BATO, Catanduanes—Officials are seeing a use for the eight-story Doppler radar building here other than to monitor the skies for bad weather.
The structure itself, they said, could be a tourist attraction.
Scientists, tourism and local government officials and members of a nongovernment organization said the facility could become a tourist attraction.
President Benigno Aquino III will open the new building on May 7. It was earlier planned to be inaugurated on April 4 and 27.
The Doppler radar, which sits on top of a hill in Barangay Buenavista, has been acquired through a P1.2-billion grant from the Japan International Cooperation Agency.
Albay Gov. Joey Salceda, who also chairs the Regional Development Council, said the facility could enhance tourist awareness on climate change.
Maria Ravanilla, the tourism regional director, said there are other reasons for making the station a tourism site. Bato is adjacent to the town of Baras, which is now recognized as one of the world’s favorite surfing sites, she said.
“Visitors might also opt to drop by the Doppler radar to see for themselves how it looks like from the inside out and its functions and also to talk to scientists for additional information,” Ravanilla said.
With better, if not the best, weather-monitoring facilities now installed in the radar facility, tourists will be well-informed when and where rains would fall, she added.
Ravanilla said with ample lead time, tour organizers could plan activities based on the weather.
Community adaptation practitioners led by the Local Climate Change Adaptation for Development, which is headed by Manuel Rangasa, urged the Department of Tourism to adopt a range of policies that encourages a “truly progressive and sustainable” culture and tourism-related programs.
Dr. Landrico Dalida, the regional head of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa), said the agency was not considering plans to solicit donations or collect entrance fees from people who would want to tour the radar site.
Pagasa only wants visitors “to see for themselves and appreciate the potential of these equipment in saving lives,” Dalida said.
Eufronio Garcia, the chief meteorological officer of Catanduanes, said two other Doppler radars are being built in Samar and in Aparri, Cagayan.
Dalida said Pagasa wants to saturate the entire country with Doppler radars.
The radars could cover a radius of 420 kilometers, enough to produce images of weather disturbances far out in the Pacific Ocean and the western seas, he said. Dalida said radars are usually placed in coastal areas.