Polegov

Major local government units in the region and in some other parts of the country as well are actively implementing their car towing and clamping ordinances. While erring drivers can only whine and scratch their heads, local officials are getting their paychecks for inefficiency if not laughing their way for their negligence. Republic Act 9160 otherwise known as the Local Government Code of the Philippines is clear: Section 16.   General Welfare.  – Every local government unit shall exercise the powers expressly granted, those necessarily implied therefrom, as well as powers necessary, appropriate, or incidental for its efficient and effective governance, and those which are essential to the promotion of the general welfare. Within their respective territorial jurisdictions, local government units shall ensure and support, among other things, the preservation and enrichment of culture, promote health and safety, enhance the right of the people to a balanced ecology, encourage and

The havoc brought about by the recent calamities brings into question the efforts toward disaster risk reduction management. While the government boasts of having enacted the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction Management Act (Republic Act No. 10121), it failed to minimize casualties and injuries that the latest typhoon-turned low pressure area, Usman, resulted to the   death of 85 persons, 20 missing and 40 others injured in Eastern Visayas, Bicol and MIMAROPA in the last few days of December 2018. A similar disaster occurred barely two months ago when Typhoon Ompong ravaged Luzon and Visayas causing 8 2 casualties, 138 injured and two missing . The Philippines consistently ranks third in the World Risk Index. In 2018, the country scored 25.14 next to Tonga's 29.42 and Vanuato's 50.28. Though the figure is slightly lower to its previous year score of 27.69, it is still classified as "Very High". The Philippines likewise scored 49.94 and 50.33 in the Risk Index'

Kan luminangkaw an presyo kan lada asin nagdalagan sa sarong ribo hanggang un mil dosyentos, duminakula man su paglaom ni Manoy Juan na mag-asenso. Kaya nag-arkila siya ki sadit na lote para mag-oma ki lada na ipapabakal. Nag-popoon pa lang mag-tubo su mga tanom niya, buminagsak tulos su presyo na uminabot sa P300 hanggang P500.  (When the price of chili pepper rose to P1 thousand to P1.2 thousand, Manoy Juan’s hope to increase his income grew. So he rented a small farm to plant peppers and sell his produce. His plants were starting to grow when the price dropped to P300 to P500.) The story of Manoy Juan is the story of most farmers. A few years back, when I was doing a study on the political feasibility of the Philippine Rural Development Program (PRDP), I was told that farmers in Western Visayas were encouraged to plant patola or loofah (either  Luffa acutangular or Luffa aegyptiaca/Luffa cylindrica ) because of the information from the Department of Agriculture (DA) that there

Food sufficiency in the Philippines still remain an impossible dream as clearly shown by the actions and policies of the government. When inflation hit 9.7% this September 2018, the immediate response was to flood the market with imported products. That was logical as a “vulcaseal” solution but a bad idea for long term direction. We may be able to address food security temporarily but never food security. Unfortunately, the importation policy will be here to stay. As Agriculture Secretary Manny Pinol clearly stated : "Our food security program requires a ten- to 20 year-forward planning and we're looking at Papua New Guinea as our food security insurance… So if our 3.9 million hectares could feed 95 percent of Filipinos right now, you can just imagine what four million hectares in Papua New Guinea would be able to contribute to our food security program.” First, the vision is only food security not sustainability. Second, food security will be realized not

At the height of the “Hello Garci!” Scandal, Congressman Joey Salceda (2 nd Dist., Albay) jokingly called then-President-and-now-House Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) as the “ luckiest bitch ”. Despite several impeachment complaints, she stood her post and was never removed like convicted plunderer Joseph Ejercito Estrada, or embattled Supreme Court Justice Renato Corona. But was she really a “lucky bitch”? After stepping down from her post as President, she ran for Congress and spent most of her time in hospital arrest. But when the time came that she was acquitted of plunder, she immediately removed her neck brace that symbolized a fragile state not befitting even a minute in prison. This was followed by her rising in power leading to her installation as the new Speaker of the House of Representatives. Could these successive and favorable events just prove her being “lucky”? If GMA is just lucky, the probability of randomness of the events favorable to her is ver