Negros lawmaker hails PHP 1-billion Project NOAH budget

By Glazyl M. Jopson

BACOLOD CITY — Negros Occidental 3rd District Rep. Javier Miguel Benitez welcomed the PHP 1-billion budget allocation for Project Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards (NOAH), saying it would strengthen the country’s disaster preparedness and help communities better anticipate and respond to natural hazards.

Benitez thanked the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) and Acting Secretary Kim Robert De Leon for releasing the funds.

He also thanked Dr. Alfredo Mahar Lagmay, executive director of the University of the Philippines (UP) Resilience Institute and director of Project NOAH, for keeping the program alive through lean years.

According to the DBM, the funding will strengthen Project NOAH’s artificial intelligence-powered flood forecasting, real-time hazard monitoring, and disaster prevention capabilities, giving the government and communities better tools to anticipate threats and act before lives and livelihoods are put at risk.

The budget reinforces the administration’s push to shift disaster management from responding after calamities strike to using science, technology, and data to anticipate risks and prevent hazards from becoming disasters.

In a statement, De Leon said the PHP 1-billion investment in Project NOAH is an investment in prevention.

“We are putting science, AI, and real-time hazard information to work so government can act earlier, communities can prepare better, and more Filipino lives and livelihoods can be protected,” he added.

“Hindi natin kailangang hintayin na tumaas ang tubig bago tayo kumilos. The goal is to know where the danger is, who is at risk, and what needs to be done before disaster strikes,” De Leon said.

Of the PHP 1-billion release, chargeable against the university’s built-in appropriation under the fiscal year 2026 General Appropriations Act, PHP 935 million will support research services, while PHP 65 million will fund general management and supervision for the implementation of Project NOAH.

The funding will support the procurement and deployment of critical information and communications technology, digital, technical, and scientific equipment.

It will also fund highly specialized technical personnel and operational support systems needed to strengthen the country’s hazard assessment and forecasting capabilities.

De Leon said strengthening disaster prevention is also a matter of protecting public resources, as major disasters can destroy homes, livelihoods, infrastructure, and years’ worth of government investments in a matter of hours.

“We cannot stop typhoons or heavy rains from coming, but with the right information at the right time, we can reduce their impact. That is what we want public funds to deliver—not simply resources after a disaster, but greater protection before it happens,” he stressed.

Benitez filed House Bill No. 2577, which seeks to establish the UP National Climate Resilience Institute to further strengthen the country’s disaster preparedness and climate resilience efforts.

The measure was among several bills consolidated into a proposal to establish the institute as a permanent institution focused on climate resilience and disaster preparedness, which secured committee-level approval in the House in June 2026.

During the first livestreamed bicameral conference on the national budget last December, Benitez said the House of Representatives asked the Senate to provide PHP 1 billion for Project NOAH.

He cited 35 million searches on the NOAH website, including up to 2.5 million a day at the height of a typhoon, and hazard maps that had not been comprehensively updated since 2012.

The young lawmaker said Project NOAH should not have to fight for its life every budget season and that its researchers should not have to be hired one contract at a time.

“Most of the time, the difference between a hazard and a disaster is how early the warning arrives. But a budget release is a one-time decision,” Benitez said in a statement.

He shared the experiences of his legislative district, which covers the cities of Silay, Talisay, and Victorias and the municipality of E.B. Magalona, areas that have experienced flooding more than once in the past five years.

“Preparing for a flood costs far less than responding to one, in lives and in pesos,” he stressed.

Benitez said the 2027 budget is now before the House.

“We will keep Project NOAH funded, and we will keep pushing House Bill No. 2577 until NOAH no longer has to wait for a good budget year,” he added.

Benitez invited Lagmay to a Climate Resilience Summit he hosted in Talisay City in September 2025, where stakeholders from various local government units and concerned sectors in the 3rd District convened to assess ongoing and proposed flood control projects and resilience plans.

Benitez had also earlier expressed plans to pitch updated hazard maps to other local government units in the province, particularly Bacolod City, because of reported flooding incidents.

Project NOAH began as a Department of Science and Technology research program in 2012 and ended under the department on Feb. 28, 2017, after completing its research objectives and receiving two extensions.

The UP Board of Regents adopted Project NOAH in February 2017, allowing its disaster risk reduction work to continue under the university.

UP established the NOAH Center in March 2017, and the center later became a core program of the UP Resilience Institute.

The UP Resilience Institute was relaunched in June 2017 to advance research and provide scientific data for disaster prevention, response, mitigation, and climate resilience.