EDITORIAL - Leave Pagasa alone

This is not intended to trivialize something as important as the weather. But long before man made great strides in weather forecasting, he simply studied the skies or held up a finger to the wind.

In other words, all throughout human history, man has been coping with the weather by himself and it is relatively only recently that he has had some technical assistance from modern methods of weather forecasting.

This is thus how people, especially local officials, should regard Pagasa -- as nothing more than a provider of assistance in coping with the weather, not as a solver of the problems it brings to mankind. It may be convenient to blame the messenger, but it really solves nothing.

The truth of the matter is, how localities cope with the weather and its effects is the responsibility of its officials and no one else. Even if Pagasa is able to provide accurate info ahead of time, everything still boils down to how officials respond to situations.

It helps for Pagasa to be right. But even if wrong, the bottomline remains in how local leaderships meet the challenges posed by the weather. LGUs may have all the means to cope, but if they hinge their own decision-making to others, they put their capabilities at risk of failure.

Local officials must fully understand forecasting is not the same as predicting. No one, not even the richest and most advanced countries, has elevated forecasting to perfection. There is simply no taming the forces of nature.

Local officials can blame Pagasa all they want. And government can respond by firing each living soul in it. But there is no denying what happens to a locality under threat of bad weather is still the responsibility of local officials, not the Pagasa.

And it is sheer cowardice on the part of local officials not to face up to their responsibilities by blaming someone else for their own shortcomings. Even if Pagasa errs, prudent officials who take their responsibilities more seriously have better chances than those who don’t.

But far worse than blaming Pagasa is telling it how to do its job. Its employees may not be perfect, but they are far more qualified at what they do than even the highest ranking elected public official. So it is best to leave it at that.