My research leads to better knowledge on earthquake occurrence and seismic hazard, which is important for us to improve our measures against the negative socio-economic impacts of earthquakes. There’s still no way of predicting earthquakes, but we do know that the Philippines has a lot of faults and a history of devastating earthquakes, and we could prevent massive destruction and loss of lives if we understand better how earthquake-generating faults behave.
Also, the Philippines has started to develop modernize its space program (with policy and the launch of the Diwata-1 microsatellite), acknowledging its importance in disaster risk reduction and management, among others. Satellites allow us to acquire data even in remote, often poverty-stricken regions and can become vital for rapid response after earthquakes and other hazards, especially with coordinated efforts between satellite agencies. Exploiting the data from satellites will become a necessary part of tackling development issues in the country.