PHIVOLCS suffers P133-M budget cut allotted for equipment, monitoring

The 2021 budget of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) was slashed by P133 million earmarked for purchase of equipment and establishment of monitoring stations all over the country.

In a Senate hearing, Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Secretary Fortunato de la Peña said PHIVOLCS was appropriated a smaller budget for next year compared to its budget for the current year.

PHIVOLCS is an attached agency of the DOST.

“In case of our service agencies, PHIVOLCS had a reduction of 133.355 million mostly earmarked for new stations and new equipment,” Dela Pena said.

PHIVOLCS officer-in-charge and DOST Undersecretary Renato Solidum Jr. said the funding for the information and communications technology (ICT) support was not considered in the 2021 budget.

“'Yun pong mga malaking part would be related to the equipment support. And they took away the ICT support on the monitoring system,” Solidum said.

“Many of the monitoring systems now are directly supported by IT. So even if you have censors, these will be operated, maintained, and evaluated using IT equipment. And those were taken away,” he added.

For Solidum, separating ICT support from the actual censors is a “real issue.”

For 2021, the proposed budget for PHIVOLCS was P454 million, decreased from its P588 million budget this year.

Aside from PHIVOLCS, De la Peña said the budget for research and development institutes of the DOST was also reduced by P76.242 million, which will affect the following:

• Industrial Technology Development Institute
• Forest Products Research and Development Institute
• Philippine Textile Research Institute
• Metals Industry Research and Development Center
• Philippine Nuclear Research Institute

Under the proposed National Expenditure Program (NEP), the DOST will get P23.890 billion for 2021.—LDF, GMA News