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Department of Science and Technology Secretary Mario Montejo sent a quick response team yesterday to Negros Oriental to assess the damage in earthquake-affected areas. The team, headed by DOST-Phivolcs Chief Mariton Bornas and Senior Science Specialist Mabel Abigania, is composed of geologists, seismologists and information staff from the DOST- Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (DOST-Phivolcs). They arrived in Dumaguete City yesterday afternoon and will proceed to the Tayasan and Libertad areas in Negros Oriental to immediately conduct post-earthquake assessment.

 

The team will evaluate the extent of damage around the Negros-Cebu area, particularly the hazards caused by the earthquake such as landslides, liquefaction, ground rupture, tsunami and other developments in the areas near the epicenter. The team will also install instruments in gathering intensity reports to determine the strength of ground shaking in various areas.

 

Also, the team will use portable seismic monitoring equipment to accurately identify the position of the epicenter of the aftershocks, and identify and locate the fault plain that caused the main shock. The experts will likewise document the condition in the areas around the epicenter through pictures and video to help them better understand and study the incident.

 

Meanwhile, the information team will conduct on-site lectures on what to do during and after an earthquake and distribute information materials on earthquake and other hazards.

 

“We assure our countrymen, especially those in the earthquake-damaged areas, that DOST-Phivolcs is doing its best to monitor all events related to the Cebu-Negros earthquake,” Sec. Montejo stated. “We are doing this to deepen our own knowledge of what happened and continually provide our people with the relevant information they need to understand this earthquake event and how to cope with its effects.”

 

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Phivolcs bulletin: After two hours of extended observation period in the areas of Negros and Cebu islands that experienced a 6.9 magnitude earthquake of tectonic origin, there were no reports of unusual sea level changes. Hence, tsunami alerts for the Philippines are now CANCELLED. There is no more possibility of tsunami incident in the earthquake area.


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The Philippine Information Technology-Business Process Outsourcing (IT-BPO) Industry is aiming to become one of the world leaders in four more fast growing offshoring and outsourcing services, namely: Healthcare Information Management Outsourcing, Finance and Accounting Outsourcing, HR Outsourcing and Animation and Game Development, as well as solidifying its lead in call centers in the coming years.

This was revealed in a joint press conference held by the Information and Communications Technology Office (ICTO) of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) on ICTO and BPAP’s new programs targeted to develop several key BPO market segments.

The Philippines recently overtook India as the call center capital of the world, and in 2011 the IT-BPO industry contributed approximately $11B in export revenues, about 640,000 direct jobs and approximately 1.5 million indirect jobs (e.g. construction and service jobs generated to serve the sector’s growth) to the Philippine Economy.

According to ICTO Deputy Executive Director Alejandro Melchor, “We are the world’s number one call center provider and we intend to attain market leadership in the UK and Australia as well. With our new development programs for the IT-BPO Industry we also intend to position the Philippines as a world leader in Healthcare Information Management Outsourcing, Finance and Accounting Outsourcing, HR Outsourcing, and Animation and Game Development. Our third goal is to double our market share by 2016 in Information Technology Outsourcing, Engineering Services Outsourcing and Multilingual BPO.”

 

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President Benigno C. Aquino III on January 12 this year signed Proclamation No. 313 declaring January of every year as “Philippine Tropical Fabrics (PTF) Month” to promote the judicious use of indigenous fibers in the country such as piña, banana, abaca, and Philippine silk. The Proclamation also aims to sustain the increased interest on local tropical fibers brought about by the celebration of the Philippine Tropical Fabrics Day on January last year as mandated by Proclamation No. 86.

The Department of Science and Technology’s Philippine Textile Research Institute (DOST-PTRI), which leads the research and development of technologies on the country’s tropical textiles, will spearhead the tropical fiber month celebration as designated by Pres. Aquino.

“The competitiveness of indigenous tropical fibers developed by PTRI is becoming known,” said DOST Sec. Mario Montejo. “Moreover, R&D work done on these fibers reveal they can have a broad variety of uses, from traditional formal wear to fashion accessories. Its prospects are bright.”