POPE Francis arrived in the country amidst concerns about the weather. Pagasa announced that Tropical Depression Amang has intensified into a storm and has entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR). Amang packed winds of 65 kilometers per hour near the center. It is moving towards Guiuan in Eastern Samar.
Pagasa said Amang has “low probability” of making landfall in the country, meaning that it may re-curve as it nears land. A Pagasa official said that Amang will be closest to Eastern Visayas tomorrow, which incidentally is the scheduled day for Pope Francis’s visit to Tacloban City and Palo town in Leyte, a neighboring province of Samar.
An official of the Catholic Church who is with the Pope said that the pontiff was willing to endure the rain during his trip to Leyte, one of the areas badly damaged by super typhoon Yolanda in the latter part of 2013. The problem is Amang packs strong winds, although it is possible that by then it would weaken back into a tropical depression.
Organizers of Pope Francis’s trip should by now have mapped out scenarios and alternatives in case a trip to Leyte would be risky. Either the pope stays put in Metro Manila or proceeds to Cebu. How the organizers will adjust the pope’s itinerary would be a challenge.
The hope is that Amang won’t be much of a disturbance, although our experience with “lesser” storms like Seniang is telling us not to take these things lightly. But the coincidence is rather interesting. Pope Francis’s visit was, after all, triggered by his concern for the victims of Yolanda and the 7.7 magnitude quake that hit Bohol and Cebu in 2013.
While the Pope is bringing his message of “mercy and compassion” to this Asian trip (he passed by Sri Lanka before proceeding to the Philippines), there is one other concern he is passionate about. This year, he is set to rally the world’s Catholics against climate change.
Storms are a fixture in the Philippines, but the past years have seen these weather disturbances become erratic and more destructive. Environmentalists are pointing to climate change as the culprit.
With Amang, the pope and those following the coverage of his trip will have a closer look on how vulnerable people, especially the poor in countries like the Philippines, are to changes in the weather condition.