After 39 years, Oscar ends PAGASA career
His is a household name— and for a good reason.
Whenever a typhoon threatened Cebu, his voice reverberated over the radio and television, ringing the warning bells for locals to avert danger.
He updated Cebuanos about sunrise and sundown. He told them when it was good to go out for a swim or just stay indoors.
To the farmers, he was a giver of signal for the start of planting season. To the fishermen, he was an adviser on whether it was best to sail out.
He is Oscar Tabada. And his being a weather specialist at PAGASA Mactan, a career that spans nearly four decades, officially ends tomorrow in time for his 65th birthday.
Yet Tabada's rise to prominence as a dependable source of weather information did not happen overnight.
His professional career as a weatherman started from humble beginnings. He could vividly remember the first time he took the job at PAGASA Mactan.
Tabada, a chemical engineering graduate from Cebu Institute of Technology (now Cebu Institute of Technology-University), tried his luck in the bureau because there were less job opportunities for chemical engineering graduates in early 1950s.
Tabada, who is from Barangay Mambaling in Cebu City, was accepted as meteorologist and assigned at the main climatology department in Manila for 10 years where he learned the tricks of weather forecasting.
He said after several months, he was constantly challenged in understanding the art and science of forecasting until his profession became a passion.
He was transferred to Mactan weather station in 1973. His experience gave him an edge in calculating weather parameters, such as forecasted monthly rainfall or the average monthly temperature.
“Before, I saw people just sit on their seats and receive their monthly salaries, but I was really committed with my job. I strive to learn by reading books and research, and undergo trainings,” said Tabada in vernacular.
He established a more systematic weather analyses and created weather-related models despite the lack of modern technologies, such as satellites and radars.
Romeo Aguirre, a forecaster for nearly five years, has been a witness to Tabada's great dedication and passion for work.
Aguirre said Tabada has been a good mentor, teaching him the ropes of the weather operations, such as analyzing different sources of weather data and models, as well as techniques in weather forecasting.
Aguirre said Tabada pushed them to perfect their work and to refrain from committing any possible mistake, especially in relaying weather information.
“His dedication is insurmountable. He is the only person I saw so far that has such trait. Whenever there are extreme weather events (affecting Visayas,) he wouldn't sleep. There are times also that even if he is off from work, he keeps in touch with us,” he said.
He said Tabada has been instrumental to the people's regained trust and confidence in the bureau.
PAGASA reportedly received before criticisms and negative feedbacks of slow and flawed forecasting from the public.
Tabada said people began to rely on PAGASA following the wrath of typhoon Ike in 1984 and typhoon Ruping in 1990, taking dozens of lives and destroying thousands of properties.
For his part, Baltazar Tribunalo, chief of Cebu Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office, said Tabada is one of the stalwart government officers providing reliable information or weather forecast to local disaster units.
Tribunalo acknowledged Tabada for institutionalizing the early warning system for hydrological hazards.
“He is someone you can always rely on and is never greedy of information,” said Tribunalo.
Starting Monday, Engineer Alfredo Quiblat Jr., PAGASA Mactan station chief, will sit as an officerin-charge of the weather bureau's office in the Visayas.