PAGASA

The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Filipino: Pangasiwaan ng Pilipinas sa Serbisyong Atmosperiko, Heopisiko at Astronomiko), abbreviated as PAGASA, is the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHS) agency of the Philippines mandated to provide protection against natural calamities and to ensure the safety, well-being and economic security of all the people, and for the promotion of national progress by undertaking scientific and technological services in meteorology, hydrology, climatology, astronomy and other geophysical sciences. Created on December 8, 1972, by reorganizing the Weather Bureau, PAGASA now serves as one of the Scientific and Technological Services Institutes of the Department of Science and Technology.

Formal meteorological and astronomical services in the Philippines began in 1865 with the establishment of the Observatorio Meteorológico de Manila (Manila Meteorological Observatory) in Padre Faura Street, Manila when Francisco Colina, a young Jesuit scholastic and professor at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila started a systematic observation and recording of the weather two or three times a day. Jaime Nonell, another Jesuit scholastic, wrote a brief treatise on these observations, which was printed by the Diario de Manila. The treatise attracted the attention of businessmen in Manila, leading to a request to the Jesuit director, Fr. Juan Vidal, SJ, for regular observations to warn the public against approaching typhoons. The businessmen financed the procurement and acquisition of an instrument called the universal meteorograph (an invention of another Jesuit, Fr. Angelo Seechi, SJ of the Vatican Observatory in Rome) which greatly aided the day and night observations of the weather.

In 1866, Federico Faura, SJ became the director of the observatory in recognition of his scientific abilities. During this time, the observatory was engaged in the systematic observation of Philippine weather. On July 7, 1879, after data comparison with another Jesuit cleric in the West Indies, the observatory issued a warning indicating that a tropical cyclone was crossing northern Luzon. The colonial government took every possible precaution based on the reliability of the warning. The slight losses from the typhoon finally and permanently cemented the reputation of the observatory. This was followed by a prediction in November 1879 that a tropical cyclone would pass by Manila.

The observatory began conducting seismological and terrestrial magnetism observations in 1880. In 1885, the observatory started time service and a system of visual (semaphore) weather warnings for merchant shipping. In 1886, the Faura Aneroid barometer was released. In 1887, a section devoted to the study of terrestrial magnetism was set up. Six years later, the first maps of terrestrial magnetism in the Philippines were published. In 1890, the seismological service was officially established. In 1899, the astronomical section was opened.

This reputation reached foreign shores, and other observatories began requesting for the monthly Boletin del Observatorio de Manila. The growing demand for the services of the observatory led to the issuance of a Spanish royal decree on April 21, 1894, that recognized the observatory as an official institution under the Jesuit order, with full support from the Spanish Crown. This led to the establishment of a network of secondary stations in various points of Luzon and Visayas.

Following the Spanish–American War and under the Treaty of Paris, on December 10, 1898, Spain ceded the Philippine Islands to the United States. After a period of great political turbulence that climaxed in the outbreak of Philippine–American War in 1899, an Insular Government was established. On May 22, 1901, the Philippine Commission enacted Act No. 131, reorganizing the Manila Observatory into the Weather Bureau under the Department of Interior. With the establishment of the Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources (DANR) on January 1, 1917, the Weather Bureau was transferred from the Department of Interior to the DANR. With the establishment of the Commonwealth of the Philippines, the DANR was reorganized into the Department of Agriculture and Commerce.

For nearly 45 years, the Weather Bureau remained active and famous in international expositions and scientific expeditions and continued to be well known for its accurate typhoon forecasts and scientific works in the field of meteorology, geomagnetism, and astronomy. The first weather map in the Far East, released in 1908 by Fr. Coronas, became an important tool in tropical cyclone forecasting thereon. The bureau's published works on meteorology, terrestrial magnetism, and astronomy were well known and had later proven to be of great value to the American forces in the liberation of the Philippines from the Japanese during the Second World War.

On October 4, 1943, with the establishment of the Second Philippine Republic as a puppet state of Japan during its occupation, the Weather Bureau was transferred to the Department of Public Works and Communications. The bureau was removed from the direction of the Jesuits and for the first time, the bureau had an all-Filipino staff headed by Mr. Maximo Lachica, head of the Department of Geodetic Engineering of the University of the Philippines. The Japanese occupation period marked limited activity in the Central Office. However, in the field, bureau personnel were instrumental in bringing accurate weather information over enemy-occupied territory to the combined liberation forces of the American and Filipino soldiers.