President Rodrigo Duterte joked about naming typhoons in the Philippines after the “dilawans” or the opposition.
“I have a question for you. Who determines what name the typhoon would bear? Sino tiga-bigay ng appellation ng bagyo?” Duterte asked Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) administrator Vicente Malano.
The weather bureau official explained it has four sets of names from A to Z that is used every four years.
Pagasa replaces the international name with local names once tropical cyclones enter or form inside the Philippine Area of Responsibility.
“If I may add something, puwede nito idagdag ang pangalan ni [Transportation Secretary] Arturo [Tugade] pati ni [Public Works Secretary] Mark [Villar]. Tapos na si [Social Welfare and Development Secretary] Rolly [Bautista],” he said, in jest.
(If I may add something, maybe we can add Arturo and Mark’s names since Rolly is already done.)
“Doon ka magkuha sa dilaw, marami doon,” he added.
(You can get names from the yellows. They have many.)
Duterte had a meeting with key government officials on Monday to tackle the government’s efforts to rebuild areas devastated by Rolly, the so-called strongest typhoon in the world for 2020.
Also read: CamSur now under a state of calamity due to Rolly
Typhoon names for 2020
The first tropical cyclone of the year starts with the name beginning in letter A as in AMBO under column 1 for 2020 and so on down the list as one disturbance succeeds another. The 5th year (2024) will bring us back to column 1 of AMBO. In the event that the number of tropical cyclones within the year exceeds 25, an auxiliary list is used, the first ten of which are listed under each column.
AMBO
BUTCHOY
CARINA
DINDO
ENTENG
FERDIE
GENER
HELEN
IGME
JULIAN
KRISTINE
LEON
MARCE
NIKA
OFEL
PEPITO
QUINTA
ROLLY
SIONY
TONYO
ULYSSES
VICKY
WARREN
YOYONG
ZOSIMO
Auxilliary List
ALAMID
BRUNO
CONCHING
DOLOR
ERNIE
FLORANTE
GERARDO
HERNAN
ISKO
JEROME
As of 10 pm Monday, Pagasa said Rolly is expected to exit the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) Tuesday morning. It is likely to remain a tropical storm throughout the forecast period.