Short link: https://wp.me/paaccn-LZq
- EDD K. USMAN | X (Twitter): @edd1819 | Instagram: @bluestar0910 |Facebook: SDN – SciTech & Digital News
LUCCA HOTEL, Legazpi City, Bicol Region (SDN) — Communicating disaster risks to Filipinos poses challenges because of difficult science-based terms not easily understood by the people on the ground.
Thus, science communication should and must be readily understood, some say “laymanized” with hard-to-understand technical terms broken down to their most simple versions. Like breaking them down like talking to Grade 1 pupils.
Today, February 12, that is what the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) aims to do for the Bicolanos as its attached agency the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) unveils Project DANAS: Earthquake, Tsunami, and Volcano Disaster Narratives for Experiential Knowledge-based Science Communication.
Funded by the DOST’s Innovation Council, the Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development (PCIEERD) for Php19.87 million, the PHIVOLCS (the one people call when a volcano acts up or erupts in the country), collaborated with Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University (DMMMSU)-La Union and the University of the Philippines-Visayas (UPV) to realize the research project’s goals.
PHIVOLCS is headed by Director Dr. Teresito C. Bacolcol, who led the DANAS Project rollout here of its Bicolano sourcebook. PCIEERD under the leadership of Executive Director Enrico “Eric” C. Paringit funded the two-year research undertaking launched in March 2023.
DOST had already completed five other local dialect versions of the sourcebooks. In 2024, the DANAS Project already bore fruit as the DOST released sourcebooks in Cebuano, Kapampangan, and Tagalog in 2024; and three additional volumes introduced and distributed done in Ilocano, Hiligaynon, and Bicolano.
The people of the Bicol Region will have in their hands the sourcebooks in their dialect starting today, Wednesday, and be able to read lessons on disaster survivors’ harrowing experiences and learn lessons on coping with the impacts of natural calamities.
Bacolcol points out that for the last two years, his agency “has worked to create a series of sourcebooks in Philippine local languages to help communities better understand geologic hazards.”
He adds at the event: “Today, we are excited to launch the sourcebooks on volcanic hazards, featuring real experiences from the Bicolano people with the Mayon and Buluan Volcanoes.”
The PHIVOLCS chief noted that in sharing people’s stories about their life experiences during volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and tsunamis, “the DANAS Project highlights the importance of local knowledge in strengthening disaster preparedness and improving risk communication.” At the same time, he emphasized the project is the agency’s commitment to help make science more accessible and relevant to communities.
PHIVOLCS Deputy Director Dr. Ma. Mylene M. Villegas, Project Lead of DANAS Project, cited the significance of having sourcebooks on disasters that integrate science data and real-life experiences woven into easily understood stories of life and death, in this case narratives provided by people who went through the dangers of volcanic eruptions.
Remember, Mayon Volcano is in Bicol Region which has been both a beautiful, enchanting sight with its perfect cone and a source of fear for Bicolanos. Mount Bulusan is also in the region located in Sorsogon province.
Paringit counting on educators to leverage the DANAS sourcebooks
Predictably, the Bicolano sourcebook focuses on the volcanic hazards of Mayon and Bulusan Volcanoes.
“We want to ensure people understand volcanic risks in a way that feels personal and relatable,” Villegas emphasizes in a statement shared with SDN – SciTech & Digital News.
The six sourcebooks will be made available in print and digital formats that also include video packages and DOST through PHIVOLCS will distribute them to educators, disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM) officers, and media outlets across the region.
PCIEERD sourced its funding for DANAS Project from the DOST Grants-in-Aid (GIA). PHIVOLCS is the project’s implementing agency and monitored by the Innovation Council.
Villegas relayed to the event attendees the project’s first year was spent on documenting survivors’ personal stories through series of interviews concerning their experiences during the onslaught of earthquake, tsunami, and volcanic eruptions.
She pointed out that the sourcebooks were done in the local dialects and not confined in scientific data. “The sourcebooks speaks the local people’s dialects,” the PHIVOLCS deputy director says.
Villegas said doing a project that covered the entire Philippines was not easy as the research covered the country’s six major dialects. While many technical terms were already adopted in the Filipino language, but the trick is to make them easily understood, and how do it was the big question — how to render them in the dialects used every day by the people.
She revealed that the DANAS Project team had field works in Mindanao, Visayas, and Luzon, talking with and interviewing local people who were eyewitnesses and survivors of disasters in their community.
In relation with the continuity of the project, PHIVOLCS is looking for partnership and collaboration to produce more sourcebooks in the six dialects.
Bacolcol, who is from Mindanao, also revealed that producing sourcebook of the DANAS Project for the Bangsamoro communities in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) “is in the pipeline”.
PHIVOLCS Supervising Senior Research Scientist Jeffrey S. Perez said they had already interviewed some members of the Bangsamoro community for a possible Moro dialect version.
He said they are hoping that PCIEERD would provide additional funding to realize this.
It seems PCIEERD heard the plea.
Paringit, in his closing remarks made through a video, assured that “we recognize that clear and impactful science communication is key to tackling the challenges of natural disasters.”
He said that supporting undertakings like the DANAS Project serves PCIEERD’s constant commitment to making science more accessible and help ensure that vital knowledge reaches the public and empowers communities.
“Together, let us continue fostering a future where science communication fortifies communities against natural calamities,” Paringit says. He was counting on educators to use the DANAS sourcebooks as science communication needs to be inclusive, integrated, and innovative. (/)