The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology raised the need to establish more earthquake monitoring and early warning systems to intensify hazard mapping in the country and reduce possible casualties.

Phivolcs Director Teresito Bacolcol, speaking at the public hearing on the Phivolcs Modernization Act and Philippine Advanced Earthquake Monitoring and Early Warning System Act on Monday, said there’s a need to effectively increase the country’s detectability and location capability for small earthquakes, especially for faults that exhibit low earthquake activity before large events.

“Why do we want to add more? This is to again monitor the number of earthquakes that we have, for example, in 2023 we have 16,655 earthquakes,” he said.

The additional monitoring systems, he said, would reveal active faults with no clear surface expressions—due to burial by young deposits from floods and volcanoes.

Bacolcol noted that there are 24 active volcanoes and 27 potentially active volcanoes nationwide.

He said Phivolcs have just monitored 10 active volcanoes with only the Taal and Mayon having complete monitoring systems.

He also reported that 80 percent or 66 out of 82 provinces are exposed to tsunami hazards.

At present, Bacolcol said Phivolcs has only 29 existing sea level monitoring stations for tsunami detection catering.

“We are planning to establish at least 50 more tsunami stations as there have been around 40 tsunami events in the past 400 years. This means there’s one tsunami event every 10 years,” he added.

Meanwhile, Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, chairperson of the Committee on Science and Technology, said mapping the fault lines all over the country and information sharing is crucial to maintaining the public infrastructures nationwide.

The senator also underscored the importance of modernizing the country’s earthquake monitoring and early warning systems that would make the Philippines a disaster-resilient nation.

“It is time we modernize and put the money here because we are a country that is vulnerable to disasters and calamities and we are already behind our neighbors,” he said.

Citing data from Phivolcs, Cayetano noted that the Philippines is being jolted by about 100 to 150 earthquakes per year, or an average of 20 earthquakes daily.

Of the figure, about four to five earthquakes per week are felt by the people.

Bacolcol said there’s a need to increase the number of monitoring and warning systems in the country as he cited the human and economic impact of the unmonitored eruptions of active volcanoes.

Hence, Cayetano called for more sustained funding for Phivolcs as he noted that merely approving a five-year modernization plan for the agency is not enough and does not guarantee its success.

“I don't want us to just pass a specific five-year plan and then not allocate the necessary funds,” he said.

Catch-up plans for delayed projects

On the other hand, Senator Raffy Tulfo questioned the delayed implementation of 14 project contracts for the establishment of volcanic and earthquake monitoring systems nationwide worth more than P58 million, citing a 2022 report from the Commission on Audit,

“Why there’s a delay… These projects have been delayed for three years. Can you explain the cause of the delay of these projects?” Tulfo asked.

Bacolcol explained some projects were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic while some were delayed due to the late signing of the memorandum of agreements for the projects.

He also attributed the delays to the failure to find appropriate locations for the projects, particularly in Batangas.

“But we have catch-up plans also and in fact, some of these have already been completed,” he stressed.

Bacolcol noted the implementation of eight out of the 14 contracts is ongoing while the other six were already completed.

"We will push for the completion of remaining projects your honor," he said.

Tulfo urged the Phivolcs to hasten the implementation of the remaining projects as he expressed full support for the modernization efforts of the agency.

The Senate panel also discussed infrastructure protection, satellite-based technologies for internet connectivity, and the Philippine National Nuclear Energy Safety Act.