Pagasa warns public vs solicitations for ‘non-existent foundation’

THE state-run Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) is not soliciting money for a foundation which does not exist and warned the public against making any donation, an official said on Tuesday.

Pagasa Administrator Vicente Malano on Tuesday told The Manila Times that no one has been authorized to collect money, including contractors of Pagasa.

Malano said such “misrepresentation” was detested and won’t be tolerated.

“Please be advised that no individuals or organization are authorized to use the name of Pagasa, its officials and employees for a favor,” he said further.

Malano said that Pagasa received reports about an email that was sent to a contractor by someone pretending to be an official of the agency soliciting a donation for a certain foundation.

“We request anyone who receives similar mail, e-mail or calls to immediately report the matter to Pagasa’s Public Information Unit at (02) 8284-0800 local 102 to 103 or email us at information@pagasa.dost.gov.ph,” he said.

The Pagasa administrator recalled that the first time a similar incident took place was two years ago wherein a suspect, a senior citizen, was caught through an entrapment operation.

“There was also an incident in the past when someone went to my office to personally hand over money as his donation for the foundation after a ‘Pagasa official’ solicited cash from him,” Malano said.

He said he was surprised to know that the same modus-operandi was taking place anew using the name of the agency.