More than 3 years after sacking him, PNoy chides ex-PAGASA chief

Remember Prisco Nilo? Well, President Benigno Aquino III definitely does as he recalled Friday how displeased he was with Nilo and how much better the weather bureau is now.

 

Nilo was sacked as PAGASA chief in 2010 due to “differences with his immediate superior.”

 

Aquino on Friday did not directly mention Nilo by name but described the former weather bureau chief as “somebody who felt that he was the best friend of God and when he decided where a typhoon track would follow, he expected this typhoon track to follow his dictates.”

 

“We were advised to prepare for the landfall in Aurora but it (typhoon) actually went to Southern Tagalog and then Metro Manila,” the President said in a speech before Canadian and Filipino tourists at Malacañang.

 

“I was [at] our residence in Quezon City at the time and I was saying, 'This must be such a terrible typhoon,' because the winds were whipping it up and [was] so strong in Quezon City when it was supposed to be in Aurora province,” he said.

 

He was referring to Typhoon Basyang, which ravaged Metro Manila in July 2010. Aquino reprimanded PAGASA for failing to correctly predict the path of the typhoon.

 

Aquino said now PAGASA “can accurately tell you precisely where it will fall, what the wind strength will be, what the rainfall will be."

What is more important, he added, is the ability of the Department of Science and Technology to translate all of the data and help people prepare for coming storms.

 

He also mentioned the significant changes in the country such as the numerous infrastructure projects, high tourist arrivals, credit rating upgrades, reforms in the Department of Public Works and Highways, high employment rate of graduates of government vocational progams, and the success of the conditional cash transfer program.  — Amita Legaspi/JDS, GMA News