Pampanga to honor Punongbayan

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO — Pampanga will posthumously bestow on the late chief volcanologist Dr. Raymundo Punongbayan the "honorary Capampangan award" when it commemorates its 343rd founding anniversary on Dec. 11.

Other outstanding Capampangans will also be honored during the awarding rites highlighting the week-long Aldo ning Capampangan celebration which Gov. Mark Lapid kicked off here last Monday.

While the awards committee declined to reveal this year’s awardees, sources in the provincial Capitol confirmed to The STAR that Punongbayan, who died in a helicopter crash in Gabaldon, Nueva Ecija last April, was unanimously chosen for the special honorary award even if the late volcanologist was a native of Quezon.

Pampanga folk have credited Punongbayan, who was then the director of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, for saving their province from lahar avalanches after Mount Pinatubo erupted in 1991.

Despite objections and controversies surrounding the anti-lahar megadike project along the Pasig-Potrero River, Punongbayan pushed for its construction, thus saving this city and other heavily populated areas from being buried by lahar debris.

Even before his death, Punongbayan had been honored by various local groups as an "adopted son" of Pampanga for his anti-lahar projects.

Among the anniversary activities are an agro-industrial fair, a photo exhibit on Pampanga’s top tourist destinations, an inter-agency volleyball tournament, and a party for senior citizens at the Capitol grounds, to name a few. — Ding Cervantes