Flashback: Taal eruption in 2020

For this week's graphic, we plot the different danger zones instituted on January 2020 when the Taal Volcano in Batangas erupted for the first time in over a century.

The volcano has again shown some restlenessness over the past couple of weeks, although the government has kept it under Alert Level 1, which indicates that an eruption is not being anticipated soon.

In 2020, Philippine volcanologists ordered the evacuation of residents along 7 kilometers, 14 km and 17 km radius of the Taal Volcano, which sits on a lake. The volcano is the Philippines' most active and is located around three hours south of Manila, the capital. The volcano also sits just beside Tagaytay City, a typical summer destination.

The danger zones in 2020 are no longer in place these days, although the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) has designated the entire island where Taal sits as a permanent danger zone.

Filipino athletes

For this week's graphic, let's talk about sports. There are 1,373 national athletes competing for the Philippines in 64 sports as of August 2024, data from the Philippine Sports Commission showed.

National athletes are granted monthly allowances by the government depending on their classification. Allowances from P10,000 to P45,000 per athlete, according to this report by SPIN.ph.

Breaking down the data, the Philippines has 54 national athletes in ice hockey, the most in any sport event. Its followed by 49 athletes in taekwondo, 48 in athletics, and 44 in baseball, which is a team sport.