Lola Mayon ‘predicts’ volcano’s eruption

Lola Mayon ‘predicts’ volcano’s eruption

By JENNY F. MANONGDO

December 24, 2009, 5:20pm

LEGAZPI CITY – A 76-year-old woman points to the dome-shaped scar at her back and related its significance before people watching her. The scar, the woman said, can predict when the Mayon volcano would erupt. ‘If it hurts even just a bit, the volcano is sure to erupt,’ she said.

Known as ‘Lola Mayon,’ Veronica Perez, 76 was gathering rootcrops in the forest of Buyuan in 1993 when she felt a gust of hot wind that enveloped her body. In less than five minutes, lava burned her extremities including her back. Luckily, she was promptly treated at the hospital and she survived the ordeal.

But that incident totally changed her life. Even her name changed from ‘lola Ver’ to ‘Lola Mayon’, indicative of how her ability has grabbed the attention of a massive number of people who have somehow learned to acknowledge her ‘gift.’

“One week before we were evacuated here, my back was hurting badly. I told my family that the volcano might erupt,” she said.

Lola Mayon gained popularity among her neighbors after she ‘predicted’ the Mayon volcano explosions through the scar at her back. Everytime it hurts, it will explode, she said.

This was also what she said in the previous eruptions of the volcano that happened in 2004, 2006 and this year.

What Lola Mayon ‘predicted’ somehow matched what the volcano specialists have recorded.

“Eruption of mayon started last Monday (December 14) when lava flowed out of the crater and into the southern slope,” Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) Director Renato Solidum said in a previous interview.

But Lola Mayon is reluctant in using her ability to save herself from ridicule that she has experienced many times.

“They laugh at me. They tell me that I am old and I am forgetting things. ” she said.

“In the past, I always tell people if my back hurts but now I just tell my children. But my words still reach other people. There were even foreigners who interviewed me in the past. One was from Japan and the other was from Vietnam. I was even told that my story has reached the US. I don’t understand why,” Perez said.

Her neighbor George Batoy said he believes the predictions but he is not entirely sold on the woman’s ability.

“I believe her for about 50 percent. Nature dictates the eruption of the volcano. Nature is hard to explain. Look at the volcanologists. They have all the sophisticated gadgets but still, they cannot tell when the exact date of the explosion will be,” Batoy said.

The seemingly frail but chirpy woman said that her desire to help people by warning them about the volcanic eruption is more often misunderstood because people don’t believe her.

But she is not afraid of the volcano because she believes her ‘savior’ would always protect her.

“Whenever you feel you are in danger, just say the words: Salvador del Mundo, Salva me, Salva ran man ako, ikaw.”

“The world is in the hands of Salvador del Mundo. He will save the world,” Perez emphasized. “Just add one Our Father, one Hail Mary and one Glory be and you will surely be protected,” she added.

http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/235552/lola-mayon-predicts-volcano-s-eruption