The Blooming Pen

Learning from Richard Branson

2010-11-07T21:30:00.005+08:00

Title: Screw It, Let’s Do It: Lessons in Life and Business (Expanded)

Author: Richard Branson

Virgin Books, 2007

Copying from my sister Joy, I’m writing capsule reviews of the books I’ve read from now on. I finished reading this book today. Bought it in India recently to give to our entrepreneur brother. Ahia said we could read the book first as he was finishing another book.

I read business magazines but not a lot of books on the genre. But Sir Richard Branson’s exploits and business success intrigued me enough to read his book. Branson found and leads the Virgin Group of companies, which owns over 360 businesses from music, airlines, trains, beverages, telecom, money, to space travel. Today Virgin employs over 50,000 people in Great Britain, USA, Australia, and Africa. Forbes 2009 ranked him the 212th richest person in the world. He was knighted in 1999 for his “services to entrepreneurship.”

“Screw It, Let’s Do It” is Branson’s motto. Once he has made up his mind on something, he pursues it relentlessly until he achieves his goal. It’s easy to dismiss him as a product of marketing because he’s the rebel billionaire (the title of his show ala Trump’s The Apprentice), but unlike Trump, Branson’s companies are still healthy and growing. He’s the real deal and is proof that a successful entrepreneur doesn’t have to be stiff and serious. Branson once appeared nude on Times Square with the cast of “Full Monty” (they were all wearing body suits), with only a mobile phone covering their creative parts. The stunt was a promotion for Virgin Mobile in the US with the campaign message “nothing to hide,” or that Virgin Mobile had no hidden costs. Branson knows that he is the face of the company, and is willing to do anything to promote Virgin.

Branson attributes his success to love of what he does. Money helps, and you need money to operate the business. But once your focus becomes money, then you lose sight of values.

Like his attitude to life, Branson’s book is light and fun, one you can read in-between heavy business books. It feels like Branson is talking to you in his island home, a lively conversation perhaps over Virgin Cola.

Like Branson’s management style, the content is not theoretical but practical. The life and business lessons he gives are not new, but he illustrates them vividly by sharing his experiences. He doesn’t admit to success all the time, and tells us why he failed too.

Branson is not a traditional entrepreneur. His foray into space travel via Virgin Galactica is enough to tell you so. He coped with dyslexia and dropped out of school in college to launch his first business, a magazine for students. He stumbled into the music business by accident. Virgin Records was his first major business, naming it “Virgin” because they were virgins in business. (He sold Virgin Records in 2007 to fund Virgin Atlantic Airways.)

The ideas for his next businesses occurred by accident too, from conversations or experiences. Branson saw opportunities and moved fast. He trusts his gut instinct. He hates bureaucracy. He guards against complacency and constantly sets goals for himself. He values innovation and doesn’t like “yes men.” He wants his people to be independent and to think on their own. He doesn’t aim for Virgin to be the world’s biggest company, but to be the most respected.

Another motto of his is “Live life to the fullest.” That’s why he can’t resist daredevil adventures, like being the first to fly on a hot-air balloon from Japan to America, despite landing on the sea the previous attempt.

But he is also practical. He advises to take calculated risks. Don’t take risks in something you can’t control, like the toss of a coin. In putting up a business, ask: “Is there room for me? Can I do it better?” Think first about how your business can survive, not immediately how you can change the world.

Branson now has enough money and influence to change the world, which he's trying to do now. He devotes a chapter to expound on “Gaia Capitalism,” a phrase he coined based on James Lovelock’s Gaia Theory, to describe a holistic approach for businesses to maintain their success while keeping the balance of nature and doing as little harm as possible. He launched Virgin Fuels to develop bio-fuel that his airplanes and trains can use.

Branson also uses his vast network of contacts and businesses to help in major international crises. It’s interesting to read about how he called up King Hussein and Queen Noor of Jordan to help after Iraq invaded Kuwait, his meetings with Nelson Mandela, and what they planned for Saddam Hussein as the threat on Iraq loomed in 2002. The last inspired Branson, along with Mandela and musician Peter Gabriel, to found The Elders. The council is composed of non-political figures with Mandela as founding father, to help avert future conflicts. It sounds like a big idea, but as Branson proves, you can’t achieve big if you don’t dream big.

His top 10 tips:

- You’ve got to challenge the big ones

- Keep it casual

- Haggle: everything is negotiable

- Do the right things for the brand

- Smile for the cameras!

- Don’t lead ‘sheep,’ herd ‘cats’

- Move like a bullet

- Small is beautiful

- Be a common, regular person

Read it for fun and inspiration. To find out how Branson became such a success. For accessible lessons on business and living life to the fullest. Also has insights on parenting, branding a company, and climate change.

Shanghai World Expo 2010 at night

2010-08-23T20:48:00.002+08:00

The weather was cooler that night but still humid. There were fewer people around, but not so few. Lines were still long outside popular pavilions. The Expo sells night tickets for entry from 5 pm until 10 pm, when the park closes.

