Sometime ago, a grumpy lady senator was reported to have been visibly irked and did not mince her words when she found out a huge part of the DA’s National Corn Program would be allocated for research: “Baliw na baliw kayo sa research. Aanhin niyo ba yung research?” (You’re so crazy about research. Of what good is your research?) Then for good measure she added: “I’m a smart person but I don’t understand your research, what more of the farmers. Does a farmer want research?”

That lady senator is not alone in her opinion about research. She is typical of our country’s leaders who are research averse and are dismissive of our scientists in general. After all, we are not a scientific culture according to social scientists.

Remember Project NOAH (Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards)?  It was one of the very few science-based projects funded by our government, a flagship disaster risk reduction management program put together by a dozen of the best of our disaster scientists, researchers and experts headed by Dr. Mahar Lagmay, a top-notch geologist. The team mapped out the entire country’s potential flood hazards down to the municipal level. It was designed to provide real-time warnings and information on floods, landslides, and other natural calamities on one’s mobile phone.

Then in January 2017 the Philippine government shut it down, citing lack of funds. Dr. Lagmay pointed out it was only 60% completed and much more could have been done yet the government deemed the project finished. More than the investment in still-useable advanced technology and tools, Project Noah’s termination meant the loss of the valued expertise of our country’s best disaster reduction scientists. What a waste, indeed! As we say in our street lingo, “sayangtists.”

In hindsight, Project NOAH could have served as the basis of a national masterplan for our trillion peso network of flood control infrastructure to prevent or minimize destructive floods and landslides in many areas across the country. It could have provided early and timely warning for the locals living in hazard-prone areas. But that’s all water under collapsed dikes and bridges now. Tsk, tsk. (Editors’ Note: Project Noah is no longer with the Department of Science and Technology (DOST). It remains operational in beta phase under the University of the Philippines Resilience Institute. Developments are ongoing to stabilize the platform and update data.)

As our country is being ravaged by one natural calamity after another, compounded by the shocking uncovering of ghost flood control projects, substandard and haphazard structures, and big dikes constructed where they’re not needed, the pendulum should now swing the other way, from blind planning to a more science-based decision making by government leaders. We need to go beyond just oratio imperatas and pre-positioning of relief goods and rubber boats.

I hope that our national decision makers now see the folly of building infrastructures without being guided by a masterplan. They can’t go on funding infrastructure project without well thought out plans.

Our people clearly see that our country has been caught with its pants down, inadequately prepared by our leaders to deal with the multi-headed monster of unpredictable climate change, parallel volcano eruptions, double or triple earthquakes and more.

Contrary to the grumpy lady senator’s denigration of research as a crazy wasteful activity, going scientific research crazy is now the smart thing to do.

To draw up a realistic and comprehensive blueprint for a more resilient country, we need to allocate massive research in the fields and disciplines related to environment conservation and management.

With enough funding, let us recruit and mobilize an army of geologists, climatologists, ecologists, hydrologists, seismologists, flood control engineers and other researchers in other eco-related disciplines to help us gain the much-needed relevant knowledge about our land, our weather, our plants, our forests, water, our air and everything there is to know about climate change.

We need individuals willing to leave their academic desks and go out of their air-conditioned rooms in universities to do field research, deep immersions, directly studying their chosen subjects, patiently, steadfastly and unwaveringly, even if it takes years of unrewarding work.

Most of all, any field investigation and study must involve the natives in the areas of research. Farmers, forest dwellers, and most of all, ethnic tribes, such as Dumagats, Lumads and Aetas and other ethnic communities God knows how long. Their tribes have existed in their respective terrains for ages. They in fact consider themselves one with the land, mountains and the waterways which our modern society has encroached upon and destroyed in the name of progress. They not only respect nature but revere it. They possess a long and vast collective first-hand experience and knowledge of nature that our science researchers and experts can draw on.

With their experience of the lay of the land, they can tell us how to prevent rain waters from rushing too quickly down from the forests and the mountains. They have a keen sense of the changes in the weather. I heard they can even read signs of an impending earthquake, just by smelling the air, or noting the movements of animals.

Let’s factor in the accumulated native knowledge with the data collected painstakingly, patiently and systematically by certified and seasoned science researchers out there in the field.

My earnest hope is that our country will start to value and treasure our science researchers. The results of their explorations and investigations be the key to our human survival. No wonder they are called “intellectual heroes.”

One such intellectual hero was the late Jane Goodall, who quietly passed away recently, aged ninety-one. She lacked scientific training. She had no degree. But she was one research crazy individual. Driven by passion and courage, by dint of sheer hard work and struggle, virtually alone in wilds of East Africa, she persisted unwaveringly in observing and studying the behavior of the chimpanzees until her death.

Today, Jane Goodall’s studies and writings on man’s closest relative have also contributed much to biology, natural history, anthropology, and the humanities and are now part of humankind’s collective knowledge.

Let’s heed one of her parting words: “only if we understand, will we care. Only if we care, will we help. Only if we help shall all be saved.” ‍I hope these words will reach the ears of our grumpy lady senator.

To show that we care enough for our calamity ravaged country, let us elect enlightened new leaders and push them to create more enlightened laws and allocate enough funding to ensure that “research crazy” and committed scientists in the mold of Jane Goodall will thrive in our country. In their solitary pursuits is our future salvation.

The header image is from the website of Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (PCHRD) is one of the three sectoral councils of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).

About the author

NICK TAYAG is a multi-media writer and communications specialist. His special focus is scriptwriting for audio visual presentations and documentary videos, creative conceptualization and writing think pieces. Now in his early 70s, he is the Creative Consultant of a digital production and event management outfit. He also writes a regular column for the Business Mirror called “My Sixty Zen’s Worth” which comes out every Saturday. His most recent script for a bio documentary on Filipino master filmmaker Gerardo “Manong” de Leon entitled “Salamat sa Alaala,” was nominated for best documentary in the 2016 URIAN awards. As an advertising copywriter in the 1990s, he won recognition from the Creative Guild of the Philippines and the Public Relations Society of the Philippines for ads he wrote for corporate clients. He also won a UNICEF-PPI Award for Outstanding Story On Children. He is presently working on a book on creative conceptualization as well as inspirational booklets.