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Which countries are most at risk from humanitarian crises and disasters?

Which countries are most at risk from humanitarian crises and disasters?

FDA says vinegar using synthetic acetic acid liable for ‘mislabeling’

THE Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will revoke the registration of vinegar makers found to have used synthetic acetic acid for “misdeclaration,” amid reports that some brands synthesized their ingredients rather than use natural materials like sugarcane.

In a statement Tuesday, FDA Officer in Charge Director Ronaldo Enrique M. Domingo said that even if the synthetic acetic acid is safe for human consumption, the issue facing these manufacturers is false claims made with regard to the base ingredient.

Chemically, vinegar is typically composed of at least 4% acetic acid.

“Synthetic acetic acid may not be harmful per se, but products using such chemicals shall have their registration with the FDA revoked for misdeclaration,” he said.

Earlier this month, the Department of Science and Technology’s Philippine Nuclear Research Institute (DoST-PNRI) reported most vinegar products in the market are “fake” because they are made from synthetic acetic acid.

Using of isotope-based analytical techniques, the DoST found eight out of 10 of the 360 samples tested by the DoST-PNRI where found to have used synthetic forms of the chemical. They did not release the names of these brands.

Vinegar made from synthetic acetic acid did not go through the natural process of fermentation. Having synthetic matter in vinegar speeds up the process of its fermentation and is technically considered adulterated for food safety purposes.

FDA standards require vinegar to be a natural product undergoing natural fermentation.

Mr. Domingo said that the FDA is teaming up with the DoST-PNRI “for the submission of the results of the analysis, while continuously subjecting vinegar products for testing.”

Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol said he is directing the Bureau of Agriculture and Fisheries Standards (BAFS)to create standards for vinegar. The proposed standard will also require vinegar sold on the market to be naturally fermented.

“Any other product which offers the ‘sour’ taste but is not a product of a natural fermentation process should be properly labeled as such — synthetic acetic acid or a “sour non-biogenic” condiment. Thus, it is my position as Secretary of Agriculture that sour condiments made out of synthetic or non-biogenic acetic acid should not be labeled as “vinegar” or “suka,” he said in a social media post Tuesday.

The DA had an inter-agency meeting with the FDA, DoST-PNRI, and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to discuss the issue. The meeting led to the review of the Department of Health’s Administrative Order (AO) No. 123 issued in 1970, which regulates vinegar quality. — Gillian M. Cortez

DA urges naming of vinegar brands using synthetic raw material

THE Department of Agriculture (DA) has urged the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to release the list of vinegar brands that use synthetic acetic acid.

“I don’t know why they are holding onto it pero ako (but in my opinion) it’s a Constitutional guarantee (that consumers should know). Hindi mo pwedeng itago ‘yan (You cannot hide it),” Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol said in a social media post Tuesday.

“As a consumer, I believe it is my right to know kung ano ‘yung binibili ko sa merkado (what I am buying in the market),” he added.

He added that there is a need to clearly spell out in labeling products that use fermented natural materials and synthetically-produced materials.

“We have always assumed that vinegar is an agricultural product,” he said.

Ang position ng DA ngayon is that (The DA’s position now is that)… kung [if] synthetic acetic acid ‘yung ginagamit n’yo (is what you are using) to produce a sour condiment that should not be called vinegar,” he said.

On Monday, various agencies discussed the issue of acetic acid-based commercial vinegar. In a social media post, Mr. Piñol said the agencies made a number of determinations.

“Based on the testimony of a chemist and toxicologist, Dr. Flerida Carino, and the Department of Health (DoH), synthetic acetic acid-based vinegar is ‘not totally unsafe;’ The classification standards for commercial vinegar sold in the market will now be ‘biogenic’ for those which use acetic acid produced through a natural fermentation process and “non-biogenic” for those which are made out of synthetic compounds; and the Philippine Nuclear Research Institute (PNRI) said it does not have the mandate to release the names of the brands found to contain ‘non-biogenic’ acetic acid while the Food and Drug Administration said it will await the submission by PNRI of its complete study for validation before it will release the list of the vinegar brands.”

