Philippine Observer: Op-Ed

The Philippine Credit Gap

Monday, January 16, 2017 The Mail Man 0

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An integral part of the economy</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Recent news about the “5-6” Bumbay financiers have been the staple of headlines. These are the ubiquitous motorcycle riding financiers for many of Filipinos. These Indian nationals have been part of the trade and business landscape of the country for almost 100 years. They have a niche carved in the “informal” lending business so critical to the “underground” economy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">It is already recognized that the underground economy employs more Filipinos than the top 100 corporations. In fact, the Micro enterprises comprise more than 80% of businesses in the country. But where and when did this start?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Contrary to current belief, there was a similar mode of financing more than 100 years ago. Being an agricultural country, Filipinos also obtained loans then. But it was not in the form of money. Loans were given in the form of palay. Small farmers would borrow palay to be repaid in palay twice a year since there were 2 seasonal harvest times. The palay borrowe will be repaid with interest also in the form of palay.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">But the shift gradually from agriculture to commercial due to urban migration also necessitated such small scale borrowings and lendings. Instead of farms, Filipinos in the urban areas would put up stores and food stalls. The traditional lending institutions such as banks would never touch these small enterprises since the risks were high, processing in terms of credit investigations and even loan monitoring had a higher overhead than the expected credit yields. Of course, these businesses would never have the needed security or collateral.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Thus, the Bumbays came into the picture. They of course would lend and then collect every day the loans payments. They would be part of the community in such fact that they provided a service to the community by easy lending terms but at interest rates as high as 12% per month. In so doing, they would also have the funds to further expand their clientele in financing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> This is where the problem lies. A segment in the economy that needs financing but with traditional institutions unable to serve their needs. An informal source of financing that is considered illegal but is also seen as indispensable.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The government must fill in the gap with relaxed credit rules and guidelines that will enable Filipinos to bridge the credit gap that is so important I economic development. This is the only way that the underground economy still survive and even thrive. It must be noted that a vast segment of the population survives only because of this economic sector.</span></div>
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An integral part of the economy Recent news about the “5-6” Bumbay financiers have been the staple of headlines. These are the ubiqui...

Gifts and Curses

Sunday, January 8, 2017 The Mail Man 0

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<span style="font-size: large;">I remember when the world started to open up. I was in 1st grade and I started to learn how to read. I once felt amazed on what the world had to offer. I can now choose between Coke and Pepsi because I can read. I knew that it was called Chippy since I can read. A flood of knowledge cascaded when I found that 1937 Reader’s Digest tucked in one of my grandfather’s bookshelves.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">But along with obtaining information, there came the responsibility of not only keeping it but also using it the right way. When I read that copy of Time Magazine with the emaciated child, I learned of hunger. Not the hunger I daily feel but of a hunger that is deliberate. It then explained to me things that were unwritten. The day I had to accompany my mother and aunt to a store further down the street and wait in line. I discovered that the same situation was also [present but to a far lesser degree. We had to wait in line for the National Grains Authority truck to deliver rice. Those in line were only allowed to purchase 5 kilos of rice. There were no assurances when the truck will be back.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">That explained why some of my classmates would defecate inside our classroom much to laughs from us. Then other classmates would tell stories of how their rice was mixed with corn or kamote (sweet potatoes) to augment them. That of course became the source of diarrhea. The same story was recounted by my sister to happen in their classes. That was a time in our history that seems to have been conveniently forgotten but hunger still stalks these lands. I have only to go to our school that is beside the church every Saturday. The church and school have feeding programs and that is a laudable program. What must be considered is that those styropor food containers must also include eating utensils. I find it obscene to take pictures but I have seen with my own eyes how the children eat with their hands and the food packets were just laid  on the sidewalks. The children were eating like dogs. In fact, our family pet, Khal has better food containers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">How did I arrive at this? It is because I learned how to read. I learned through the structured instructionals at school how to analyze and evaluate. Those are the same skills that I have applied throughout my professional career that ranged from banking, finance, project development and Complete Staff Work at the Presidential Management Staff in the palace at a given span of time.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Now, I use it still in everyday life. Those skills have managed to feed me and put a roof over my head. I have met people of high standing because of it and I have so many times broken bread with them and even got to know more about them and they got to know me. Such contacts have also given me a modicum of standing and connections. I made friends and also enemies because of these skills but the ledger points to assets more than liabilities.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Today, I use those skills in trying to help those that need help but we all know that these are not enough. Analysis and evaluation, forecasts and projections are now second nature to me. At a certain level, I try to turn it off since it always adds to the same thing. That the bottomline is we are losing more than winning. It is not a breakeven proposition. It seems that every day, more of the children end up eating on the sidewalk every morning. By evening, while walking home, I get to see not only children but entire families eating like dogs on the sidewalk. I will do the math on my head and I discontinue before arriving at the same “solution” since it will mess up my evening.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">This is what is happening to many of us now. Having been blessed with education and above all discernment, we having been cloaked with the mantle of critical reasoning are able to see things as what they are. We are now faced with choices on what to do about these gifts. To turn a blind eye and have tunnel vision on what we want to see and do or use the gifts for a greater responsibility bestowed. We used to marvel at our abilities and talents but then realize what must be done. The country is in need of those gifts now more than ever.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Truly, ours is a gift and at the same time a curse. </span></div>
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Nationalism Op-Ed Patriotism Socio-Economic Gifts and Curses

