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Energy crisis forces researchers to scale down studies

Dr. Rachel June Ravago-Gotanco highlights the growing struggles of researchers amid the rising fuel and energy costs, stressing that many are forced to scale back activities and stretch already limited resources. During the 2026 National Academy of Science and Technology Environmental Science Award (NESA) event in Manila on April 22, 2026, Gotanco told _The Manila Times_ that while conducting research was already a struggle prior to the energy crisis, it is now beginning to affect core aspects of research work, including mobility and field operations. The award-winning researcher noted that these issues were typically seen in more technical research and those that conduct field-intensive research as these require substantial funding.

VIDEO BY ALLEN LIMOS

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Transcript
00:00Hmm, that's a little bit of a challenging question because even pre-prices, um, conducting research on the Philippines is
00:10generally challenging compared to other countries where we have infrastructure challenges, we have infrastructure challenges, and cost challenges.
00:20Yes, because most of the agencies are not locally produced, so we have to report them, and that means at
00:33the cost for people who use more assets, and eventually for the government, if it's the government that can't block
00:38a lot of these jobs, or even pre-prices, because it's generally challenging, in fact, even from the recession, especially
00:47research that involves the
00:49most of these technologies, so, um, that's saying for more kinds of reasons, but we, um, that's the reason that
01:00it works like we said earlier, that's then, so, these are our disadvantages, because we're more expensive, either to acquire
01:09the equipment, or to buy things, or to show us services, so, um, with the local, well, the current energy
01:18crisis,
01:19So, um, so that drives up the challenges a little bit more, because we now have to be at the
01:24costs, and, um, line of course, exactly what's coming into the community, right, so, our travel budget is actually limited,
01:36so, this is a few costs higher, and we have actually had to cut down on some of the trips,
01:44or compress the trips to a few,
01:46we have to be moving more, because the budget cannot go slow, or, to push it down, increase in the
01:53prices, and also, the prices of, uh,
01:55our supplies are getting into the local, and we have already started to be a lot of times.
02:00And so, how detrimental will this, uh, crisis impact the research landscape, do you think?
02:07So, um, I can only speak a little more, um, in my field, so, um, we try to be a
02:13resource board, and try to, but definitely, we still need the targets, and the deliverables, um, we just need to
02:20turn down a little bit on some of the activities, because that's, we have no choice, and we do that,
02:27so, we cannot look for it.
02:30So, it's more challenging, like, for researchers, and we have to find ways, and make things with a little bit
02:38of a resource, I think.
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