City backs study on Marcos Highway Watershed

City officials expressed support to the research project entitled “Landslide Investigation on Geohazards for Timely Advisories” in the Philippines (LIGTAS) at the Marcos Highway Watershed Forest Reserve Protected Area of the University of the Philippines Los Banos–School of Environmental Science and Management (UPLB-SESAM).

Under Resolution No. 471, series of 2022, local legislators stated that the research project’s main objective is to generate site-specific rainfall-landslide threshold for the volcanic Southern Tagalog Region and the mineralized terrains of Benguet that will be the basis for the formulation of site-specific and semi-quantitative early warning system.

The council required the UPLB-SESAM to submit a detailed project proposal to the body for its reference.

The UPLB-SESAM has an existing partnership with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources–Mines and Geosciences Bureau (DENR-MGB), the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) and the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHILVOLCS) to implement a research project entitled Landslide Investigations on Geohazards for Timely Advisories (LIGTAS) in the Philippines.

In her email dated September 26, 2022, Dr. Decibel V. Faustino-Eslava, project leader of Project LIGTAS and Professor of the UPLB-SESAM, requested the local legislative body for a resolution of non-objection to the implementation of the project within the jurisdiction of the city, being one of the requirements to secure a clearance from the Marcos Highway Watershed Forest Reserve Protected Area Management Board (PAMB).

The project is funded by DOST and monitored by the Philippine Council for Industry, energy, and Emerging Technology Research and Development under the Manila Economic and Cultural Office–Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) Call for Volcanoes, Oceans, Typhoons and Earthquakes (VOTE) collaborative research. – Dexter A. See