Project NOAH vows to put P1B budget to good use

Project NOAH, the Philippines’ primary disaster risk reduction and management program, has vowed to maximize its P1-billion budget for 2026 after receiving a long-overdue funding boost during the bicameral conference committee deliberations on Saturday, 13 December.

"We will work with urgency, discipline, and full accountability to ensure that every centavo of the P1 billion entrusted to us delivers meaningful and measurable value to the Filipino people," Project NOAH Executive Director Mahar Lagmay said in a statement.

The funding was approved alongside other amendments to the proposed P18-billion budget for state universities and colleges during the first day of bicameral deliberations.

During the discussions, Negros Occidental Representative Javier Miguel Lopez Benitez cited Project NOAH’s contribution to disaster preparedness, saying the program has “made real-time, high-quality hazard maps” that are widely used by local government units.

He noted that during climate-related disasters, Project NOAH’s website recorded as many as 35 million searches, with traffic peaking at around 2.5 million searches per day.

House Appropriations Committee member and Nueva Ecija Representative Mikaela Suansing also expressed support for the program, pointing out that despite its annual budget shrinking from P500 million to just P36 million in recent years, Project NOAH continued to produce accurate and reliable hazard maps for public use.

Project NOAH’s hazard maps were last updated in 2012. The program is currently being implemented by the University of the Philippines National Resilience Institute.