MANILA — The House of Representatives is pushing for the allocation of ₱1 billion for the Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards (Project NOAH) under the proposed 2026 national budget.

During the bicameral conference committee meeting on Saturday, Negros Occidental Rep. Javier Miguel Lopez Benitez urged senators to support the funding, citing Project NOAH’s critical role in disaster preparedness and risk reduction.

“Project NOAH has made real-time, high-quality hazard maps which have been used by local government units. Ever since nangyayari po sa atin ang mga climate disasters, the Project NOAH website has had 35 million searches online; during peak times, 2.5 million searches a day,” Benitez said.

He stressed that the high demand for accurate flood and hazard information, especially during typhoons, underscores the need to update the country’s hazard maps, which were last revised in 2012.

Benitez is one of the authors of House Bill No. 2577, which seeks to establish a National Climate Resilience Institute under the University of the Philippines (UP) system.

House Appropriations Committee chair and Nueva Ecija Rep. Mikaela Suansing also backed the proposed funding, saying it forms part of broader efforts to mitigate flooding nationwide.

“Ang hinihingi po natin sa Project NOAH kapag binigay natin ang pondo na ito is for them to work closely with the DPWH in terms of refining the way flood control projects are designed and monitored,” Suansing said.

She explained that Project NOAH allows the simulation of specific areas to determine where flood control structures are actually needed, preventing the construction of projects in locations where they are unnecessary.

Suansing noted that despite a sharp reduction in its annual budget—from ₱500 million to just ₱36 million in recent years—Project NOAH has continued to produce reliable hazard maps widely used by the public and local governments.

Project NOAH is currently being implemented by the UP National Resilience Institute.