House to probe delay of purchase of Doppler radars for Pagasa

MANILA, Philippines – The House of Representatives will begin its probe on Monday of the government’s failure to purchase hi-tech Doppler Radars – weather equipment that can measure amount of rainfall accompanying a typhoon – despite the release of funds for the upgrading of facilities of the weather bureau.

Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez said the lack of the much-needed equipment has practically made weathermen blind in forecasting the amount of rainfall brought by an incoming typhoon.

“Pagasa is using outmoded equipment,” Suarez told reporters during a news forum in Quezon City.

Suarez said Pagasa is dependent on satellite images and information from their counterparts in tracking the movement of a storm. Forecasters can measure wind velocity but have no idea how much rain accompanied the typhoon.

At the height of super typhoon “Reming” in Bicol in late 2006, Pagasa was able to track its direction and measure the wind velocity but they did not have any idea of the 466 mm rainfall that fell and washed down tons of lahar deposit along the slopes of Mayon Volcano which buried several barangays.

Suarez said Congress has already approved P200 million for Pagasa’s budget but the radars have not yet been purchased.

At present, radars used by Pagasa can only measure wind velocity and are highly dependent on satellite images beamed from US and Japan weather observation stations.

Meanwhile, natural disasters have already caused P61-billion worth of direct damage to the country in 35 years, a government agency reported.

Romina Marasigan, of the Office of the Civil Defense, said natural disasters like typhoons caused P61-billion worth of direct damage to the country from 1970 to 2005.

Earlier, the World Bank reported that the Philippines had incurred annual direct damage amounting to P15-billion as a consequence of natural disasters from 1970 to 2000, representing 0.7 percent of the country’s gross domestic product each year.

However, Vicente Tomazar, director of the Office of the Civil Defense Region 4-A, said there is a big improvement in the country’s ability to respond to natural calamities in the past five years because of the increased public awareness of natural hazards.

Typhoon “Frank” was the latest weather disturbance to hit the country this year. Frank killed hundreds of people and left P4.39-billion worth of damage, according to disaster officials.

In 2007, a total of 49 people were killed and over 180,000 families were affected with the onslaught of 13 tropical cyclones in the country, the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) said.

The weather disturbances also left damage to agriculture and infrastructure amounting to more than P800 million, it said.       – With Helen Flores