I remember when the world started to open up. I was in 1st grade and I started to learn how to read. I once felt amazed on what the wor...

Si Karen. Si Lawin at si Fe

Wednesday, October 26, 2016 The Mail Man 0

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">House of a widow</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">By now, many would have seen the devastations caused by the two typhoons Karen and Lawin. To many, the perception is that what is typical. A region destroyed by a natural disaster. This country is one of the most disaster prone countries in the world. An average of 20 storms and typhoons visit it annually. Not to be cavalier about it but we are a people used to calamities and disasters. And what is remarkable is that we seem to get up after every disaster. This is regardless of how many casualties, the homes destroyed and the crops lost. Others would say that we do not learn our lessons. That we are stupid as a people for letting such misfortune visit us year in and year out. That we have a government that perennially fails to help its people and does not “build better” after every disaster.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Farmlands and ricefields</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I pose an anthropological answer. As compared to the Dutch who built dikes to protect their country from the ever rising tides that beset their lands that is below sea level. The Filipinos never behaved and much less plan as such. One only has to look at the North Atlantic. The skies are always grey, the waves high and menacing, the water so cold and the winds freezing. Their shores have no fine white sand. Maybe that is why they always come here.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">In the Philippines, typhoons and storms are vicious. There are high winds enough to uproot the Acacia (not an indigenous species) but not enough to uproot the coconut tree. After every storm, the sun will come out full and bright, the waves will be gentle and the sand will remain white and powdery. It is the collective experience of a people so used to such vagaries of fate and climate that they will just carry on. The government officials elected came from such racial stock and institutional memory. The Filipino will always know that the sun will shine after every storm. That is what makes the Filipino resilient.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Such resiliency is put to the test now. Owing to the economic and social history in contemporary (relatively) times, failure of all governments and administrations to address the economic needs of a growing population destroyed the socio-economic equilibrium of the country. Failure to industrialize meant that no work for the burgeoning population both in the urban centers and the rural areas. Such industrialization is what spelled the difference between developed and undeveloped countries. Now we have a large population that needed work.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The typhoons devastated regions that are dependent on agriculture. We are an agricultural country with 60% of the population residing in the rural areas. That is why, those who are experiencing poverty accounts for 60% of the number. But there are dynamics, since the Filipino is resilient even in poverty, a considerable number of farmers were able to send their children to school and a great number of them, unable to find employment went to work overseas.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">This is where things are intertwined. Those who went abroad try to support their families left behind. But that is getting ahead of the story. The agricultural sector remains bound by unequal distribution of wealth. The Comprehensive Land Reform Program dating back to 1988 failed to address the main problems of the agricultural sector. A greater number of farmers remain tenants and that is supported by statistics of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR). The CARP was subjected to what my mother would say Philippine Problems (they had that subject with Mrs. Pagulayan in their HS class in the 1950s). There is the “Palakasan” system for beneficiaries of the CARP with the Municipal Land Reform Office, the Mayor and the Governor and maybe even connections to Satan himself. Tghus, they remained in a state that is like an eternal quagmire. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Fe is an OFW. Her father is still a farmer so as her brothers. Her educational attainment precludes her from being in the “skilled” category of OFWs. Thus, her skills are typically classified as “Semi-Skilled”.  But she braved the challenges of going abroad and sought to serve her family as best she could. Subject to indignities by foreign employers she persevered. Managing to send money, send gifts and packages home and send emergency remittances owing to the exigencies required. What is remarkable is that she is able to generate savings for her. Fe knows that she cannot be an OFW forever and wants to secure her future.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">With the savings generated, she would invest in palay farming, buy land and even invest in hog raising. But the land where that her grandfather tilled and currently tilled by her father never belonged to them. CARP never reached them. She would plow her hard earned Php100,000 to 4 hectares of ricefield with a projected profit of Php20,000. Fe thought she can have enough income for her savings and for her father. This has happened so many times before and Fe and her neighbors never got any aid or assistance from the government. They can only drool at the assistance and aid given to the victims of Yolanda. Fe wondered how come in the case of Yolanda, aid kept coming in for one month. Now, it is zero and Fe had to work harder for her family and community. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Karen and Lawin came. The ricefields were devastated. She not only lost her savings, investments and projected income but have to shell out money so that their kitchen roof be repaired. She was told that electricity will be restored after 3 months and a generator be bought. Fe was lucky. Her neighbor who was a widow had their entire roof torn off by the typhoon. In that barangay, every family had at least one OFW. The social cost is just too much to bear.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">But the cost was not only to be measured in these terms. Such a system could not support the needs of the present and of the near future. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">This is a depiction on what the country and its people face. Kailangan bang ma-kuba ang mga tao ditto at yung mga nasa abroad? Yes the sun will shine tomorrow but having clouds of despair in the horizon is by now unacceptable.  </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">It will take the goodwill of everybody in the country and all those who are abroad and even those who are not Filipinos to get us out of this morass. There will be more Karens and Lawins in the near future. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The Center just cannot hold.</span></div>
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Environment Events Op-Ed Socio-Economic Si Karen. Si Lawin at si Fe

