Behind The Science Podcast

In this episode, we talk with Dr. Karol Mark Yee, Executive Director of the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM 2), about the growing problem of diploma mills in Philippine higher education — schools that hand out real-looking diplomas without delivering real education. Dr. Yee explains that the Philippines is especially exposed because it has one of the largest higher education systems in the world. It has 2,400 colleges and universities, which is about half the size of the entire US system. Many of these schools survive on tiny enrollments (30% have fewer than 500 students) and simply can't afford the qualified faculty, laboratories, or journal access that a real degree requires. These diploma mills are a direct risk to students and a betrayal of the families paying for their education.
⌛Chapters
02:22 Intro and welcome
06:24 Dr. Yee's journey from Broadcast Communication to education policy
21:28 What is a diploma mill, and how easy is it to start one?
31:53 Graduate school diploma mills: who gets victimized and why
35:33 The promotion loophole, fake theses, and predatory journals
48:06 EDCOM 2's plan to crack down on diploma mills
53:05 Advice for choosing a legitimate school
55:26 Closing and where to follow EDCOM 2

In this episode, we talk with Dr. Kerby Alvarez, a historian at the Department of History, University of the Philippines Diliman, about his study tracing the history of Philippine meteorology. Long before PAGASA existed, the Observatorio Meteorológico de Manila (OMM) — founded by Jesuit priests in 1865 — and its successor, the Philippine Weather Bureau (PWB) spent nearly a century turning typhoons into a subject of serious scientific study.
Drawing on archives in the Philippines, the US, and Spain, Dr. Alvarez shows how these institutions published hundreds of reports, built a regional network with weather observatories across Asia, and even got caught in a diplomatic dispute with Hong Kong's observatory in 1899. As a historian, he traces not just what these scientists discovered, but how their writing, data-keeping, and international collaborations were shaped by the political currents of Spanish and American colonial rule in the Philippines.
⌛Chapters
00:01:51 Intro and welcoming Dr. Kerby Alvarez
00:03:15 Getting to know Dr. Alvarez as a historian
00:14:55 Filipino holidays and historical memory
00:22:24 The paper: a history of Philippine meteorological science
00:26:42 Building the Manila Observatory and Philippine Weather Bureau
00:48:11 The Manila–Hong Kong observatory feud
00:50:34 Funding historical research, other disasters studied, and advice for aspiring historians
01:02:07 Closing
📚Reference: Alvarez KC. 2025. Scientific textualizations of tropical cyclones in the Philippines: the scientific activities of the Observatorio Meteorológico de Manila (OMM) and Philippine Weather Bureau (PWB), 1860s–1940s. Hist Meteorol. 12:1–26.
🤝Behind The Science Podcast is in partnership with the UP Resilience Institute

In this episode, we talk with Dr. Carlo Arcilla, a geologist and former director of the Philippine Nuclear Research Institute (PNRI) and the UP National Institute of Geological Sciences, about whether the Philippines is ready for nuclear energy. He explains why the Chernobyl and Fukushima accidents people associate with nuclear energy are not likely to happen Bataan. He also addresses the geologic hazard concerns in the BNPP. Dr. Arcilla also asserts that the Philippines is ready for nuclear energy but he will not advocate for it until the independent regulators are appointed.

0:00 Introduction
2:19 From Catanduanes to geology
15:23 Turning Payatas garbage into electricity
18:47 Leading PNRI and the nuclear waste problem
24:19 The Bataan plant, Chernobyl, and Fukushima29:15 Why an independent nuclear regulator comes first
31:36 Expensive electricity and the three sister plants still running
36:35 The fault question, Mount Natib, and the evidence
40:47 The DOE surveys: why most Filipinos favor nuclear
44:26 Do we have the engineers to run a nuclear plant?
47:25 Other proposed sites — and is the Philippines ready?
52:01 A 40-year-old plant, TRISO fuel, and small modular reactors
55:27 Advice to aspiring researchers, and alkaline water from nuclear research

In this episode, we talk with Mr. Jude Vito Custodio Agapito about his study on whether Project NOAH, the Philippine government's flagship disaster risk reduction program, actually saved lives. Using counterfactual analysis of hazard data from 1986 to 2024, the study compares fatalities and damages before and after operations research was embedded into the government's Pre-Disaster Risk Assessment system in 2014. While the cost of damages from typhoons and floods stayed consistent over both periods, average annual fatalities dropped by about 76%, from over 1,200 deaths per year to around 295, suggesting that the program may have saved more than 7,000 lives over the past decade.

📚Reference: Agapito JVC, Rosales RML, Pascual AC, Concepcion CR, Lagmay AMFA. 2026. Counterfactual evidence on the impacts of operations research on Philippine disaster risk reduction efforts. Disaster Prev Manag. 35(6):44–63.

🤝 Behind The Science Podcast is in partnership with the UP Resilience Institute

In this episode, we talk with Ms. Eulah Araullo, Creative Lead at Canva and one of the Philippines' top educational content creators (@eulahexplains), about the design principles behind coats of arms, logos, and seals. We discuss the distinction between these three symbols, and how colonial history continues to shape Philippine seals today.