Press Release
April 15, 2011

RISING FOOD, FUEL COSTS A REAL THREAT TO PHL GROWTH - ANGARA

Senator Edgardo J. Angara said that the government should invest more in using science and technology (S&T) to help the country deal with problems caused by rising fuel and food costs, as well as disaster preparedness, as these pose real threats to the country's development but merits little government attention.

Angara, Chair of the Congressional Commission on Science Technology and Engineering (COMSTE), issued the statement in light of an announcement from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) stating that the discussions of its upcoming annual meeting center on the rising costs of food and fuel.

The ADB said that high food and fuel prices, which are complicating economic and monetary policymaking, are being compounded by the region's challenges. These other challenges include natural calamities like floods and earthquakes.?

"The ADB's upcoming annual meeting of its board of governors in Hanoi, Vietnam, will assess these immediate and long-term hurdles with ministers and senior government officials, business leaders, fellow international financial institutions, and civil society representatives," the ADB said.

Angara said that these issues can be tackled by using S&T solutions, which COMSTE has been promoting.

Angara said that COMSTE has identified the development of electric vehicles and green transport as priority projects of the commission for 2011.

Angara said that innovative Green transport systems such as electric tricycles, hybrid jeepneys, buses and electric bicycles have the potential to lessen pollution caused by conventional transportation and the dependency on fossil fuels.

The former Department of Agriculture (DA) head also said that one major target should be the achieving food security. He mentioned that COMSTE is working on plans to help develop improved farm to market logistics as well as creating more resilient agricultural systems that can withstand climate change.

Angara also noted that another COMSTE project, the Disaster Science Management Center (DSMC), is ready to assist in preparing the nation for the dealing with disasters like the devastating earthquake that recently hit Japan, now that it is in possession of the Metro Manila Earthquake Impact Reduction Study (MMEIRS), a report on the safety of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant and a Disaster and Complexity study.

"We need the DSMC to help us prepare for the earthquakes and similar disasters that will continue to threaten the country. The government needs to be able to understand how to develop an advanced and real-time information dissemination strategy so people can better prepare to handle such events," noted Angara.

The MMEIRS is a joint study that was undertaken by the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS), the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) to create a earthquake scenario damage map of Metro Manila.(30)

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