Weathermen to Ted Failon: 'Our lady colleague died in the service of country'

MANILA, Philippines - A group of weather forecasters decried ABS-CBN newscaster Ted Failon's remark on their supposed lack of knowledge about storm surge.

In a statement posted Tuesday, Philippine Weathermen Employees Association (PWEA) president Ramon Agustin said that Failon's accusations are demeaning to the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Service Administration's (PAGASA) staff.

Update: ABS-CBN's Ted Failon apologizes to weathermen

“The PWEA honestly respects the opinion of Mr. Ted Failon ... that most PAGASA people are not aware of what a storm surge is. According to Mr. Failon, this is because one PAGASA personnel died as a victim of a storm surge herself," Agustin said.

Failon's remark which "deepy saddened" weathemen was made over a morning radio news program on dzMM on Tuesday while he was commenting on the effect of storm surge, which is being blamed as the real killer during the onslaught of of super typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) on November 8.

Agustin explained that the late weather forecaster was on duty at a local weather station and "not in the comfort of her own home" when she passed away in the extreme weather event.

"It is [a] general rule in PAGASA that personnel on duty should not leave or abandon their posts at all cost if a locality is under threat from a tropical cyclone," Agustin said.

"Our lady colleague ... died while in the service of our country," he added.

Cecilia Monteverde, assistant weather services chief of PAGASA, had admitted that the agency failed to sufficiently warn and explain to the public against storm surges.

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The science department's Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards (Project NOAH), however, released a list of predicted storm surges, or the entering of sea water to land, in various areas of the country before Yolanda slammed into the Visayas.

Former PAGASA deputy director Catalino Perez Arafiles introduced storm surge prediction in the Philippines in the 1980s.

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