‘Chedeng’ spoils Isabela’s Mammangi Festival

ILAGAN, Isabela – Typhoon “Chedeng” may have skirted Northern Luzon, but residents here woke up on Friday to a spoiled festival morning because of the rains.

Officials had set up a long line of grills, intending to mount the longest corn-grill line in the province as the highlight of this town’s 325th founding anniversary and its annual Mammangi Festival.

Rains, however, prevented organizers from proceeding with the 2.5-kilometer-long corn-grilling event, in which 200 sacks of charcoal would have been used.

Antonio Montereal Jr., Ilagan information officer, said the organizers had also prepared aluminum grills and corn sticks for 5,000 corncobs.

Residents still had fun despite the rains by participating in hog- and chicken-catching contests.

In Tuba, Benguet, Science and Technology Secretary Mario Montejo inspected a radar facility at Mount Sto. Tomas, which the government planned to include in its new weather tracking network.

Montejo said the Department of Science and Technology would put up 10 other radar stations in areas like Tagaytay, Subic and western Visayas. He said the plan might take five to six years to implement.

About 100 weather sensors will also be installed in critical areas in July and August to “give us a more accurate picture of the weather all over the country,” he said.

Weather specialists here showed him images obtained from the lone Doppler radar facility operating in northern Luzon.

With a range of 450 km, the radar can detect the amount of rainfall and wind speed from Batanes to the Bicol region.

“The radars have limited range. We we will put up more so that we can see typhoons from every direction,” Montejo said.