Throughout his career, he had plenty of accomplishments such as: a licensed geologist, professor, consultant, public servant and author of numerous scientific papers about geophysics and more than 50 books, community organizer and participant in dozens of international conventions for research preventions of natural hazards, and a notable expert in volcanology, geology, disaster preparedness and seismology.
A former governor of the Philippine National Red Cross, "RSP", as many of his colleagues and friends known him, became a member of the task force of the Development of Earthquake and Tsunami Disaster Prevention Master Plan for the Asia-Pacific Region and Philippine's representative in the ASEAN Committee on Science and Technology (COST) Sub-Committee on Meteorology and Geophysics.
Punongbayan's effort to closely monitor Mount Pinatubo and his information campaign to apprise nearby communities of the volcano's impending eruption saved thousands of lives in 1991.
In April 2003 he was awarded the Sergey Soloviev Medal of 2003 by the European Geophysical Society for his exceptional research and assessment of natural hazards.
They were on a mission to assess the area as part of the disaster preparedness operations program of the government and were also looking for possible resettlement for people displaced by flash floods and landslides.