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Manila Times reader wrote me years ago that he’d get so annoyed to hear this statement from TV anchors or come across it in print: “The typhoon has entered the Philippine area of responsibility.” His proposal: “I believe it is the obligation of PAGASA to paraphrase that statement in this more appropriate wording: ‘The typhoon has entered Philippine soil.’”
TYPHOON SWATH OVER PHILIPPINE ARCHIPELAGO
Even if the term “Philippine area of responsibility” does sound officious and technical, however, I don’t find it annoying. And admittedly, it’s difficult to find a suitable paraphrase or a synonym that comes close to what that term denotes, so I told the annoyed reader that it was advisable just to let things be.
I then explained to him that the term “Area of Responsibility” (AOR) defines an area with specific geographic boundaries for which a person or organization is
responsible in some way. However, this AOR doesn’t define an internationally recognized territory, and neither is it a measure of its land mass or what’s referred to as “Philippine soil.”
This is because the Philippines is an archipelago of 7,100 islands that irregularly jut out from the sea, and the nation’s share of territory on the globe extends way beyond the shorelines of those islands. Indeed, although the Philippines has a total land area of 300,000 sq. km (115,830 sq. miles), the so-called “Philippine Area of Responsibility” covers several multiples of that area in terms of sea and land combined.
THE PHILIPPINE AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY (PAR)
For those conversant with spherical geometry, the Philippine Area of Responsibility or PAR is that part of the world map “bounded by rhumb lines on the Philippine Tropical Cyclone Tracking Chart/Map or imaginary lines on the surface of the earth that makes equal oblique angles with all meridians joining the following points: 25°N 120°E, 25°N 135°E, 5°N 135°E, 5°N 115°E, 15°N 115°E, 21°N 120°E and back to the beginning.”
The initials N and E refer to the compass directions “north” and “east,” the superscript “o” after the numbers stands for “degrees of the Earth’s arc,” and the term “rhumb lines” means “any of the points of the mariner’s compass.” These sound like science mumbo-jumbo, however, so it’s much better to just visually check out this area from the map itself.
Within the PAR, the PAGASA is mandated to monitor tropical cyclone activity and to make the necessary warnings. It has to issue bulletins every six hours for all tropical cyclones within the PAR that have made or are anticipated to make landfall within the Philippines, or every 12 hours when cyclones are not affecting land.
So I urge everyone not to get annoyed when PAGASA repeatedly uses the term “Philippine area of responsibility.” Our hardy weather forecasters aren’t really showing big airs when they use that term, for they don’t really have much choice. It would be much worse for them to warn us with, say, “AOR! AOR!” or “PAR! PAR!” whenever a typhoon is coming!
In closing, let me add that I find it odd that our weather bureau had chosen to call itself PAGASA. This acronym oxymoronically means “hope” in Tagalog—not a very appropriate denotation of the often dire and disturbing news that the bureau has to report during the typhoon season.
The thing is that PAGASA is actually the Tagalog acronym for the weather bureau’s kilometric English official name: “Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration.” In Filipino, its official name is likewise kilometric and tongue-twisting:
Pangasiwaan ng Palingkurang Atmosperiko, Heopisikal at Astronomiko ng Pilipinas.
Note though that the acronym for that name in Filipino—PPAHAP—clearly isn’t a nice existing Tagalog word and it doesn’t resonate either, so it’s understandable why it’s the Tagalog PAGASA—oxymoronic but more easily said—that has gained currency as acronym for the bureau’s English name.
(Next:
Exercising caution in asserting what’s good or bad English) March 7, 2019
This essay, 1,133rd of the series, appeared in the column “English Plain and Simple” by Jose A. Carillo in the Campus Press section of the February 28, 2019 print edition of The Manila Times
, © 2019 by the Manila Times Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.