The PNRI, an arm of the science and technology department, performed the tests that isolated the components of commercially-available vinegar brand.

According to a PNRI study, of 17 brands tested, 14 brands use synthetic material in their vinegar production. — Vincent Mariel P. Galang

DoE may issue circular to enforce SC ruling on competitive selection

THE Department of Energy (DoE) is meeting with Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) and other stakeholders that are expected to be affected by the Supreme Court (SC) decision requiring all power supply agreements (PSAs) forged after June 30, 2015 to undergo a competitive selection process (CSP).

Magkakaroon kami ng meeting (We will meet) with Meralco, with all the stakeholders this week,” Energy Assistant Secretary Redentor E. Delola told reporters during the two-day Future Energy Show at the Mall of Asia’s SMX Convention Center in Pasay City.

Asked what the DoE will tell Meralco and the others, he said: “I-CSP na nila (They should do a CSP),” he said, referring to the scheme that requires a distribution utility and a power generation company to first subject the cost per kilowatt-hour of their PSA to price challengers.

Kung ayaw n’yo mag-CSP, gagawa kami ng circular, kami mag-CSP for you (If they don’t want to do a CSP, we will issue a circular for you),” he said.

He said the price challenge should be easy for Meralco and the companies it had forged PSAs with since their power plants have not been built yet. He added that a meeting had been scheduled for both on-grid and off-grid energy stakeholders affected by the court ruling.

On May 6, 2019, the Supreme Court’s public information office said the tribunal ruled that PSA applications submitted by distribution utilities (DUs) on or after June 30, 2015 were to comply with the CSP in accordance with a DoE circular.

The circular mandated all DUs to undergo CSP, a form of competitive public bidding for their purchase of electricity from gencos, in securing PSAs. It became effective on June 30, 2015 after its publication.

The court further ordered that the power purchase cost after compliance with the CSP is to retroact to the date of the PSA’s effectivity, but in no case earlier than June 30, 2015, for purposes of passing the purchase cost to consumers.

The decision affected PSA applications filed by Meralco covering 3,551 megawatts (MW) to meet the expected increase in power demand and number of customers. The contracts were signed on April 29, 2016 or just before the April 30, 2016 extended deadline set by the ERC.

CSP requires these contracts between power generation companies and distribution utilities to be subjected to price challengers, a process that is aimed at lowering electricity costs.

The ERC promulgated CSP in November 2015 but had to restate its effectivity date to April 30, 2016 through a resolution issued in March 2016. It said the move was prompted by letter-inquiries from distribution utilities and generation companies assailing the legal implication of the CSP to existing power supply deals.

Meralco’s PSAs are with two subsidiaries of its unit Meralco Powergen Corp., which is constructing power plants under subsidiaries Redondo Peninsula Energy, Inc. and Atimonan One Energy, Inc. It also has a PSA with St. Raphael Power Generation Corp., its joint venture with Consunji-led Semirara Mining and Power Corp.

The others are Panay Energy Development Corp. and Global Luzon Energy Development Corp.

Two of the PSAs are with units of San Miguel Corp. (SMC): Central Luzon Premiere Power Corp. and Mariveles Power Generation Corp.

Asked to comment, SMC President and Chief Operating Officer Ramon S. Ang said he had expected the projects to face difficulty in getting approval because the cost of power under the contracts is between P5-6 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) before increased supply pushed down prices to P3-5 per kWh.

“Give up na ako doon, last year pa na ’di uubra ’yun (I have given up as early as last year that the PSAs will not be cleared),” he said during a briefing after the annual shareholders’ meeting of SMC unit Petron Corp.

Mr. Ang said the Supreme Court ruling will not have any damaging impact on the company, except for opportunity lost.

