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.
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