MANILA, Philippines - People who suffered when they were caught unprepared for the fury of typhoon “Basyang” applauded the replacement of Prisco Nilo as head of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration. But others sympathized with Nilo, pointing out that PAGASA meteorologists had to make do with inadequate equipment.
PAGASA’s failure to accurately track the path of Basyang and raise the correct storm warning signal in Metro Manila was not the first time that the weather bureau had flubbed its forecast. Last year, PAGASA also failed to predict the amount of rainfall that would be dumped by storm “Ondoy” and typhoon “Pepeng” in Luzon, which spawned cataclysmic flooding.
That blunder PAGASA blamed on its lack of Doppler radars, which can accurately predict the amount of rainfall. That lack has also been blamed by the weather bureau for its failure in previous years to forecast heavy rainfall during monsoons. There could be a similar technical explanation for the inaccurate warning for Basyang. International meteorological agencies correctly tracked the storm, posting its movement on their websites, and making Filipinos wonder if public funds are simply being wasted on the maintenance of a local weather bureau. In the age of Google Earth, that is not a frivolous question.
If President Aquino, who fired Nilo from PAGASA last week, decides to keep the weather bureau, he should give the country’s dwindling pool of meteorologists the necessary equipment to do their job efficiently. Every year the country suffers grievous loss of lives and property during natural disasters, including typhoons, floods and earthquakes. This is a threat to national security that the country has never been sufficiently prepared to confront. In a land frequently visited by natural calamities, an accurate warning system is the first line of defense. Accuracy is best achieved with proper equipment