“And I think everybody will follow, there’s no question,” he said, adding that the company had received a hard copy of the tribunal’s decision. — Victor V. Saulon

Cement makers call for higher safeguard duty

CEMENT manufacturers are seeking a higher safeguard duty on imports, citing “serious injury” from a surge in foreign cement available in the market.

Citing government data in his presentation at the Tariff Commission’s Monday public hearing on the case, Cement Manufacturers Association of the Philippines Executive Director Cirilo M. Pestaño II said cement imports surged 64% to 1.74 million tons in the January to February period from the 1.06 million tons in the same period last year despite the imposition of the safeguard duty mid-February.

“Imports grow despite the safeguards. Our appeal, therefore, is for a higher definitive tariff rate to cure the serious injury,” Mr. Pestaño said.

CeMAP Chairman Renato C. Sunico said the group has not determined a specific rate for safeguard duty

Mr. Pestaño added that depending on imports will compromise the country’s economic gains as traders have lower levels of tax remittance, investment and job generation compared to manufacturers.

“There is reason to believe that this will lead to serious repercussions that will be detrimental to the Philippine economy,” Mr. Pestaño added.

CeMAP is composed of CEMEX Holdings Philippines Inc., Holcim Philippines Inc., Republic Cement Services, Inc., and Taiheiyo Cement Philippines, Inc.

In its road map completed last year, CeMAP expects, cement demand in the Philippines can reach up to 52 million tons or 450 kilos per capita indicating an annual demand growth of about 7% between 2016 to 2025.

The current domestic capacity of all 20 producers is at 34.5 million tons.

CeMAP said during the hearing it cannot provide production figures for the organization as members do not share such data.

Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez has said that domestic capacity is at 35 million tons per year while current demand is at 25 million tons annually.

The road map, done in consultation with the Department of Trade and Industry, noted that imports are necessary to address demand in the short term.

CeMAP said there are cement manufacturers currently undergoing expansion to meet expected demand.

Republic Cement Services, Inc.’s Vice-President for Strategy and Business Development Reinier Dizon said the firm has an ongoing P10-billion investment to upgrade its plants and boost capacity but added the upgrades may take some time and would need support from the government.

The Trade department had imposed a provisional duty of P210 per metric ton of P8.40 per bag due to a surge of imports from 2013 to 2017, in a way that allegedly harmed manufacturers.

The order took effect mid-February and will be implemented for 200 days to allow the Tariff Commission to complete its investigation on whether further protection is needed.

The Tariff Commission gave five days through May 24 to hear stakeholders to determine whether there is a need for the duties. If it rules in favor, the agency can also raise or lower the definitive duty. — Janina C. Lim

NFA restructuring to eliminate at least 839 jobs; new cuts possible

THE Department of Agriculture (DA) said it expects at least 839 employees to be affected on the restructuring of the National Food Authority (NFA).

“There would be a reduction of about 839 employees mainly (in) regulatory and enforcement (functions),” Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol said on Tuesday.

He said that the Governance Commission for Government-Owned and Controlled Corporations (GCG) and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) will decide the details of the severance package.

“The (NFA) Council recommended two options to be decided by the GCG and DBM because… the workers would only receive about 1.5 month of payment for every year of service. But the employees actually pointed out that there is a law which covered the compensation package for BARMM (Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao) and former ARMM (Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao) employees in the creation of the BARMM Law na nagbibigay ng [which gives] 2 months for every year of service,” he said.

APPROVED BUT WITH RESERVATIONS
Mr. Piñol said the restructuring plan was approved in an NFA Council meeting on Tuesday, but the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) have said further restructuring may be needed.

Natanggal ‘yung [Positions removed were] regulatory positions and enforcement positions and there was the clustering of provincial offices. In almost all cases, it would be three provinces to a provincial manager. There was a suggestion from NEDA and DTI to further trim down the number of regions,” he said.

