In a press briefing on Tuesday, Dr. Alumanda M. dela Rosa, the director of the PNRI said they are currently gathering information on the latest explosion in one of Japan’s nuclear reactors and will come up with a report on their bulletin Tuesday afternoon.

Reacting to a hoax text message on Monday, Science and Technology Secretary Mario Montejo said he couldn’t see why some universities canceled their classes based on unverified information. He said these schools did not solicit information from the DOST.

“It’s outrageous, how can we suspend classes if classes in Japan are ongoing and normal? The offices in Japan are operating normally and they are on the site. How can they make a decision to suspend classes in the Philippines which is four hours by plane away from Japan? There is no basis,” he said referring to the suspensions.

Because of the bulletins that the DOST and PNRI are about to issue, Montejo said they believe the schools and the public will be more guided and informed about the developments in Japan.

“We will be issuing bulletins, we have issued our first bulletin last Sunday and everyday we will issue bulletins based on recent developments. There’s an incident in Japan this morning so we will talk again and we will prepare our latest bulletin based on current information that we have,” he said.

If the schools and universities disregard DOST’s bulletins, Montejo said they will talk to the Commission of Higher Education (Ched) and Department of Education (DepEd) to instruct schools under their control to follow recommendations of the department.

Asked about the effect of radiation on the Philippines in a worst case scenario, Montejo said they didn’t see direct physical harm to people but the country’s agriculture may be affected as well as the imports from Japan.

“We tried to estimate the worst case scenario. This is a very rough and this will be part of our updated bulletin. In worst case scenario, Japan will be hit hard. Maybe there would be some… in the Philippines if it became worst but it is very remote. The impact may well be on agriculture,” he said.

Montejo also made an assurance that the nuclear fallout will not reach the Philippines because the current wind pattern is not moving towards the country. The wind is blowing eastward or towards the Pacific Ocean, away from the Philippines. This wind pattern will last up to the middle of May, Montejo said.

Dela Rosa said they are continuously monitoring the environment to detect any rise in radiation level but they haven’t started checking on imports from Japan. The Philippine government will have to do extensive assessments and testing before coming up with a recommendation whether to impose ban imports from Japan or not.

“We increased the frequency of monitoring since Sunday. We have data to show if there is an increase in the level of radio activity in our atmosphere. We will have regular updates on the level or radio activity in the air,” Dela Rosa said.