Phivolcs needs funds for better calamity monitoring

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology reiterated on Friday their need for funding that would improve the agency's calamity monitoring system and prevent casualties and damages.

Stressing that the Philippines is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, Phivolcs director Teodoro Bacolcol said calamities — earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis and fault lines — are inevitable in the country.

In his presentation at the Senate committee hearing presided over by Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, he stressed that there are currently 175 potentially active fault lines, 24 active volcanoes and 27 potentially active volcanoes. But of the 24 active volcanoes in the country, only 10 are being monitored, with only two — Taal and Mayon — having complete monitoring systems.

Bacolcol said ₱5 billion is needed per volcano to have complete monitoring equipment.

Per the official, more monitoring systems for earthquakes should be added to increase detectability, so that Phivolcs could trace active faults with no clear surface manifestations, such as the West Valley fault. With this monitoring system, the agency will be able to identify areas that will be prohibited from having buildings for human settlement.

If an earthquake occurs due to the West Valley fault, Metro Manila may end up having 34,714 fatalities and 17,782 very serious injuries, he warned.

Additionally, Bacolcol proposed 50 additional stations for tsunami monitoring. The agency currently has 29 existing sea level monitoring stations for tsunami detection.

The Phivolcs director said this is important since more than half of Filipinos live in coastal areas. With the establishment of the proposed number of tsunami monitoring systems, the institution will be able to have effective warning systems and formulate evacuation guidance systems, among others.

Bacolcol also mentioned the incomplete hazard maps for volcanic eruptions and earthquakes and highlighted the agency's lack of human resources and plantilla positions, saying that more than half of Phivolcs employees are under contract of service.

"[I]n order for us to continue populating these platforms as well as continue with our mapping efforts, we need to have more technical staff. [W]e need additional staff positions. There's an increase in demand for Phivolcs services [such as] hazard and risk assessments, we also have expanded our volcano and monitoring networks and [we] are also generating volcano and earthquake hazard generating maps. If there's no modernization, it would probably take several decades to install the number of ideal stations and several years to generate hazard maps for all provinces," Bacolcol said.

He also underscored that hiring temporary staff is a "big help but not sustainable."

"What happens here is, we hire, we train them and then they leave, then the cycle is repeated."

The agency also expressed its need for a new building with state-of-the-art facilities since its office is currently in UP Diliman and pays the latter ₱27 million annually.

The Phivolcs Modernization Act filed on 9 May 2023 will allow the agency to enhance its performance and physical resources, allowing it to build more seismic stations across the country, increase its capacity to monitor earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis, and fortify its human resource development program. Communities and local government units will benefit from this upgrade in terms of disaster preparedness.