He said the Council also agreed to wait for the results of an independent study before taking further actions.

The NFA lost a number of its importing and regulatory functions under the Rice Tariffication Law, which leaves much of the rice importing function to the private sector. It is now tasked mainly with procuring domestic rice to maintain a buffer stock.

Meanwhile, the NFA has assured that it is fully cooperating with the implementation of the tarification law.

In a statement, Tomas R. Escarez, officer-in-charge administrator of NFA said that even before the signing of the Implementing Rules and Regulations of the law, the agency implemented some self-executing provisions.

The agency has stopped processing documents for rice importation and issuance of rice import permits of private importers, and bids for government-to-government import deals.

On the domestic front, it has stopped licensing and registering grains businesses, monitoring and inspecting rice facilities, and enforcing grains trading rules and regulations, among others.

“Under Rule 3.4 of the IRR, a transition period of ‘at most 60 days’ is allotted to implement NFA’s reorganization to suit its new functions. NFA has 30 days to submit its Restructuring and Reorganization Plan to the Governance Commission for GOCCs for review and approval,” NFA noted in the statement. — Vincent Mariel P. Galang

PhilMech launches RCEF backed rice modernization

THE Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PHilMech) said it formally launched a rice industry mechanization program backed by the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF).

“With the formal launch of the projects and programs under RCEF, we at PHilMech welcome the opportunity to spearhead the modernization of the country’s rice industry through mechanization,” Dr. Baldwin G. Jallorina, director IV of PHilMech was quoted as saying in a statement on Tuesday.

“PHilMech also welcomes its collaboration with the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), Agricultural Training Institute (ATI), Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), the Land Bank of the Philippines and the Development Bank of the Philippines in undertaking the different major components under RCEF,” he added.

The government is required to support the modernization of the rice industry through tariffs collected from more liberal imports of foreign rice, which go into RCEF. The support will come in the form of mechanization, rice planting know-how, seed and financing.

PhilRice will be providing high-yielding inbred rice seed to farmers. ATI and TESDA will be conducting training for farmers and extension workers with the assistance of PHilMech which will provide training modules.

Land Bank of the Philippines and the Development Bank of the Philippines will take on the credit component of the RCEF.

PHilMech expects to decrease the cost of producing palay in the country by P2-P3 per kilo.

“Based on studies by the Department of Agriculture, the cost of producing one kilo of palay (unmilled rice) in the Philippines is P12.72 per kilo while it is P6.22 in Vietnam and P8.86 in Thailand,” PHilMech said in the statement.

“PHilMech believes with the successful implementation of the different components under RCEF, the cost of producing palay in the Philippines can be reduced by P2 to P3 per kilo,” it added. — Vincent Mariel P. Galang

Palace says Huawei threat being studied by Defense dep’t, NSA

MALACAÑANG said Tuesday that the Department of National Defense (DND) and the National Security Adviser (NSA) are currently looking into the United States’ warnings on the use of Huawei phones and telecommunications equipment.

“I suppose the Department of National Defense as well as the National Security Adviser are studying that matter. And the President will be waiting for whatever recommendation they have on that,” the President’s Spokesperson Salvador S. Panelo said in a briefing at the Palace Tuesday when asked to comment on US warnings about technology from Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.

The US government included the Chinese tech firm in its trade blacklist last week. The Alphabet, Inc’s Google also announced recently that it would withdraw Huawei’s license to use its Android operating system.

Commissioner Raymund E. Liboro of the National Privacy Commission (NPC) told reporters in a chance interview: “My impression is China is also concerned about these allegations against their companies operating in their jurisdiction… [on] the technical issues, there will have to be looked into. I think we have the technical capabilities and scientists. We could take the direction of other jurisdictions that have put up technology laboratories to look into technology offers coming from offshore.”

