AIR quality in Digos City remained “Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups” on Monday morning, Oct. 26, 2026, as smoke from forest fires in Indonesia continued to drift over Mindanao, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Environmental Management Bureau (DENR-EMB) Davao said.
In its 7 a.m. update, EMB-Davao reported a fine particulate matter (PM2.5) Air Quality Index (AQI) of 105.5 at its Digos station. Its three other stations, in Tagum City, Malita in Davao Occidental, and Calinan in Davao City, were in the “Fair” range at 92.5, 82 and 83, respectively.
For Digos, EMB advised that “sensitive groups, particularly children and the elderly, should limit prolonged outdoor exertion.”
For the three other areas, it said “the air quality is acceptable for the general public.”
The latest reading follows weeks of haze.
Since Oct. 1, at least one of the four stations has logged air that was “Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups” or worse on 11 days, including every day from Oct. 22 to 26, based on a SunStar Davao review of EMB-Davao’s twice-daily updates.
The worst came over the weekend.
On Saturday, Oct. 24, Digos City hit 246.2, the highest reading this month, and three of the four stations were in the “Acutely Unhealthy” range.
On Sunday morning, Oct. 25, Calinan, Davao City’s only station in the network, reached 234.7.
For Digos and Calinan that Sunday, EMB issued its strongest advisory of the month: “This is a serious health alert as the air is significantly harmful.” It advised people with heart or respiratory conditions, such as asthma, to stay indoors and postpone non-essential travel.
EMB-Davao attributed the spikes to the transboundary haze from forest fires in Kalimantan and South Papua, Indonesia.
Citing the Copernicus Fire Emission Watch and Zoom Earth wind forecasts, the agency said smoke “is expected to continue affecting the Philippines through transboundary transport.”
“The persistence and intensity of the impact will depend on wind direction, atmospheric dispersion, rainfall, and the continued activity of fires in South Papua and Kalimantan,” it added.
Health advisory
The Davao City Health Office (CHO) has been resharing its haze health advisory, first posted on Sept. 10, 2026.
In coordination with the City Government of Davao and the Department of Health (DOH), it urges the public to avoid staying outdoors for long periods, especially in areas visibly affected by haze. It tells children, older people and those with lung or heart disease to stay indoors and limit going out, and advises wearing an N95 mask or its equivalent when outside.
“Magsul-ob og N95 mask o kapareho niini kung mugawas (Wear an N95 mask or its equivalent when going outside),” the advisory read.
The CHO also asked residents to follow official air quality announcements from DENR-EMB and other government agencies, and to visit the nearest health center for free health services.
Classes
As of Monday, no advisory on classes had been issued in Davao City because of the haze.
In Cebu, where air quality also reached “Very Unhealthy” earlier this month, local officials have started setting rules for class suspensions, SunStar Cebu reported.
Cebu Gov. Pamela Baricuatro called a forum on Tuesday, Oct. 20, with mayors, medical experts, DepEd, DENR-EMB, DOH, schools and parent groups to agree on which air quality readings should be the basis for suspending face-to-face classes.
At that meeting, health officials said Cebu pediatric pulmonologists recommended protective measures once the AQI reaches around 90 to 100, citing an AQI of 100 as the threshold for protecting children.
Officials met again on Monday to finalize common AQI thresholds, protective measures and class suspension protocols for public and private schools.
In Cebu City, a proposed guideline discussed at an inter-agency meeting on Oct. 15 would automatically suspend classes when the AQI goes above 200, and leave the decision to private school administrators when it is between 151 and 200, according to SunStar Superbalita Cebu. The guideline has yet to be finally approved.
All four Davao Region stations posted readings above 200 on Oct. 24 or 25.
Monitoring
Some stations were offline on several days this month because of system errors, maintenance or calibration, EMB-Davao said in its updates.
In September, EMB-Davao Environmental Monitoring and Enforcement Division Chief Miralou Blanco said the bureau does real-time monitoring and does not forecast air quality.
“With our equipment, what we have is real-time monitoring. We do not do forecasting, but we could somehow determine the air dispersion based on prevailing wind direction,” Blanco said during the Kapehan sa Dabaw media forum on Monday, Sept. 7, 2026.
The haze first reached “Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups” at the Calinan station from Aug. 30 to Sept. 1, and by Sept. 8, EMB-Davao earlier reported, it worsened to “Very Unhealthy” in Digos and Calinan. GRS