Anti-pork barrel marchers told to bring umbrellas

MTSAT ENHANCED-IR Satellite Image 7:32 p.m., 25 August 2013

MANILA, Philippines — While the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) is advising participants in the Million People March to refrain from bringing valuables and children at Luneta Park for the activity, the state weather bureau is telling the anti-pork barrel protesters to bring umbrellas.

The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) said on Sunday that it would be a rainy Monday (Aug. 26) in Metro Manila, Central Luzon, Southern Luzon and the Visayas.

Although the low pressure area (LPA) monitored by the weather agency east of the Eastern Samar capital of Borongan City intensified before noon Sunday into tropical depression “Nando,” its effect on the habagat (southwest monsoon) would be felt in Luzon and the Visayas starting Tuesday.

Forecaster Glaiza Escullar said that Monday’s weather in Metro Manila, the Calabarzon and Mimaropa regions as well as in the rest of the Visayas and Mindanao would be cloudy with light to moderate rainshowers and thunderstorms.

Escullar told the public to brace for a whole day of rain on Monday, particularly in the National Capital Region where the massive rally for the scrapping of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) of senators and congressmen has been scheduled for Monday.

Harsher weather is anticipated in the Eastern Visayas and the Bicol region where Pagasa alerted residents to the possibility of flash floods and landslides triggered by moderate to occasionally heavy rainshowers and thunderstorms.

The rest of Luzon will be partly cloudy to cloudy with isolated rainshowers or thunderstorms.

The weather bureau’s 24-hour forecast also said that moderate to occasionally strong winds blowing from the northeast to northwest is expected to prevail over the eastern section of Northern and Central Luzon and coming from the southwest to west over the rest of the country. Coastal waters throughout the country will be moderate to occasionally rough.

As of 4 p.m. Sunday, the center of tropical depression “Nando” was estimated at 250 kilometers east of Borongan City with maximum sustained winds of 45 kilometers per hour and moving north-northwest at 13 kilometers per hour.

The estimated amount of rainfall within the 300-kilometer diameter of the tropical depression is moderate to heavy at 5 mm to 15 mm per hour.