House of a widow By now, many would have seen the devastations caused by the two typhoons Karen and Lawin. To many, the perception is t...

The Quagmire of Philippine Agriculture

Sunday, September 11, 2016 The Mail Man 0

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<span style="font-size: large;">The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) was implemented in 1988. It was the enabler for the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL) which was the first landmark legislative achievement after the re-establishment of freedom in 1986. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The CARP was for farmers to own the land they have tilled for decades. It should be noted that President Ferdinand Marcos also declared the entire Philippines as a Land Reform Area after Martial Law was declare in 1972. What was not specified is that the declaration only covered “sugar” plantations and did not include rice fields and coconut lands.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">From in the first 4 years of the CARP, 848,000 landless farmers became beneficiaries or a 22% of the number of potential beneficiaries. It should also be seen on a context that the CARP has a life of 20 years in which it must be able to give coverage to all the landless farmers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">2 Ways</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The Land Reform has 2 methods of acquisition and awarding to farmer-beneficiaries.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">1.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Voluntary Land Transfer (VLT) – This is when a landowner voluntarily distributes distribute land to farmers-tenants. This happens when the landholdings have been declared as a land reform area. Compensation is provided by the government.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">2.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Compulsory Acquisition – This is when the government has classified a landholding to be a land reform area and the owner has to sell the land to the government for distribution to farmers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">This covers rice, sugar and coconut plantations</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Results</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">1.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Economic Dislocation. The farmer-beneficiaries were given land but lacked the resources with regards to farm inputs such as seeds, palay, irrigation, fertilizers and pesticides.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The farmers were then forced to obtain loans for these inputs, resulting in lower profits.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">2.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>  Volume. There is a certain level of volume production that is needed to make these farms economically viable. These were not factored I land distribution. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">3.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Employment. The tradition is for the farmers to employ family members in tilling the land. This did not contribute to employment since family members were not given salaries, thus, there is not employment generation gained.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">These factors has led to the stagnation of the agricultural sector and has resulted in a lose-lose proposition for both the farmers and the former landholders that has led to the lowering of the income levels in rural areas. That is why poverty has gained in the rural areas instead of decreasing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Given the evaluation and analysis, there are no oligarchs to blame for poverty.</span></div>
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Op-Ed Socio-Economic The Quagmire of Philippine Agriculture

The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) was implemented in 1988. It was the enabler for the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (C...

