Canlaon City: Livestock traders taking advantage of the unrest caused by Mt. Kanlaon's activity in Canlaon City, Negros Oriental, have been banned from entering the city, an official announced on Thursday.

According to Philippines News Agency, Edna Lhou Masicampo, the city's designated information officer, stated that the decision followed a meeting between Mayor Jose Chubasco Cardenas and about 45 internally displaced persons (IDPs) who reported being forced to sell their livestock at unfairly low prices. The evacuees claimed the traders, known locally as "compradors," intercepted them at border checkpoints on Wednesday, bypassing the city's designated stockyard and auction market.

The IDPs, allowed to return briefly to their farms after the Task Force Kanlaon lifted the entry ban on the six-kilometer Permanent Danger Zone, were caught off guard as traders awaited them at the borders. Fear of a potential major eruption left the farmers with no choice but to sell their livestock at lower prices. Reports revealed cows worth PHP 35,000 to PHP 40,000 each were sold for PHP 25,000, while goats valued at PHP 6,000 each were bought for only PHP 3,000.

Cardenas has directed the police and the municipal agriculture office to investigate the incident which led to the identification of the traders, Masicampo said. Meanwhile, Undersecretary Ariel Nepomuceno, OCD administrator, in a meeting with the mayor, urged to fast-track the construction of an evacuation center that can accommodate the IDPs instead of being scattered at different camps.

Masicampo mentioned that the proposal requires the help of the provincial government due to the high costs associated with building an evacuation center without external assistance. Currently, there are 1,299 families and 4,186 individuals housed at eight evacuation centers, while 728 families or 2,287 individuals are staying with relatives outside of the permanent danger zone.