Senate to prioritize improvement of PAGASA

Improved capabilities of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) in weather forecasting and information dissemination will be among the key priorities of the Senate, Senator Edgardo Angara said. "We want to avoid another Ondoy and Pepeng, where people were uninformed and therefore unprepared. The first step would be improving PAGASA's institutional and technical capacity," said Angara, who heads the Senate committee on science and technology. The senator likewise said that he has already set a committee meeting on September 2 to review the state of the weather bureau, both in terms of their personnel and equipment. "We want to give them a chance to explain what's going on... and find out how we can help solve this perennial challenge of forecasting correctly and getting the information disseminated on time," he said. He said that among those invited to the hearing are Department of Science and Technology Secretary Mario Montejo, PAGASA Administrator Graciano Yumul, and former Administrator Prisco Nilo. President Benigno Aquino III had earlier said that Malacañang plans to review the country's weather forecasting system after PAGASA failed to predict that Basyang was headed for Metro Manila. Angara noted, however, that PAGASA should not be blamed for the problem. "In this age of climate change, we need to adopt a pro-active approach in order to properly address this problem," he said.—Kimberly Jane T. Tan/JV, GMANews.TV