We can beat hunger

Monday, August 15, 2016 The Mail Man 0

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<span style="font-size: large;">We can beat hunger<br />By Cielito F. Habito<br /><br />AROUND 300,000 more Filipino families experienced involuntary hunger just before the turnover of government to the new leadership, according to the latest Hunger Survey of the Social Weather Stations released over the weekend. The incidence of hunger rose to 3.4 million families (15.2 percent) nationwide in the second quarter, from 3.1 million (13.7 percent) in the first. Interestingly, Mindanao actually had dramatic improvement, with hunger incidence falling nearly six percentage points from 19 to 13.3 percent, or by more than 300,000 families. That is, hunger fell in Mindanao by about as much as it rose elsewhere in the country. Perhaps Mindanao and our new leaders from there have a thing or two to teach the rest of us.<br /><br />Even as hunger persists worldwide, it’s not because there is not enough food. One need not look far to see this. Almost on a daily basis, we see large amounts of food wasted in gatherings, in hotels and in restaurants. Recently we heard of tons of meat rotting in containers stuck in the port, and of grains similarly rotting away in warehouses nationwide. There’s no lack of food in this country and in the world, for that matter. It is in ensuring adequate access to food for all, where the failure lies. One might say that at this time, the challenge of food security at the national or global levels is not so much about food supplies as about food distribution and accessibility to the poor and hungry. As I’ve often argued, it’s about prices and incomes.<br /><br />Why is there so much food in the world, yet so many continue to be without it? The World Future Council blames market structures that are profit-seeking and speculative, leading to prices that exclude the poor from access to healthy food and hinder investments in small-scale agriculture. It notes how world food prices roughly doubled between 2006 and 2009, with the most significant jump (by 85 percent) happening between April 2007 and April 2008—when speculators pounced on food commodities. It also notes that official development assistance for small-scale agriculture was cut by 85 percent between 1980 and 2002, and that agricultural productivity had declined in many developing in the last 50 years.<br /><br />The same World Future Council gave the Future Policy Award in 2009 to the city of Belo Horizonte, the fourth largest city in Brazil—a country now in the limelight for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. For two decades now, lesser-known Belo Horizonte has shown that hunger need not be a fact of life. In 1993, the newly elected city leadership declared that food was a right of every citizen, and began work to make good food accessible to all. Mayor Patrus Ananias—later to become Brazil’s minister for social development and the Fight against Hunger—established a secretariat for food policy and supply that included a 20-member council of citizens, workers and business leaders from all sectors involved with food. He pulled in church representatives to advise in the design and implementation of a new food system. The explicit mandate was to increase access to healthy food for all, as a measure of social justice.<br /><br />Brazilian citizens even then already participated actively in local governance, particularly in allocating government budgets, via the bottom-up budgeting system that Brazilian cities (including the other famous city of Porto Alegre) had pioneered worldwide. Mayor Ananias’ “right to food” policy is credited for having led Belo Horizonte residents in doubling the numbers who took part in the city’s participatory budgeting process to well over 30,000 individuals.<br /><br />Belo Horizonte’s food council developed ways to put food within everyone’s reach, addressing the interests of farmers and consumers alike.<br /><br />Family farmers were given access to prime retail space in which to sell their produce directly to city dwellers. Thus, consumers and farmers split between themselves what would have been hefty margins garnered by middlemen. The city also bid out to entrepreneurs the right to set up “ABC” markets (for alimentos a baixo custo, or food at low cost) in choice city locations. Prices are fixed below-market for some 20 specific foods sold at these outlets, while everything else can be sold at market prices. With the privilege of securing a spot for an ABC market also came the obligation to transport and offer their produce to poor neighborhoods outside of the city center on weekends.<br /><br />The “food as a right” approach also included the creation of a chain of restaurante popular (people’s restaurants) serving up to 12,000 cheap meals made from locally grown foods every day, to up to 700 people at a time. The bulk of visitors are poor, but the service is open to everybody, which helps avoid having the restaurants stigmatized as mere poor people’s diners. The city also helped develop urban gardens in schools and communities, and allocated national budgets for school lunches to local farmers rather than to processed and packaged foods. Food banks were added in 2004, where fresh fruit and vegetable donations are cleaned and vacuum-frozen, and distributed to charitable organizations and social service agencies.<br /><br />Proof positive of Belo Horizonte’s success is that among other substantial public health improvements, the city’s infant mortality rate dropped by 60 percent in a decade.<br /><br />This case demonstrates how, with a government that is responsive and accountable to the people, we can beat hunger if we are prepared to think out of the box, trust our caring and sharing instincts, and work together as problem-solving partners. Belo Horizonte has shown that it can be done. We only need to follow the example.<br /><br />Source: <a href="http://opinion.inquirer.net/96542/can-beat-hunger">http://opinion.inquirer.net/96542/can-beat-hunger</a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></span></div>
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Op-Ed We can beat hunger

We can beat hunger By Cielito F. Habito AROUND 300,000 more Filipino families experienced involuntary hunger just before the turnover o...