We had walked our way back to Zone C. We joined the short line at the Chile pavilion. Near the entrance, two Chinese men behind us wanted to jump the line. After a minor misunderstanding (the guard thought it was us girls), we were allowed to enter.

After Chile, we passed by Venezuela and Cuba, which was already closed.

Venezuela Cuba

Romania’s pavilion was like a green apple. Green for ecology, and apple for Romania’s most popular fruit. Like Australia, Romania had a separate souvenir shop, so we bought magnets and keychains.

We walked by more pavilions:

Austria Netherlands

Italy

Luxemborg

United Kingdom. Too long line, could only see the upper LED spikes.

France’s lattice pavilion Sleek Germany

Poland, inspired by their paper-cutting craft Switzerland

Bridge as seen from the Expo

Back to Spain Colorful Serbia

Monaco Finland and Denmark

Latvia Sweden

Greece Ireland

We went inside Turkey, which looked like a museum. Naturally, we bought souvenirs as well.

Norway’s pavilion was constructed using 15 model trees made from Norway's pine trees and Chinese bamboo.

At night, fantastic northern lights shows are staged on the roof of the Norway pavilion via projection.

We passed by Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Bosnia Herzegovina.

Hungary Czech Republic

Bosnia Herzegovina

We were charmed by Belarus’ exterior featuring drawings like those from children’s books. We entered the small pavilion but saw more photo opportunity in the outside decor.

Belarus

It was almost 10 at night, and fittingly, we ended our Expo visit via Portugal – where we started.

Joy and I went inside a total of 15 pavilions and 2 souvenir shops – more than we had expected. Despite the heat and humidity, we walked as far as we could and around the Expo. It was a very long day indeed, but if you want to go inside your choice pavilions, a day is not enough at the expansive Shanghai World Expo.

Can't wait to go home!

Shanghai World Expo 2010 (Part 4): Africa and more pavilions

2010-08-21T21:29:00.007+08:00

It would have been great if we had bought a ‘passport ’ at the Expo. This would have been the best souvenir, and it is one of the reasons people go to as many pavilions as possible – to have their ‘passports’ stamped, without looking around. But it is this same reason that we decided not to get an Expo passport. We knew we’d be tempted to have as many stamps as we could. So we decided to simply enjoy the experience.

We saw more pavilions that afternoon: Lebanon, Morocco, Qatar, UAE, Turkmenistan, Israel, Pakistan, Oman, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Italy, and Luxemborg.

Morocco Lebanon

Qatar United Arab Emirates

Israel Oman

Pakistan Sri Lanka

Israel Luxemborg

China Cultural Center

We entered the Joint Africa pavilion, where smaller African nations had small booths. The circular souvenir area was located at the front, each country having its own stall. For sale were trinkets, bags, wooden plates, perfume, and rock minerals.

Joy and I made sure to buy something from Botswana, being fans of Alexander McCall Smith’s lovely “No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency” series. We bought animal print magnets from the beautiful saleslady.

At the Botswana booth itself, we saw local handicrafts and, proudly displayed on a shelf, McCall Smith’s book.

Other African countries had their own pavilions: Nigeria, Libya, Angola, Algeria, and Tunisia, where we entered from the unguarded exit (shhh) and smelled the sweet perfumes for sale.

Nigeria Algeria

Libya Angola

Tunisia

I would have wanted to go to Egypt but the line was long.

We also saw Slovenia and Argentina. Russia’s was interesting, inspired by a children’s book.


Slovenia Argentina


Russia

We passed by Canada and Mexico. The latter had an interesting design evoking a kite forest. (Click on the photo for more info about the pavilion design.)



Night was falling and the pavilions were starting to light up nicely.

Last: Shanghai World Expo at night

Shanghai World Expo 2010 (Part 3): A visit to the Axis of not-so-Evil

2010-08-21T16:50:00.002+08:00

From Laos and Myanmar, we went to the small pavilion of Iraq. There wasn’t a line outside. We decided to go inside Iraq because it was highly unlikely for us to visit the country ever. The pavilion was the closest we could get.

At the door was a sign: “Greetings from the Arabian Nights’ homeland.” The room was slightly bigger than those of Laos and Myanmar’s. On the left corner was a giant screen showing a cartoon version of the Arabian Nights.

At the center was a large diorama of the ruler Shahryar and his wife Scheherazade, who avoided death at the hands of the king by telling him a tale for a thousand and one nights.

The Arabian Nights theme extended to the souvenirs sold inside the pavilion. May Ann and I couldn’t resist buying a silver necklace with a genie lamp pendant. And the saleslady gave us a larger genie lamp for free with each necklace. (Genie not included.)

I was happy with my purchase. While I may not be able to go to Iraq, at least I have a souvenir from the homeland of the Arabian Nights. Yes, even if it may have been made in China.

At the back of the room was a recreation of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. At its corner was a small enclosed area, a recreation of a regular Iraqi family’s living room. There were two chairs, a sofa, and a table made of wood and rattan. I could imagine the same furniture in the Philippines. The room also had a carpet and pictorial rugs.

