<Tr> <Th> Parent agency </Th> <Td> Department of Science and Technology </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Website </Th> <Td> www.pagasa.dost.gov.ph </Td> </Tr> <P> The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Filipino: Pangasiwaan ng Pilipinas sa Serbisyong Atmospero, Heopisiko at Astronomiya, abbreviated as PAGASA (pagˈasa), which means "hope" as in the Tagalog word pag - asa) is the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHS) agency of the Republic of the Philippines mandated to provide protection against natural calamities and to insure the safety, well - being and economic security of all the people, and for the promotion of national progress by undertaking scientific and technological services in meteorology, hydrology, climatology, astronomy and other geophysical sciences . Created on December 8, 1972 by reorganizing the Weather Bureau, PAGASA now serves as one of the Scientific and Technological Services Institutes of the Department of Science and Technology . </P> <P> Formal meteorological and astronomical services in the Philippines began in 1865 with the establishment of the Observatorio Meteorológico de Manila in Padre Faura St., Manila when Francisco Colina, a young Jesuit scholastic and professor at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila started a systematic observation and recording of the weather two or three times a day . Jaime Nonell, another Jesuit scholastic, wrote a brief treatise on these observations, which was printed by the Diario de Manila . The treatise attracted the attention of businessmen in Manila and a request was made to the Jesuit director, Fr . Juan Vidal, SJ, for regular observations for the purpose of warning the public against approaching typhoons . The businessmen financed the procurement and acquisition of an instrument called the Universal Meteorograph (an invention of another Jesuit, Fr . Angelo Seechi, SJ of the Vatican Observatory in Rome) which would greatly aid in the day and night observations of the weather . </P>

What is the meaning of the acronym pagasa