When asked what measures are being taken regarding the security risk allegations against Huawei, he said: “Sa ngayon wala pa. (Nothing yet) But (the issue) is right up our alley. Hindi lang ako kaagad makapag look into it (I haven’t looked at it), but we have data security technology standards (to evaluate them against).”

Pinatitignan ko (I am ordering to look into the matter) our (NPC Complaints and Investigations Division) headed by (Francis Euston R. Acero),” he added, saying that the NPC will take direction from the findings of other jurisdictions.

In a briefing, he said: “We are not the gatekeeper of technologies neither are we the gatekeeper of what can and cannot be done. We are technology neutral. We do not endorse any technology, but neither do we condemn a technology. For a private company like Huawei, they just have to comply just like any company operating here. They have to comply with the law.” — Arjay L. Balinbin

SoKor digital invoicing seen as a model for tax reform

THE Philippines will model parts of tax reform on a South Korean (SoKor) digital invoicing program, the Department of Finance (DoF) said.

“We wish to really start the program by implementing first the electronic invoicing system. We looked around the world and we found that the best electronic invoicing program is in Korea. We wish to adopt it here,” Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III, whose remarks to officials of the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), were quoted in a statement on Tuesday.

The DoF has started implementing the first package of the Comprehensive Tax Reform Package (CTRP) and is aiming to have the other packages passed by the legislative branch in two years.

The Philippines is celebrating the 70th anniversary of diplomatic ties with South Korea.

“We want to express how appreciative we are of the assistance we are receiving from the Korean people through the Korean government. I hope that we can expand our cooperation and this time and for the coming future,” Mr. Dominguez said.

In the same statement, KOICA President Lee Mikyung was quoted as saying that South Korea will increase its assistance to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

“With the new set of policies presented by the Korean government, our volume of assistance to ASEAN countries will be increased by 2.8 times in 2022 compared to that of 2017. That means the volume of assistance to the Philippines will naturally increase,” Mr. Lee said.

Mr. Lee said South Korea’s other initiatives for the Philippines include education, and information and communications technology (ICT), which the Philippines can tap to help drive economic growth. — Reicelene Joy N. Ignacio

Palace orders Agrarian Reform dep’t to break up collective land titles

PRESIDENT Rodrigo R. Duterte has ordered the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to convert “all collective land titles” to individual certificates of land ownership awards (CLOA), according to Agrarian Reform Secretary John R. Castriciones.

In a statement posted on its website Tuesday, DAR said it has issued “some 2.251 million hectares” covered by collective CLOAs of agricultural land, 76% of which was awarded to agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) “who were not actually engaged in collective farming.”

Mr. Castriciones said that this has “affected farmer’s individual property rights” and discouraged them “from making long-term improvements on the land.”

“I don’t blame them,” he added, noting that it is “hard” for those who own part of a collective CLOA “to make decisions” on what crops to plant and how to plan their farms.

“Why? Because you have to consult other farmers and what the majority wants will prevail,” he said.

He added: “This is also the reason why the President wants all collective land titles issued by the Department transformed to individual titles.”

He said separate CLOAs for each farmer-beneficiary would be better “because it enables them to have a clear and defined ownership of parcels of land.”

Mr. Duterte’s directive to break up the collective titles was issued during the 36th Cabinet Meeting held at the Palace last month, according to the DAR.

The President also instructed the department to form a task force that will be responsible for the creation of a program for the “distribution of individual CLOAs from the collective titles and remaining workable balance of agricultural land.”

Mr. Castriciones said, “To accomplish the President’s directive, we have created a separate office that will facilitate the ‘parcelization’ of collective CLOAs into individual CLOAs.”

He added that the office of the Agrarian Reform Title Stabilization (ARTS), which is headed by Undersecretary David D. Erro, will be “forming teams and provide a timeline and guidelines in the implementation” of Mr. Duterte’s order.

DAR added that the President, during the meeting, acknowledged that the conduct of a survey “would require financing.”