Environmental Nightmare: The Curse of Sachets

Wednesday, August 10, 2016 The Mail Man 0

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<span style="font-size: large;">This writer remember sometime in 2001, there was a local government official, an engineer by profession who took pride in informing his constituents during the campaign that he invented the “sachet” that was being used by a large multinational company in packaging. His spiel consisted of telling the people, his discovery made products more affordable to the masses and that is why he is qualified to be the mayor. He told them that he invented it because he cared for the poor.<br /><br />Fast forward to September 29, 2009, at the height of the floods brought about by Tropical Storm Ondoy, news footages of the pumping stations being clogged by garbage filled the airwaves. The garbage ranged from sofas to plastic bags. But notable were tons of plastic sachets representing all the products of multinationals being sold at sari-sari stores and consumed by millions of people everyday. <br /><br />Rivers, streams and other tributaries also carry these trash all the way to the sea. During July 16, 2016, Zero Waste Europe’s beach cleanup at Freedom Island collected tons of used sachet containers. <br /><br />These non-biodegradable packagings literally covered the beach of Freedom Island and even if these were thrown from the sewers of Metro Manila, these were able to reach as far as Batangas Bay hundreds of kilometres from Manila Bay, carried by the currents.<br /><br />These severely affect the environment along these coastlines. They degrade marine life and eventually pollute the oceans of the world. This is not only happening in the Philippines but also throughout Asia. This has now reached alarming proportions since the populations of Asia are still growing and notably, the poorer segments of the population tend to buy such packets of these products every day.<br /><br />Zero Waste groups have already presented alternatives to these multinationals that are also affordable and recyclable. The response was a big “NO”.<br /><br />Given that cleaning up the environment will lead to a healthier population and even the practical result of clearing drainages and waterways, the production of such packaging continues.<br /><br />There must be an advocacy intensification with these multinational companies as the targets. Since these same products and sachets are also sold in the 1st World countries where these multinationals originate, it only means that it can also be done here in the Philippines.   <br /><br />Source: Readings from : https://www.zerowasteeurope.eu/2016/07/the-curse-of-sachets-in-asia-why-western-companies-should-be-held-accountable/</span></div>
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Environment Op-Ed Environmental Nightmare: The Curse of Sachets

This writer remember sometime in 2001, there was a local government official, an engineer by profession who took pride in informing his c...

