Before its deadly eruption in 1991, Mount Pinatubo didn’t hold a candle to other volcanoes like Taal or Mayon in terms of popularity. Nobody could see it from the main highways of Tarlac and Zambales provinces, and it wasn’t very pretty to look at anyway.

That was until the summer of 1991 when the aetas who inhabit the areas surrounding the mountain heard and felt some rumblings occurring from inside the crater. Their report was quickly transmitted to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) headquarters in Quezon City, where the agency’s late director Dr. Reynaldo Punongbayan held office.