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LEADING volcanologist Raymundo Punongbayan spent nearly two decades of his life as director of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs). Named the Inquirer’s first Filipino of the Year for his contributions during the 1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption, he was also awarded the Sergy Soloviev Medal of European Geological Society in 2003, UN Sasakawa Award for Disaster Reduction in 2001 and the Lingkod Bayan Presidential Award in 1996. He died in a helicopter crash on April 28, 2005. Schatzi Quodala, Inquirer Research