Pagasa promises to tap radio stations for immediate weather updates

MANILA, Philippines—The Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) on Wednesday said it would improve the means by which it could be more pro-active in informing media of weather disturbances.

“Sa mga susunod na pangyayari magiging proactive kami in terms of sa pagtatawag sa media through radio (Next time we will be proactive in terms of coordinating with the media through the radio stations),” Dr. Susan Espinueva, hydrometeorological division chief of Pagasa, said in an interview with anchor John Susi of “Susi ng mga Balita” on Radyo Inquirer 990AM early Wednesday.

Espinueva said the state weather bureau issued updates on Twitter about the short-lived low pressure area (LPA) that struck Metro Manila and neighbouring provinces on Sunday night but that one of its lapses was it did not tap radio stations.

“Yun po siguro yung isang pagkukulang na hindi naitawag sa mga radio stations kasi naging kampante na ang lahat nakamonitor sa twitter so ito yung isa pa naming tinitignan na aside from twitter account kailangan yung radio (That was one of our shortcomings we didn’t call the radio stations. Instead we were content that everybody will monitor us through Twitter),” she said.

She added the “Meso cyclone,” or short-lived LPA, was very difficult to observe based on satellite images alone and that it was the Doppler radar in Subic which detected the phenomenon.

She said the weather bureau would conduct a media workshop on August 26 to tackle lessons learned from the incident and the ways by which it could improve its services.