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“Ulod sa bunga sa lanka,” technically the jackfruit fruit borer (Glyphodes caesalis Walker), is becoming a major insect pest, especially in Eastern Visayas. The fruit borer causes about 30‒40% damage in jackfruit from flower bud formation up to fruit ripening.

With the move to expand the jackfruit production areas in the region, this borer may potentially become an expensive thorn in the side of jackfruit growers. Fortunately, nature itself presents the solution - Metarhizium anisopliae (Metch) Sorokin.

M. anisopliae is a fungus known worldwide and proven to control various pests. This prompted local researchers Dr. Carlos S. de la Cruz of the Department of Agriculture – Regional Integrated Agricultural Research Center (DA-RIARC) and Dr. Ruben M. Gapasin of the Visayas State University (VSU) to test different Metarhizium isolates against the jackfruit borer.

After isolating the fungus from various infected insect pests, De la Cruz and Gapasin found that Metarhizium isolates from sweet potato weevils most effectively controlled the jackfruit fruit borer.

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President Benigno S. Aquino III honored the country’s outstanding public servants, among them the head of the Department of Science and Technology’s Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs), in a rites held in Malacañan Palace October 15. The awarding coincided with 110th anniversary of the Philippine Civil Service (CSC).

Phivolcs Director Renato U. Solidum received this year’s Lingkod Bayan Award for his meritorious contributions in the field of disaster risk reduction. According to his citation, Solidum was conferred the prestigious government service award “for raising the bar of disaster risk reduction in a country prone to volcano, earthquake, and tsunami disasters; for initiating a mapping program that compiled historical tsunami information shown in the form of hazards maps for use by local governments in tsunami-prone areas.”

In his response, Solidum said, “I am happy and honored to be one of the recipients of the award because this is the highest honor that a public servant could ever receive.”
“This is the result of all the things that we do here in Phivolcs,” he added. Through Solidum’s efforts in disaster risk mitigation, Phivolcs has earned the nod of many international funding agencies to extend its support in upgrading its monitoring facilities among the agency’s 59 seismic stations around the country.

According to Solidum, the tsunami hazard mapping has already covered 100 per cent of the country’s coastline. This historic tsunami information gathering is part of the bigger program in tsunami hazard mapping that includes physical and numerical modeling of the possible tsunami-prone areas in the country, he said.

Also under Solidum’s watch, Phivolcs initiated the formulation of Tsunami Hazard Mapping ahead of the tsunami incident that left 4,812 deaths in Phuket, Thailand in 2004.

Among Phivolcs regular programs include the conduct of series of tsunami drills, apart from the compulsory earthquake drills on schools, on communities that are most likely to be hit by the said natural disaster.

Other recipients of the Lingkod ng Bayan Award were Technical Sgt. Salvador S. Buenaobra Jr. (Philippine Air Force [PAF]-15th Strike Wing, Cavite); Pablo Y. Lasprilla Jr. (PAF-410th Maintenance Wing, Pampanga); Thomas G. Aquino (Department of Trade and Industry, Makati City); Teodosia S. Bernaldez (Loboc Local Government Unit, Bohol); Col. Lope C. Dagoy (Philippine Army-85th Infantry Battalion, Taguig City); Dr. Fe A. Yap (Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino, Manila); Regional Public Affairs Office’s Trees for Books/Books for Trees Project (DENR-Cordillera Administrative Region); and Open Academy for Philippine Agriculture (Pampanga Agricultural College, Pampanga).

Spearheading the annual awarding is CSC which is tasked to honor and recognize significant works and initiatives of public officials and employees in the government service. Other awards conferred were the Pagasa and the Dangal ng Bayan Awards.

In a short telephone interview, Solidum said he shares the honor to his fellow public servants in Phivolcs and DOST. He said that this award would not be possible if not for the people who toiled with him in coming up with projects that are very essential to the lives of Filipinos. (Joy M. Lazcano, S&T Media Service)


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The Philippines, through the Department of Science and Technology’s Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development (PCIEERD), will host the 3rd Project Review Meeting in Tagaytay and Manila on October 18-20, 2010. The collaborative project under review which focuses on thermal spray coating is initiated by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations through its Sub-committee on Materials Science Technology in partnership with the government of India (ASEAN- INDIA) in advancing surface science and engineering.

