PAGASA

The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Filipino: Pangasiwaan ng Pilipinas sa Serbisyong Atmosperiko, Heopisiko, at Astronomiko, abbreviated as PAGASA, which means "hope" in the Tagalog word pag-asa) is the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHS) agency of the Republic of the Philippines mandated to provide protection against natural calamities and to insure 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

History

The Observatorio Meteorológico de Manila

Formal meteorological and astronomical services in the Philippines began in 1865 with the establishment of the Observatorio Meteorológico de Manila in Padre Faura St., 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 and a request was made to the Jesuit director, Fr. Juan Vidal, SJ, for regular observations for the purpose of warning 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 would greatly aid in the day and night observations of the weather.