‘Why Odette?’ Walden Bello wants PAGASA to use Greek letters to name storms

Hello Alpha, Beta, Gamma?

The government should consider using Greek alphabet instead of local names in identifying the storms that hit the Philippines, according former Akbayan party-list Rep. Walden Bello.

Bello, a vice presidential bet in next year’s elections, is opposed to giving the storms with a female name especially after typhoon Odette left a massive trail of destruction in several areas in Visayas and Mindanao. Sharing a name with a monstrous typhoon would probably bring anguish to the concerned women, he said.

“The choice of the name Odette for the latest typhoon is a travesty of the image of all the women named Odette, including the fascinating Odette of Proust’s Swann’s Way,” he said on Facebook.

“Next time, can we just adopt WHO’s practice of naming viruses and designate typhoons with the Greek letters, like Omacron ό or Xi ξ?” he asked.

Typhoon Odette left more than a dozen people dead and thousands of families displaced in many areas in the Visayas and Mindanao. The government as well as presidential contenders in next year’s polls have mounted relief operations to assist the calamity victims.

The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) gives Filipino-sounding proper names to tropical cyclones that visit the country every year.

It has four sets of local names, from A to Z, to determine the number of typhoons that enter the country’s area of responsibility. The naming system, initiated in 2001, is repeated after every four years although names of destructive typhoons had since been retired from the list.

Last March, the World Meteorological Association (WMO) announced it would no longer use the names of Greek letters for future hurricanes since the strategy only caused confusion and distraction especially in 2020. A list of proper names has been released in naming storms.

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Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)