GUINOBATAN, Albay — First, the good news.

Although there are more than 47,500 individuals in evacuation centers in Albay where Mount Mayon is threatening a major eruption, they apparently have more than enough food such as packed noodles and canned sardines to tide them over.

The bad news is, they lack other basic personal needs, and have no effective means of livelihood to procure them.

As a result, many people have resorted to bartering relief goods for other needs that are not normally included in their rations, such as sanitary napkins for women. Some evacuees also use canned sardines to pay for jeepney fares when they need to go back to their homes inside the declared danger zones.

Outside the evacuation center at the Travesia Elementary School here, 48-year-old farmer Artemio Oxales has been praying for Mayon to stop its rumblings.

Oxales said he is running out of cash because the only job he is good at is of no use in the evacuation center, and his children were already complaining of having enough of sardines and noodles on the table.

The evacuees face the grim prospect of being away from home for several more weeks—local disaster officials said the worst case is six more months since Mayon Volcano remains under Alert Level 4 indicating imminent eruption.

“Apektado na kaming maray. Mas dipisil pag nag-olay pa kami idi. (We are already suffering the brunt; it would be more difficult for us if we stay here for long),” said Oxales, who comes from Barangay Maninila which is within the six-to-eight kilometer danger zone.

Officials said cash strapped evacuees have to obtain other needs which are usually overlooked in relief distribution, and they capitalize on the abundant supply of packed foods, courtesy of local officials and non-government organizations, to barter.

A storeowner recalled that while she was attending to her sari-sari store inside the evacuation center, a woman approached her and asked if she could exchange a pack of noodles for a sanitary napkin.

She agreed out of pity.

“Ayo pa man iba pero, sige sana ta nakairak man (There are other cases of that and I accepted it out of pity),” she said when asked whether there are other woman evacuees trading food for their hygienic needs.

At the evacuation center in Baligang Elementary School in nearby Camalig town, Joselito (not his real name) narrated the time when he offered two cans of sardines to a jeepney driver for a ride home. The driver did not take them and just gave him a lift.

“Ura kami pamasahe kaya sardinas na sana. P40 pamasahe pauli, sayn man kami uko kwarta eh da man trabaho (I have no money for the P40 fare so I thought sardines would do. Where would I get money? I no longer have a job),” he said.

He said he needed to go back to get some vegetables and other things from their house.

Officials said they are aware of the ongoing barter arrangements.
“It’s part of the entitlement. It’s already their call what to do with them (relief goods) after the distribution,” said Albay Governor Joey Salceda.

A total of 10,032 families or 47,563 individuals are currently housed in 28 evacuation centers in Albay, most of them forcibly taken out of their homes after local officials implemented a “No Human Activities” policy within the six-kilometer and eight-kilometer permanent and extended danger zones.

Resident volcanologist Ed Laguerta has been repeatedly saying that Mayon’s unrest is far from over.