Re-inventing the Rice Policy

Wednesday, July 13, 2016 The Mail Man 0

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<span style="font-size: large;">Re-inventing the Rice Policy<br /><br />By: Cielito Habito<br /><br />THERE’S SO much more to our rice policy than the rice industry itself. What we have persisting to the present harms not only consumers and the rest of our agriculture, but the industry and services sector along with it as well. And that means the entire economy.<br /><br />What’s this rice policy I refer to? It’s much more complex than meets the eye, but stripped to the bone, it’s everything we do that ultimately makes rice so much more expensive to Filipinos than it is to our Southeast Asian neighbors. This traces largely to how we restrict rice imports (which we can’t even do right as large amounts consistently get smuggled in, anyway) by putting imports under the strict control of the National Food Authority—all in the name of pursuing rice self-sufficiency. While this would seem a noble objective, it’s not only impractical but even harmful to us Filipinos at this time.<br /><br />I must say at the outset that I have no doubt we can attain full rice self-sufficiency. The scientists have always been right: We can produce all the rice we need if we “do it right”—i.e., use the right combination of hybrid seeds, fertilization, irrigation and crop care. The question is whether we should pursue it the way we’ve been doing, keeping it more inaccessible (translation: unaffordable) to poor and food-insecure Filipinos than it needs to be. For sure, we can even produce well beyond our needs. But if we do, could we even export it without losing money on it, given international prices? Here’s where we need to listen to the economists and social scientists, too, because it’s not just about production. It’s about productivity, incomes and prices. As one writer recently put it, “[of] what use is a bumper stock if our people cannot afford it?”<br /><br />Consider these facts: Thailand has 11 million hectares of rice land to feed 66 million Thais. Vietnam has 7.5 million hectares to feed 90 million Vietnamese. But we only have 4.5 million hectares to feed 102 million Filipinos. Thailand and Vietnam have the Mekong River naturally irrigating their rice areas and permitting up to three crops a year. The Philippines (like Indonesia, the other major rice-importing country in the neighborhood) is an archipelago with no massive rivers running through it—and 20 or so typhoons hitting it every year. Our own river systems, like the Pampanga River and Cagayan River, irrigate our best rice lands in Central and Northern Luzon, but these are puny in comparison to the great Mekong River that runs across six countries. Any surprise that the two are the biggest rice exporters in Southeast Asia, while we and Indonesia are the top importers? That’s why Malaysia never aspired to produce all the rice it needs, and put its money in things Malaysian farmers could get rich with—so they could buy whatever rice they need to make up for what they can’t competitively produce.<br /><br />The only way for us to go, then, is to achieve much higher productivity, at comparable cost, with emphasis on the latter. Otherwise, it makes no sense to insist on supplying all our rice needs if it means restricting imports, forcing ourselves to pay up to twice what we otherwise would, just so the domestic price will allow the “average rice farmer” to recover his costs. What harm has this longstanding policy brought us? Plenty.<br /><br />It keeps more Filipinos than necessary below the poverty line, as rice alone is the single biggest item in the average poor Filipino family’s budget (20-25 percent, studies say). When the official poverty rate went up again in 2014 to 25.8 percent, from 24.6 percent in 2013 (an additional 1.2 million poor), then Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsi Balisacan traced it, not to falling incomes, but to higher rice prices. It leads us to give higher and less competitive wages so that our workers could afford our primary “wage good,” rice. It makes it harder in turn for us to attract more job-creating domestic or foreign investments, labor costs being higher than what they could otherwise be. Hence, we continue to have 2.5 million jobless workers, even as millions have left to seek their fortunes overseas, away from their families. Meanwhile, it renders too many Filipinos food-insecure, making our malnutrition rate twice as high as in our comparable neighbors. In turn, this affects our children’s educational outcomes, ultimately leading to an inferior human resource pool with lower productivity. And there’s much more. In sum, the effects are much more far-reaching than meets the eye, hurting the whole Filipino economy and society—all because of our distortive rice policy.<br /><br />What do we do, then? Open up the floodgates to rice imports and forget about producing rice? Of course not! We do have many rice farmers whose productivity and costs allow them to compete even at international prices. But we must strive to have many more, and that’s precisely what the government ought to be pursuing and targeting, not simply to produce more rice at all costs. The fact is, we only have until 2017 before we must open up rice trade and shift to import tariffs as our mode of protecting rice farmers. We are the last holdout still restricting rice imports, and are on the third and final extension on this from the World Trade Organization.<br /><br />Meanwhile, we managed to set the highest rice import tariff of 35 percent in the Asean Economic Community, which takes effect once we open up. Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol’s mission, then, is to make sure that by 2018, our rice farmers can compete at a price 35 percent higher than the import price. But we must eventually remove that 35-percent penalty on Filipino rice consumers, especially on our poor, as well—so the homework would not end there.<br />* * *<br />cielito.habito@gmail.com<br /><br />Source: <a href="http://opinion.inquirer.net/95609/reinventing-rice-policy#ixzz4EM34JtBh">http://opinion.inquirer.net/95609/reinventing-rice-policy#ixzz4EM34JtBh </a></span></div>
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Op-Ed Re-inventing the Rice Policy

Re-inventing the Rice Policy By: Cielito Habito THERE’S SO much more to our rice policy than the rice industry itself. What we have per...

Presidential Inauguration 2016: Simplicity or Historical Ignorance?