“As such, the President said that he will exert all efforts to respond to the required funding for the hiring of surveyors and survey equipment,” the department said, adding that Mr. Duterte has instructed the Secretary of the Department of Finance to “raise funds to support” its program. — Arjay L. Balinbin

Layer chicken industry leads growth in livestock sector in first quarter

THE Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said on Tuesday that most subcategories of the livestock sector reported increased production in the first quarter, led by the egg-laying poultry segment.

The PSA said chicken egg production rose 8.8% to 142,010 metric tons (MT) during the quarter.

All regions recorded increases except Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), and Bicol Region. Davao Region recorded the highest increase of 43.4% to 8,360 MT.

“The three highest producing regions in the first quarter of 2019 were CALABARZON (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon), Central Luzon and Central Visayas. Among the regions, CALABARZON was the top producer of chicken egg at 43.86 thousand metric tons, accounting for 30.9% of the total… This was followed by Central Luzon with 19.8% and Central Visayas with 9.4%. Collectively, these three regions comprised 60.1% of the total chicken egg production of the country,” PSA said in the report.

As of April 1, the total adult female stock of native or improved chicken rose 0.4% year-on-year to 22.64 million birds. The inventory of foreign-strain layers rose 8.4% to 32.78 million birds.

“In January to March 2019, the average farmgate price of chicken egg in commercial farms was recorded at P4.68 per piece. This price was higher by 2.1% from the same period of the previous year’s price level of P4.59 per piece. During the reference quarter, the highest farmgate price was noted in January at P4.73 per piece,” it said.

Broiler chicken production rose 4.3% year-on-year to 459,060 metric tons (MT).

Twelve regions reported increases in production. In Davao Region output rose 24.4% to 19,430 MT.

“Among the regions, Central Luzon was the top producer of chicken at 166.54 thousand metric tons, liveweight, accounting for 36.3% of the total production. This was followed by CALABARZON with 16.8% and Northern Mindanao with 9.1%. More than half or 62.2% of the total chicken produced in the country were from these regions,” PSA said.

“The average farmgate price of broiler chicken in commercial farms from January to March 2019 was P72.86 per kilogram, liveweight. This was 16.8% lower from the previous year’s average price of P87.54 per kilogram, liveweight,” it said.

“During the period, the highest farmgate price was recorded in March at P76.31 per kilogram, liveweight, while the lowest was quoted in January at P68.32 per kilogram, liveweight,” it added.

Hog production in the first quarter of 2019 rose 1.6% year-on-year to 567,420 MT.

As of April 1, the total swine population fell 0.2% year-on-year to 12.73 million heads. Swine in backyard farms fell 1% to 8.06 million head, while stock in commercial farms rose 1.2% to 4.67 million head.

Central Luzon had the highest inventory with 2.1 million head, followed by CALABARZON with 1.57 million, and Western Visayas with 1.26 million.

PSA noted a 2.7% fall to P110.52 per kilogram (kg) in the average farmgate price of hogs for slaughter. The highest price was recorded in February at P111.20 per kg, while the lowest price was recorded in March at P109.76 per kg.

Carabao production fell 2.5% year-on-year to 31,190 MT.

Twelve regions recorded a decrease in production, with the Davao Region posting the largest decline at 7% to 2,400 MT. Western Visayas was the top carabao producer at 5,710 MT, followed by Ilocos Region at 2,610 MT, and the Bicol Region at 2,490 MT.

The average farmgate price of carabao for slaughter in the first three months was P97.67 per kg, 5% lower compared with a year earlier.

“During the quarter, the highest farmgate price was recorded in January at P98.37 per kilogram, liveweight, while the lowest was in February at P96.71 per kilogram, liveweight,” it said in the report. — Vincent Mariel P. Galang

What now, going forward?

