The occurrence of the bad weather and the absence of the seedable cloud after the tropical depression “Falcon” could cause delay in the completion of the Cloud Seeding Operations (CSOs) to the watershed and agricultural areas in Bohol last week.

Leon Parac, Jr., cloud seeding focal person bared that if the weather would cooperate and there was the presence of the seedable cloud, the 42 hours CSOs contract would already be completed last week.

Parac said that since the CSO was started last June 19, 2019, there are only 3 hrs. have left in the contract.

He said that on Friday the CSO will resume if there is the presence of seedable clouds.

It can be recalled that last July 9 to 11 the operations were suspended because the pilot renewed his expired license and the first permit from CAAP granted the request to conduct CSOs over the vicinity of Bohol was also expired.

Junne Abejuela, Director Marketing and Business Development, Pegasus Air Services Inc, the winning bidder of the CSO project sent a letter to Civil Aviation Authority(CAAP) dated July 8, 2019 requesting to grant another permit for the operations.

Captain Romel D. Candingan, Assistant Director – General II – FSIS had granted the second second request with the following conditions; that must be conducted during VMC only, must be subject to Air Traffic Control, must be conducted at a maximum altitude of 8,500 ft. AGL only, must advise Mactan approach Control of the actual altitude to be flown in feet AMSL, must squawk on assigned transponder code when required by Mactan Approach Control, must advice Mactan Approach Control of the start and termination of said activity, must maintain continuous communication with Mactan Approach Control during the conduct of the activity.

Parac said the CSO which was started last June 19, 2019 could bring rains to several towns in Bohol that added water to the major dams in the province.

The cloud seeding focal person said the Malinao, Bayongan, Capayas and the Talibon Dams have been releasing the irrigation water to the service areas.

He said the Boholano rice farmers are now very busy in the land preparation and rice planting in the irrigated and rainfed areas. (Atoy Cosap)