ANGARA, COMSTE EYE CREATION OF DISASTER SCIENCE CENTER

By leveraging information generated from computer models and remote sensing tools from other countries, Senator Edgardo J. Angara today said the RP scientific community can better protect people from disasters with the full use of technology.

Angara and the Congressional Commission on Science & Technology and Engineering's (COMSTE) Executive Director Dr. Greg Tangonan sought to establish a public-private institution in the Philippines that will be the hub for international collaboration in Disaster Science and Climate Change and provide ASEAN countries with the best science-based synthesis of disaster information.

In the recent monster storm that hit the country, the Philippines had little ability to forecast the strength of its winds and rains. Little life-saving preparatory work was done. The lack of preparedness due to inability to understand the complex driving forces involved in weather forecasting can be a collective blind spot for all countries in the region.

"What we ought to learn from this experience is that we need to put in place a better disaster prediction and response system," said Angara who concurrently chairs COMSTE and the Senate Committee on Science and Technology.

COMSTE reported that Taiwan has been very helpful in providing Philippines with state of the art tools to begin to analyze the effects of climate change on our weather that is why dialogue about applying our basic sciences to the common area of disaster sciences will soon be conducted. The proposed Disaster Science Center (DSC) for ASEAN is a major scientific effort including grid-computing models that fit real time data, forecasting of disasters based on the recent records, new instrumentation, and focusing our knowledge on agriculture, food security, and health care.

"DSC will provide scientists from all over the world a home base for regional disaster prediction. The new challenge in a world that has vastly changed requires a multi-disciplinary R&D approach and intensified international collaboration. The satellite resources and the modeling resources of other countries will greatly complement the measurement expertise that we will develop in the country. Open innovation and collaboration is the way to proceed and the international community is eager to join us in this research. " said Tangonan.

He added, "Science today must confront complex problems that no country can solve by itself. The very complexity of the scientific issues we face demands international collaboration and active engagement from the best scientists in the world." Angara and COMSTE remain optimistic and believes that together we can advance from using crude measuring machines to developing world class disaster prediction tools.

"I urge experts in the field of science and engineering to develop an effective prediction and coping mechanism for natural disasters. We should learn from the best practices abroad and see what can we adopt in the Philippines, so that the next time our country faces this kind of tragedy we are better prepared and equipped," said Angara.