By Leilanie G. Adriano
Staff reporter
LAOAG CITY—A multi-sectoral group composed of various stakeholders of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) gathered at the Plaza Del Norte in Ilocos Norte to complete the fourth and last league of discussion on the proposed Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of Republic Act 10692 or the so-called PAGASA Modernization Act of 2015.
Finally approved in November 2015 after it was proposed back in 1996, PAGASA-DOST acting administrator Vicente Malano said the internal public hearing attended by almost a hundred public and private stakeholders representing national government agencies, local government units, research institutions, academe, public and private organizations among others aims to gather all concerns and suggestions to further improve the IRR of the PAGASA modernization act.
First conducted in Davao, followed by Bohol, National Capitol Region and Ilocos Norte, Mr. Malano urged the support of all concerned stakeholders here for the success of the modernization act.
Under the proposed IRR, at least five regional weather service centers of PAGASA shall be upgraded. These include the service centers located in Tuguegarao, Lagazpi, Cebu, El Salvador in Misamis Oriental and in Quezon City.
Meanwhile, the PAGASA Laoag station, having an international airport will also have its own upgrading of equipment such as the purchase of new Doppler radar, an automatic weather system and a lightning detector among others.
“It’s about time that we modernize our weather station. Sila ang pag-asa to provide timely and up-to-date information which can be used for effective decision making,” said Dr. Armand Ganal, DOST Region 1 regional director in his short opening message.
After the conduct of public hearing, Mr. Ganal said all participants will write down all their recommendations in a write-shop where relevant inputs will be incorporated in the IRR.
To attain its vision to become the center of excellence for weather-related information services, the modernization will cover PAGASA’s upgrading of its physical resources and operational techniques, which shall entail the acquisition and/or upgrading of state-of-the-art instruments, equipment, facilities and systems, particularly on weather and flood monitoring and warning system and agro-meteorological observation system to strengthen services for agriculture and food security.
It will also enhance its research and development capabilities and establish regional weather service centers as well as the DOST-PAGASA data center, which shall include the centralization of the different technical outputs including data and statistics derived from the PAGASA operations and systems.
A regional and international cooperation program will also boost the agency’s collaboration with relevant international bodies and government institutions to complement its modernization efforts.
Aside from these, it will enhance weather data collection and information dissemination, which aims to develop and use effective weather information method using local dialects, non-technical terms and familiar graphical presentations to ensure a “laymanized” delivery of hydrometeorological information for greater public awareness and to draw appropriate response for disaster risk reduction.
Also included is the creation of a human resource development program and development of a new salary scale and additional incentives for its personnel. Likewise, it will enable scholarship programs for undergraduate and graduate studies to sustain the needed number of experts in meteorology and other related fields.