Friday, July 1, 2016 The Mail Man 1

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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /><br />By this time, a day after the Presidential Inauguration, things would have settled down. Unlike in the past inaugurations, yesterday was not declared a holiday. It depends on who is speaking or who is listening on how that day must be observed. Some would say that the outgoing president felt bitter and does not like the winner of the last elections that is why he did not declare a holiday. Some pundits would rather go on point that it is the character of the new administration, that simplicity and down to earth-ness is the theme noting that many of the poor and the poorest of the poor would rather be the beneficiaries of the savings from such lavish ceremonies that the president and the vice president eschewed. <br /><br />But will those “savings” benefit the poor and the poorest of the poor?<br /><br />I think not.<br /><br />Remember, such occasions have already been approved in the General Appropriations Act for 2016. It was already in the budget. Diverting such budgets in so called pro-poor programs is no longer an option no matter how noble the intention is in this post -DAP and post-PDAF times. If it is done then the proponent would be liable to technical malversation of funds. It is a criminal offense.<br /><br />Now, having demolished that rationale, let me get to the point.<br /><br />Qurino Grandstand<br /><br />The Quirino Grandstand was where the inauguration of President Elpidio Quirino was undertaken. It is an exact replica of the grandstand where Philippine Independence was inaugurated in July 1946. It used to be called the Independence Grandstand. <br /><br />The Qurino Grandstand faces the National Flagpole and the Rizal Monument. Why face them? The Rizal Monument and the National Flagpole are both “Kilometer Zero”. This is where national roads and highways are measured from. This is where the sense of the Filipino nation emanates. Why does Rizal face the sea?  Manila Bay? Before the age of airports, this is where the gates to the Philippines open. Each ship from countries around the world will enter Manila Bay past its sentinels, Corregidor Island and Sangley Point where the Spanish Fleet is located. The first thing that the foreigners will see are the Intramuros and Fort Santiago, the guardians of Manila.  That is why buildings and edifices where constructed facing Manila Bay. It is to show the best face of the country to the foreigners. That is the reason why Rizal is facing Manila Bay. That those who arrive will face the countenance of the National Hero. <br /><br />That is another reason why the Quirino Grandstand face the Rizal Monument. Independence Day parades and presidential inaugurations are held in Quirino Grandstand so as to fall under the gaze of Jose Rizal. The First Filipino and the first to conceive of a Filipino Nation. New presidents will swear to defend and uphold the constitution under the gaze of Jose Rizal and in sight of the National Flagpole. This is that so they realize the responsibilities being bestowed upon them. This is not to make them grand, this is for them to realize that compared to the size of the monument and the height of the flagpole, they are to be not larger than the Filipino nation. It is to remind them that they cannot be  larger than what the country demands. It is to make them realize that they are servants and that history will be the ultimate judge. Rizal will be the parameter on how they perform.<br /><br />That is the importance of a presidential inauguration at the Qurinino Grandstand and that it is not subject to budgets and pro-poor posturings. Many presidents forgot that significance, hence the tragedies of their administrations. They thought they were bigger that the nation.<br /><br />The Malacanan Staircase<br /><br />TV coverage was intensive and they would all point out the many traditions that happen during the inauguration. It was discussed that it would be traditional for the outgoing president to go down the staircase and the new president would ceremoniously go up the staircase. They went on and on who the presidents went up and down the staircase. But there was no in-depth stories about the real historical significance of the staircase.<br /><br />Those staircases meant so much for President Manuel L. Quezon. For him, going up those staircases meant so much significance. It is told that there were many who pleaded that Jose Rizal not be executed. His sisters went to the gates of Malacanang, and grovelled at the feet of Governor General Polavieja to spare their brothers life. They were denied. But the stories about Rizal’s mother who went up the staircase on her knees so as to ask for mercy and clemency. Governor General Polavieja denied the pleas. Rizal was executed.<br /><br />When Manuel L. Quezon became president, he knew that this is the first time that a Filipino would go up the staircase as a head of state. That the colonizers were no more. But more than power, Quezon knew that the same staircase where Rizal’s mother went up on her knees was the same staircase. That aside from power, there came a greater responsibility and duty. It was of mercy. Knowing the countless lives sacrificed for freedom and independence, President Quezon saw the value of Filipino lives and blood. He kept Rizal’s mother in mind. During his whole term as president, those condemned on death row were given executive clemency by President Quezon. Their sentences were commuted. There was no executions during the time of President Quezon.<br /><br />The Presidential Desk<br /><br />Having spared those on death row, the prisoners whose death sentences were commuted crafted a desk. This was then used as the Presidential Desk of President Quezon. All succeeding presidents used this desk. Only President Estrada, in his efforts to re-decorate Malacanang disposed of the desk and had another one made and used. He knew nothing of the significance of the desk. When President Arroyo came to power, she remembered the desk that her father used. But nobody seemed to know where it was kept among the furniture stored at the warehouse in Malacanang. It took Manuel Quezon III to recognize it and then it was returned to the presidential office and is until now in use.<br /><br />The Office of the President is not only about power or justice. As President Quezon showed and by the significance of the staircase and the desk, the Office of the President is the fountain of Mercy in this country. It is not about life and death. It is all about the precious life of every Filipino. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The real measurement of every Filipino leader is the capacity for mercy and value for the life of every Filipino.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br />Tradition has a reason.<br /><br /></span></div>
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History Nationalism Op-Ed Patriotism Presidential Inauguration 2016: Simplicity or Historical Ignorance?

By this time, a day after the Presidential Inauguration, things would have settled down. Unlike in the past inaugurations, yesterday was ...

