PHL Ambassador Celeste Vinzon-Balatbat and the rest of the Embassy team are given a tour of the SHOA Valparaiso headquarter and facilities, including the highly important Operations Room of the SNAM or Sistema Nacional de Alarma de Maremotos.
(1 June 2023, Valparaiso) PHL Ambassador to Chile H.E. Celeste Vinzon-Balatbat visited the SHOA Headquarters in Valparaiso and met with Rear Admiral Arturo Oxley Lizana, Director of the Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service (SHOA) of the Chilean Navy, to learn more about SHOA’s best practices in disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM), as well as seismic and tsunami warning systems.
Rear Admiral Oxley provided the Embassy team with an overview of SHOA’s mandate, centered on providing technical assistance to the Chilean government on: (1) hydrography, (2) navigation, (3) nautical cartography, (4) nautical geography, (5) oceanography, (6) tsunami detection, (7) nautical astronomy, and (8) timekeeping (official time of Chile). Director Oxley also gave the Embassy team a tour of the facility, including the Operations Room of Chile’s National Tsunami Warning System or SNAM (Sistema Nacional de Alarma de Maremotos).
SHOA’s tsunami detection, protocols/methodologies, and response capacities are among the most advanced in the Americas, with systems built using Chilean expertise and technology. The PHL Embassy is in turn exploring possible cooperation and exchanges of best practices between SHOA and the PHL’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), PHIVOLCS, and possibly the PHL Navy under the ambit of the 2015 PHL-CHL MOU on DRRM.
The above areas of DRRM cooperation are envisioned to include, but will not be limited to: (1) sharing of early warning information on tsunamis and/or quakes, (2) good practices in disaster response, preparedness, and protocols, (3) effective community action on DRRM, and (4) sound practices and policies on disaster preparedness, early detection, and mitigation.
Joining Ambassador Balatbat and Rear Admiral Oxley during the 1 June 2023 meeting and visit were PHL First Secretary & Consul Dennis John C. Briones, SHOA Deputy Director Captain Carlos Zuñiga Araya, First Lieutenant Matias Sifon Andalaft (Chief of SHOA’s Department of Oceanography), and PHL Embassy Interpreter Julia Carolina Farias.
The PHL-CHL MOU on DRRM and the formulation of specific areas of cooperation between SHOA and PHL authorities will also be discussed and advanced at the upcoming 6th PHL-CHL Bilateral Consultation Mechanism (BCM) in Manila in the second half of 2023. END