Pagasa warns of wet summer, 'creeping disaster'

MANILA, Philippines -  Undersecretary Graciano Yumul of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) warned the public yesterday that aside from a wet summer the La Niña phenomenon and the climate change worldwide could cause a “creeping disaster” in the country.

“I think the message that we would like to impart here is that what we’re having right now is a creeping disaster,” Yumul told Palace reporters.

He said the usually dry Mindanao has been hit by floods, particularly the Caraga region where 90 percent of the Butuan City area is underwater. Several towns in Agusan del Norte and Agusan del Sur; five towns in Surigao del Sur and nine towns in Surigao del Norte are also submerged.

DOST and the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) have recorded last January heavy rains in Surigao City, the volume of which is 300 percent more than the normal rainfall for a month.

Other stations that recorded heavy rainfall were Hinatuan City (221 percent), Catarman (341 percent) and Catbalogan (490 percent). Forty-six of 51 Pagasa stations have so far “received above normal rainfall for January 2011.”

Pagasa administrator Nathaniel Servando said that the 300 percent rainfall that was recorded in Butuan City and Surigao is the highest recorded so far for a particular month.  

“By May, we expect the onset of the rainy season that might come earlier because of the La Niña phenomenon. That is the time Metro Manila will receive heavy precipitation,” he said.

“We expect in the coming two months that the rains will continue. We expect this month’s rains would continue because of the prevailing weather systems like the amihan —we call it northeast monsoon —and the tail-end of a cold front to persist until March,” he added.

Yumul attributed the continued rains to climate change. “This weather phenomenon is all over the world. This is not an isolated case. We’ve even managed to stop this from getting worse,” said Communications Group Secretary Ricky Carandang. 

“As I’ve explained before, we believe that this is really due to the La Niña phenomenon, and if you want it extended, we’re really collaborating this with regard to the so-called global warming,” Yumul said. 

“Now up to when are we going to expect this (rains)? As we said, we expect a wet summer this year and we expect more typhoons as compared to 2010 and of course it is going to be stronger,” he said.  

“So at the end of the day, not only the people in Caraga or in Region 8 that would be suffering but actually the whole country (as well),” said Yumul, noting that the P35 million total assistance extended to Caraga region might be expanded on a national scale.

Social Welfare and Development Secretary Corazon Soliman revealed that a total of P35.7 million have so far been released to help Caraga, the amount broken down into P10 million from DSWD, P25 million from local government units (LGUs) concerned and P800,000 from NGOs.

She said that this has been in the form of food relief packs, used clothing and many others.

The DSWD is willing to provide augmentation and is just awaiting the shipment of more food for replenishment and pre-positioning in concerned areas.

Soliman revealed that they have a P662-million standby fund, the automatically allocated DSWD budget, which accounts for 25 percent of the total P6.2-billion calamity fund from the General Appropriations Act.

Declaring an area under a state of calamity is now under the discretion of LGUs. The DSWD has also reported heavy rains in eastern Visayas, Southern Leyte, Leyte, Bohol and some areas in northern Cebu.