The Dusk of Forever Summer

Wednesday, June 29, 2016 The Mail Man 0

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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /><br />“When the moon in the sky like a big pizza pie hits your eye, that’s “Green” Amore?”, with apologies to Dean Martin. <br /><br />It has been over a month since Close Up’s Forever Summer party. The 5 deaths and fingerpointing that went along with it has come and gone. The first rains of the monsoon have arrived and nowhere can the real culprits be found.<br /><br />It is just like the end of each summer. The blooms will finally fade and a chill wind will nip the nose and ears at dusk of each day that followed. Getting colder and colder by the next day. The parched ground will eventually be watered by the initial drizzle and then inundated by the monsoons not long after.<br /><br />The youth who have danced to the thumping rhythms would have all went each other’s ways. No longer will the shouts and cheers be heard on the sun-baked grounds. There will be five of them who will not see the next summer. These names, in the full flower of youth no longer bask under the sun.<br />•    Ariel Leal, 22<br />•    Lance Garcia, 36<br />•    Ken Migawa, 18<br />•    Bianca Fontejon<br />•    Eric Anthony Miller, 33<br />It was during the days of the last summer’s fling that they were taken away. <br /><br />By now the headlines have faded and recriminations were quick. The tragedy was even the prologue  of a press conference by the President-Elect that eventually that went awry. The blame flew thick and fast amidst the media frenzy. Aside from the “Who” and What” there was really no in-depth coverage of the “How” and especially the “Why”. The “Why” cannot be ascertained as of now. It is a confluence of social and cultural factors that led to the tragedy. It is better discussed after a certain amount of time has elapsed. It points to a malaise in society that is better to sweep under the rug or die a natural death because of intellectual indolence on the part of media and even government. <br /><br />The “How” was a subject of even slipshod reportage that would rather give merit to media sensationalism. It is easy to blame the organizers at this point. It would be convenient to blame the organizers at this point. But are the organizers really negligent? Let us go over the facts of their organizational efforts with regards to the tragedy.<br /><br />What is CloseUp Forever Summer?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br />CloseUp Forever Summer is an annual Electronic Dance Music (EDM) festival featuring the world's top DJs performing live. The event is delivered and funded by CloseUp/Unilever Philippines with support from its contracted suppliers/co-organizers Eventscape Manila and Activations Advertising.<br />The event involved private groups and government institutions. This was for par in the staging of such events and the event organizers have managed several such like events before.<br />The civilian part of the event had 3 main components:<br /><br />1.    The Principal – The main sponsor of the event<br /><br />2.    Event Organizer – The program planning and physical logistics of the event<br /><br />3.    Event Implementor – Manpower and Security operations of the event<br /><br />4.    Venue Owner – Security for the event<br /><br />The Government component consisted of:<br /><br />1.    PNP Pasay City/Southern Police District<br />2.    LGU of Pasay City<br />3.    Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP)<br /><br />Also, 5 hospitals were in coordination with the event organizers<br /><br />As in any event of this magnitude, security and medical contingencies are of critical importance. Thus, the organizers have taken pains in planning and implementing international standards in the conduct of the event. Thus, a total of 485 Security personnel were assigned and deployed during the event and that it adheres to US Security Standards with a ratio of 1:25 in relation to the total attendance of 12,312. US Standards is at 1:30.<br />The event was subject to pre-event planning that was conducted months before the event and was tweaked at refined even before the day of the event itself.<br />There were CCTV systems, RFID systems and Evacuation and Emergency Procedures and Protocols planned and implemented for the event. Such as that contingency plans were as thorough and as strict as possible.<br /><br />There were 6 ambulance teams, 30 EMTs, 2 Doctors and 4 firetrucks that were on standby and operational during the event. There was security briefings and security sweeps before the event was conducted.<br /><br />Unfortunately, the incidents happened and that 5 individuals separately collapsed in the venue and was quickly attended to by the responders. No one among the 5 fatalities expired in the venue itself.<br /><br />Based on the planning and implementation figures, the organizers followed industry- standard safety & security procedures in organizing major live events involving large number of audiences. During implementation, the organizers exceeded the required number of security and medical personnel based on US and Government of Western Australia-Department of Health: Guidelines for Concerts, Events, and Organized Gatherings standards. The entry procedures and protocols followed and implemented this year were more stringent than, and actually exceeded, those implemented in similar events in the past.<br /><br />This was never shown in traditional media, these contingency plans and operations were never given the full light of day. <br /><br />The tragedy could have been prevented but in a bigger arena and not in the confines of the event. The "How" is still a mystery. As mentioned before, the five fatalities are the product and is the tragedy of a malaise in a current society. Or are we looking at another Reichstag Fire?</span></div>
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Events Op-Ed The Dusk of Forever Summer

“When the moon in the sky like a big pizza pie hits your eye, that’s “Green” Amore?”, with apologies to Dean Martin. It has been over a ...

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