Over a week has passed since the dismal, disheartening results of the mid-term elections, for both local and national posts. Having done all that hand-wringing, finger-pointing and resolves to henceforth stay away from politics, it is time for situation analysis. Why did that happen, and what can we do, going forward, to help our people choose better and worthier leaders?

It is obvious that majority of our voters seem to be attracted to media celebrities whether famous or notorious.

As a career teacher, business executive and development management consultant, I found that I usually had to force my work team to think, and to think critically. They had been so used to taking orders and carrying them out without question. I found this to be the case even among college graduates. I think this is the result of an educational system that emphasizes rote learning, memorizing data and feeding them back to the teacher or as answers to test questions. But I have also found that with determination, it is possible to convert a team or corporate culture from a passive, compliant one to a dynamic thinking and doing organization.

Clearly, we need a revolution in our educational system. To start with, we need to attract the best and the brightest among our graduates to spend at least a few years after college as teachers, especially now that college education is available for free. We also need to train our teachers to become skillful at stimulating independent and critical thinking, rather than rote learning among our students. After all, continuing knowledge education is now available on Google. Thinking skills should be emphasized among our students. This calls for extraordinary skills among our teachers. Teacher training should take advantage of “learning methodologies” beyond information “banking.” Therefore we must make teaching as a career worthwhile financially, and not just psychically. Our President has to appreciate this fact. Teachers must be rewarded for their highly skilled and arduous work, certainly more than policemen and soldiers. They are valuable investments in enhancing our human capital. Quality, not just quantity of time spent in school, has to be our focus. Now that we have lengthened basic education; we should use the additional years for sharpening critical and independent thinking, as well as responsible citizenship among our youth.

The other gruesome observation for me is the widespread vote-buying, especially at the local level. Perhaps many LGU candidates also received funding support from national candidates who were generously funded. The success of vote-buying as a campaign strategy signals our dismal citizenship and weak value systems. But also the widespread poverty that every government has known about,but failed to reduce significantly. In the 1970s, Malaysia was a poor country. Today, they have almost zero poverty. And here we are, with about a third of our people suffering involuntary hunger.

Selling their votes means our voters do not seem to think beyond their noses. Some squatters in the neighborhood near my home held a drinking party after the elections. They openly bragged that they were enjoying the reward for their votes.

My fellow activists, we have several choices on what now we can do for our country. We can of course continue to raise our voices to protect our shrinking democratic space as we have been doing. And there have been some constructive results, as we have seen in the bold leadership of super senior public servants Albert Del Rosario and Conchita Carpio Morales who have stimulated more courage and new initiatives on the West Philippine Sea issues.

We can also aggressively advocate radical reforms in our educational system and increasing emphasis on values education and responsible citizenship.

There is much to do in fighting poverty, which is one of the root causes of the continuing dynastic and feudal power structures in our communities. The business community has been making its contributions with its corporate social responsibility initiatives. But it can do much more through job creating investments that impact on poor communities. They can also make significant contributions to enhancing education with donations to the schools, as the Ayalas, Gokongweis and Aboitizes are doing.

Withal, despite our President’s often irresponsible language and shameful behavior on mass media, there are constructive options for helping to build our democracy and helping our flamboyant political system to mature and become more responsible. We just have to keep pushing back to protect our democratic space; and invest time and energy on helping our people to “grow up.” It is getting harder and harder to do these things; but there is still enough space.

We also have to become more knowledgeable and aware of the language and culture gap between our highly educated, Westernized and more prosperous elite. Aspiring and present leaders need to be conscious of this gap and learn how to cross it. After all, we are in reality, a culture damaged by centuries of colonialism.

We can choose to leave things as they are, which means our country and people will become more and more worse off. Or we can choose to be development activists in addition to being political activists. Certainly, if we love our country and our people, or our children and their children, we cannot just give up.

 

Teresa S. Abesamis is a former professor at the Asian Institute of Management and an independent development management consultant.

tsabesamis0114@yahoo.com