Public urged: Bring umbrellas for rainy All Saints’ Day

MANILA, Philippines - Filipinos who will go to cemeteries today, All Saints’ Day, should bring umbrellas as rains are expected to prevail in many parts of the country, the state weather bureau said yesterday.

Benison Estareja, weather forecaster at the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA), said the intertropical convergence zone would bring cloudy skies with light to moderate rains over the Visayas, Mindanao and parts of Southern Luzon until tomorrow, All Souls’ Day.

Cloudy skies with light rains will be experienced in Cagayan, Isabela, Aurora, Ilocos Norte and Batanes group of islands due to the tail-end of a cold front.

Estareja said the rest of Luzon, including Metro Manila, would have partly cloudy to cloudy skies with isolated rainshowers and thunderstorms.

PAGASA said a low-pressure area entered the Philippine area of responsibility yesterday afternoon. It was embedded along the convergence zone and located at 810 kilometers east of Davao City as of 4 p.m. yesterday.

Estareja said it is likely to intensify into a tropical depression within the next two to three days.

But he could not yet say what areas are likely to be affected by the approaching weather disturbance as it is still far from the country.

“It is still far and many things could still happen, it could also weaken,” Estareja said.

Meanwhile, an official of the Archdiocese of Manila has encouraged the public to still pay respects to their dead even without expensive flowers and candles.

“Just go there… There are even grandchildren of the deceased who would make a doodle and write ‘we miss you lola’ and that is it. They have remembered the departed. You cannot say that you love a person less if that is the only thing you could afford,” said Fr. Roy Bellen, communications chief of the Archdiocese of Manila.

“What is important is the intention of doing it. The external things make it more meaningful and beautiful but even without them, it does not mean that you celebrated All Souls’ Day without value.

“Just offer a prayer for the person, offer mass, go to church – that is more than enough. The offering of mass is the highest prayer,” he added. – With Evelyn Macairan