Thermal spraying is a coating process in which melted (or heated) materials are sprayed onto a surface. The thermally-sprayed ceramic-based coating is a cost-effective technology that repairs damaged surfaces and improves performance and life span of equipment. Among its perceived benefits are versatility (almost any metal, ceramic or plastic can be sprayed); processing speed (spray rates range from 3 to 60 lb/h depending on the material and spray system); and thickness range (coating thickness range from .001 to 100in).

Participating countries in the project include India, Indonesia, Malaysia Singapore, Vietnam, and the Philippines. Representatives from other ASEAN member-states will also participate in the review that will serve as a venue to share technology updates among participating countries through workshops and forums.

Funded by the ASEAN-INDIA Cooperation Fund under India’s Ministry of External Affairs, the three-day meeting includes an international forum on thermally sprayed coating on Oct. 18 at Hotel Dominique, Tagaytay. The forum aims to present the latest developments on surface engineering and acquaint participants on various processes associated with the technology. Project review is slated on Oct. 19 and a tour of the plasma laboratory of Dr. Henry Ramos at the National Institute of Physics, University of the Philippines-Diliman is scheduled on Oct. 20.

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MAMBAJAO, Camiguin Island – There are more volcanoes than there are towns here.

More than 10 volcanoes, two of them active, share the 291-square-kilometer island province with the towns of Sagay, Catarman, Guinsiliban, Mahinog, and Mambajao, the capital.

It's the largest concentration of volcanoes per square kilometer in the country, and the number has since increased after volcanologists in the 1980s added three more to make it 10 – and counting. They believe there could be more.

The most violent and deadly in Camiguin is Hibok-Hibok on the northwest, with several vents in the crater and on the flanks. What sets it apart was the white-hot and poisonous sulphuric gases that accompanied its 1951 eruption – extremely fluid but dense enough to cascade rapidly down the slope and “mummify” people on its path.

That was what happened during its most recent outburst, in December that year, when glowing ash clouds – packing temperatures of 800 to 1,000 degrees Celcius seen 160 kilometers away – swiftly rolled down to Mambajao town and charred trees and burned houses along its path; 500 people were solidified and covered in white ash looking like mummies.

“Lava flood buries 15 barrios”, “Hunger, disease peril evacuees”, The Evening News bannered. “New blast blocks rescue effort”, it headlined.

The eruption “caught people unprepared for its fury and devastating impact,” volcanologists reported.

Except for its almost forgotten activity in 1902 when it emitted sulphurous odors, there were no signs of activity in the five decades before the series of sporadic eruptions that lasted from 1948 to 1953; the one in 1951 was most violent.

People were not forewarned because there was no government institution concerned with volcanoes then, although in 1948 a seismic monitoring station was already established in Mambajao.

Hibok-Hibok's eruption prompted the government to create in June 1952 the Commission on Volcanology (COMVOL), later the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) of the Department of Science and Technology.

The COMVOL's first order of business was to create five monitoring stations near the country's five most active volcanoes.

Twenty-two of the country's 37 volcanoes are considered active, including those near urban concentrations, such as Banahaw in Laguna and Quezon; Bulusan in Sorsogon; Hibok-hibok in Camiguin; Kanlaon in Negros Oriental; Mayon in Albay; Pinatubo on the boundaries of Pampanga, Tarlac and Zambales; and Taal in Batangas.

Today, Phivolcs is not taking any chances, here and elsewhere. In Camiguin, digital seismic sensors run 24/7 in Mainit, Catarman; at the peak of Mt. Vulcan 571 meters above sea level; and on the upper slope of Hibok-Hibok in Tagdo, Mambajao.

They pick up volcanic quakes all over the island and transmit the data direct to computers at the Phivolcs Observatory in Sitio Quiboro, 4.7 kilometers from the crater.

Phivolcs-DOST's Hibok-hibok Volcano Observatory