng ating kababayan na mailayo natin sa threat because of the eruption (in the prioritization of evacuation, we put premium on the lives of people. That's why we prioritize the evacuation of our countrymen and move them away from the threat because of the eruption)," he said in the "Laging Handa" (Always Ready) press briefing in Malacañang. "After that, siguro pag ang next natin, evacuate ‘yung mga animals after ma-evacuate ang mga tao (After that, maybe we can evacuate the animals after we have evacuated the people)." He admitted that it was "unfortunate" that some animals have been left behind as people moved to areas away from the volcano's wrath. "When we evacuate, inuna talaga ang mga tao. We did not have the chance na ma-evacuate ‘yung mga hayop dahil pumutok na siya (When we evacuated, we prioritized people. We did not have the chance to evacuate animals because the volcano already exploded)," he said. Monilla, however, could not say when the government will start the evacuation of animals from the towns near Taal volcano. "I cannot tell when, kasi sa ngayon, ang effort is evacuating those -- actually hindi lahat sumunod sa advisory na mag-evacuate, but when the situation worsened, saka lang sila gumagalaw (I cannot tell when, because for now, the effort is to evacuate people. Not everyone followed the advisory about the evacuation, but when the situation worsened, only then did they agree to move)," he said. On reports that some private sector-led animal welfare groups started evacuating animals in towns near Taal, Monilla said they welcome such efforts but urged the people doing so to coordinate with the government. "Bago sila pumasok doon, they should first check in the incident command post so that malalaman natin what would be the advisory (Before they enter the area, they should first check in with the incident command post so that we will know the advisory)." He said the government needs to know about the presence of animal rescuers in case they need emergency assistance. "Hindi pupuwedeng papasok ka dun na walang, sa inyo lang, kasi pag may mangyayari, hindi kaagad na ma-react ‘yan kasi hindi alam na nandoon kayo (You can't just go in there without informing us, that you're on your own. Because in case anything happens, we can’t immediately react because we don't know you’re there)." Since Taal Volcano showed signs of increased activity last Sunday, Monilla said 6,891 families or 30,423 individuals have been evacuated from towns near the Taal Volcano. Of this number, around 6,317 families come from Batangas while 574 families hail from Cavite. Monilla said the Department of Social Welfare and Development is "in full control" of the 118 evacuation centers. "They have enough resources to provide the services to these 118 evacuation centers as of now." Read more: Contingency measures in place for thousands of Taal Volcano evacuees