MANILA, Jan. 9 (Xinhuanet) -- The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) is planning to set up a "real-time" link-up of all its earthquake monitoring stations nationwide for more effective tsunami warning, a local newspaper reported Sunday.

    Philvolcs director Renato Solidum told the Philippine Star thatthere are in the country six seismic monitoring stations and threeunmanned stations, which are linked to the Philvolcs main office by satellite.

    "What we need is a real-time link-up of these stations with themain office. We need to find the technology to link these all up,"Solidum said.

    Meanwhile, Phivolcs will also intensify its tsunami awareness education program especially for those living in coastal areas, the director said.

    Solidum said that it is important for residents in coastal communities to be made aware of what to do when a tsunami strikes because not even cutting-edge technology will provide sufficient time to warn and evacuate residents if tsunamis batter Philippine shores.

    "If a tsunami happens in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, we can be effectively warned about it from monitoring stations in Hawaii. The existing technology we have cannot shorten the lead time (for warning). We need to educate the people," said Solidum.

    A strong earthquake and tsunami hit Dec. 26 on the countries sitting on the rim of the India Ocean, leaving at least 150,000 dead.

    Although surviving the calamity, Solidum still warned that the Philippines, with trenches and fault lines around, could also be hit by strong earthquake and triggered tsunamis.

    Phivolcs has allotted 3 million pesos of its 25 million pesos funding for the printing and distribution of tsunami awareness andwarning posters distributed to coastal communities.

    On Aug. 16, 1976, the Moro Gulf earthquake produced tsunamis that devastated the southwest coast of Mindanao and left more than3,000 people dead and at least 8,000 people injured. Enditem