THE youth group Anakbayan blamed the Aquino administration’s neglect of the science & technology (S&T) sector for the exodus of Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) personnel to the private sector and other countries, with the latest being PAGASA chief Nathaniel Servando.
The agency’s ranks has been decimated in the past few years as better-paying jobs abroad have enticed them to leave their posts which have low salaries.
Vencer Crisostomo, national chairperson of Anakbayan, said the low salaries could be traced to the chronically low funding from the government, which in turn reflects the wrong priorities of the current administration.
“You have more than P40 billion for a sham poverty reduction program like the 4Ps, yet we can’t afford to give our weathermen decent salaries?” he said, referring to the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program of the Dept. of Social Welfare and Development.
The youth leader compared the entire S&T sector to social services like education, health, and housing, which have been underfunded every year in favor of expenditures such as that of the military and debt servicing. Under the Aquino administration, another ‘pet project’, the 4Ps, has been the recipient of billions of pesos in budgeting.
In addition, Crisostomo pointed out that the lack of funding for PAGASA highlighted the lack of sincerity on the part of government to reduce the ‘disaster risk’ of Filipinos during typhoons and the rainy season.
“Any disaster preparedness program needs a reliable weather forecasting system. How can we have that when we don’t pay the human element, the forecasters themselves, enough?” he said.
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