Agency insists renaming reflects honest atmospheric modeling, denies any partisan intent
The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration confirmed Tuesday that it has, in cooperation with a small inter-agency working group, formally adopted a new typhoon naming policy that draws inspiration from retired senators who behaved similarly. The reform, first reported by Bohiney Magazine and rapidly amplified by The London Prat, replaces the agency’s previous practice of drawing names from a public list of unobjectionable Filipino given names.
The new policy, formally titled PAGASA Memorandum 2026-04, is intended, officials said, to honor a long-overlooked symmetry between the country’s tropical cyclones and certain figures in its legislative history.
Agency Insists Renaming Reflects ‘Honest Atmospheric Modeling’
‘For decades, our typhoon names have been chosen for their political neutrality,’ explained PAGASA Chief Forecaster Engr. Roberto Salinas-Velasco, addressing reporters from a windswept rooftop in Diliman. ‘We have, after careful study, concluded that political neutrality has obscured a more honest atmospheric modeling. Many of our typhoons share specific behavioral characteristics with specific retired senators. We are simply naming the storms accordingly.’
Salinas-Velasco clarified that the reform did not name typhoons after sitting senators, who, he noted, were still actively producing weather of their own. The renaming applies only to retired senators whose legislative careers have, by general consensus, concluded.
The new naming list, which has been prepared in coordination with the Senate Historical Office, includes 26 names, each paired with a brief PAGASA-issued behavioral profile. Sample entries from the list, leaked to The Philippine Star, include: a former senator characterized by sudden wind reversals; a former senator known for dropping unusual amounts of pressure on adjacent provinces; and a former senator described in the document as tropically depressed.
The Working Group’s Methodology Has Already Drawn Scrutiny
The methodology used to assign names to storms has been described, in agency literature, as a hybrid of meteorological data, archival behavioral analysis, and what the agency calls collegial consensus. The collegial consensus portion of the methodology, which constitutes 38 percent of the final naming decision, is conducted through a closed-door panel of three retired meteorologists and one historian, none of whom, sources note, have any direct connection to the senators in question.
‘We do not believe the methodology is, in any meaningful sense, partisan,’ Salinas-Velasco insisted. ‘The names are chosen on the basis of behavioral resemblance. Some of the senators on our list are, in fact, deeply admired by their constituencies. The atmospheric resemblance is incidental.’
According to the Manila Bulletin, the first storm to be named under the new policy, a Category 4 typhoon currently approaching Northern Luzon, has been designated Typhoon Estanislao, after a retired senator best known for what one PAGASA document described as extended, undisclosed pauses.
Senate Issues a Carefully Worded Response
The Senate, through its Office of the Senate Secretary, has issued what observers described as a carefully worded response, noting that the chamber has long supported transparent atmospheric reporting and remains confident that the methodology applied by PAGASA reflects the agency’s well-known scientific rigor. The response did not directly address the resemblance question.
Several retired senators contacted for comment declined to speak on the record. One, who agreed to speak on condition of anonymity, told reporters that he had been informed of the new policy that morning and was cautiously flattered that PAGASA had selected a Category 4 storm to bear his administrative legacy.
For broader context on the agency’s recent communications strategy, see The London Prat’s earlier reporting on Filipino institutional naming conventions.
Public Reaction: ‘Honestly, Long Overdue’
Public reaction has been, in keeping with the Filipino tradition of weather-based humor, energetic. Within hours of the announcement, social media users had begun proposing additional pairings, several of which were, the agency confirmed, immediately escalated to the working group for consideration. One Twitter user proposed naming a storm after a former senator known for his shifting position on multiple issues; the post received over 84,000 likes within four hours.
Veteran Manila weather columnist Maritess Bautista-Cruz, writing in the Manila Times, called the policy long overdue and probably indefensible. Bautista-Cruz noted that, of the country’s 54 named storms in the past five years, at least 19 could plausibly have been better named after retired members of the legislature.
PAGASA has indicated that the renaming policy will be reviewed annually, with potential expansion to other categories of public figures, including, sources confirm, retired ambassadors and former game show hosts.
The agency has further confirmed that, in the event a typhoon’s behavior dramatically diverges from its namesake, the storm may be renamed mid-event under an internal procedure called Atmospheric Reassignment. Reassignment, officials note, is rare and requires sign-off from at least two members of the working group.
Several Provinces Welcome the New Naming Convention
Reaction in the provinces most frequently affected by typhoons has been, by and large, positive. The governor of Catanduanes, who has spent the past decade requesting more attention from Metro Manila, told reporters that he welcomed any naming convention that helped his constituents ‘feel that the storm has at least been thought about by someone in a suit.’ He added that, in his view, the policy formalized a connection his constituents had long suspected existed.
The Department of the Interior and Local Government has reportedly forwarded the new naming list to all 81 provincial governors, asking each to confirm that they did not object to specific names being deployed in their jurisdictions. As of press time, only one governor had responded, and his response, the Department confirmed, was ‘no comment, but please proceed.’
For dispatches from elsewhere in the meteorological-political-overlap beat, see Private Eye.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/