What struck me most though were the pictures of a happy family and cute children posted at the wall.

What I had seen in Iraq – and I know that this is a World Expo where every nation puts her best foot forward – was different from what I usually read in the papers. The country began to feel less distant. It became a place with children whose smiles I would like to see more, and families trying to survive.

Enlightened by our visit to Iraq, we decided we’d be happy to go to the pavilions of lesser-known or infamous countries. Since we won’t go to these countries anyway, the Expo would be our chance.

Walking on, we passed by the pavilions of…

Vietnam

Uzbekistan

Kazakhstan (would have been interesting but the line was long)

and Japan’s Hello Kitty pink pavilion. The line would take hours as this is one of the most popular pavilions, along with Saudi Arabia, France, and Italy.

We saw North Korea and Iran beside each other. George W. Bush would have avoided this axis. We were curious, so we joined the quick line and got inside North Korea.

We saw a model of the Juche Tower and photos of scenery in North Korea. On the wall was a sign, “Paradise for People.”

On one end of the room were a few national treasures such as mural from a cave and pottery. For souvenirs, there were flag pins and tea. There were plenty of books by Kim Jong Il, some with English titles from 1990: ‘On the Art of Opera.’ ‘Let us reflect a new upsurge in producing works of revolutionary art and literature.’ ‘Let us create more good music, dances and films congenial to the national sentiments of our people and the aesthetic sense of the times.’

From North Korea, we walked to Iran, which to me was the biggest surprise of them all.

Outside the entrance was a map with a line that connected Iran and China. The door had a huge carving of a king. Above were the words: “Of One Essence is the Human Race, Thusly has Creation put the Base. One Limb impacted is sufficient. For all others to feel the Mace.”

The first thing we saw inside were the faces of Iranian leaders past and present. Next to it was the stone epigraph of Darius the Great ordering the digging of the Suez Canal.

The pavilion was big. At the center was a performance area, and around it people sat and rested. We walked around and I saw vases covered in beautiful woven patterns. Iran boasted its technological innovations, such as the first Iranian home-built satellite and some medical gadgets.

At the second floor, we were impressed by the beautiful Persian carpets and the pictorial rugs, our first time to see such. The rugs are actual paintings duplicated by traditional weaving techniques. It can take years to finish a pictorial rug due to the craftsmanship involved. Prices ranged from 80,000 yuan (flowers) to 6.8 million yuan (three girls).

At the café area, Joy bought a cup of sholeh zard or saffron rice pudding. It was our first time to taste saffron on its own, and not as a spice in food like paella. I still can’t place the taste. It’s neither sweet, salty, or bitter. The rice pudding tasted a bit sweet though, and reminded me of Philippine rice dishes.

May Ann bought saffron ice cream, which was new to the tastebuds as well. Saffron must be common in Iran for them to have snacks using the spice. Iranian saffron is the most expensive spice in the world.

So we could sit at the dining area, I ordered red chai tea. The Iranian man poured red tea on a fancy glass, and served it on a saucer with a cube of sugar. It tasted like other red tea, only less bitter because of the sugar.

We sat and looked down at the band below that had begun to sing. What a difference music makes. The pavilion, which was already buzzing from the people inside, felt even more alive. We sat and listened, happy to have experienced a bit of the best of Iran.

The experience felt even more authentic because Iranians were manning the pavilion. Some Chinese tourists even took photos of the ladies selling souvenirs. (I was one of those tourists.)

Visiting the pavilions of Iraq, North Korea, and Iran brought home to me the message of international fairs like the World Expo: to get to know more of these countries based on the faces they present, and not that of the media or other organization.

They, and not anyone else, represent themselves. They try to please the visitors, foremost the Chinese. The World Expo is about how they see the best of themselves (notwithstanding the budget). The democratic thing is we can see for ourselves this representation from them, and decide on our own.

Next: Africa and more pavilions

Shanghai World Expo 2010 (Part 2): Philippines and Asia

2010-08-20T18:13:00.002+08:00

From six, our Shanghai World Expo 2010 group was trimmed to two, namely, Joy and I. Navigator Joy decided that since we’d be at the Expo the whole day and night, we could return to Zone C later when the European pavilions are all lit up nicely. So we walked to Zone B.

Australia had a long line, which we had no intention of joining. But the pavilion designers were smart: they made separate entrances for the main pavilion and the souvenir and dining area.

So while we weren’t able to go to the pavilion itself, we still had a feel of Australia at its other large hall. More than selling souvenirs and food, the hall was a performance area. At that time, dancers dressed as scuba divers hung from a harness and “swam” as if the hall was the deep blue sea filled with Australia’s underwater wonders.

They even “caught” a member of the audience! (It looked very much staged, of course.)

Near Australia were Thailand, Singapore, and the Philippines.

Thailand

Singapore

Philippines

Certainly we would enter the pavilion of our home country Philippines. We were pleased to see that there was a line outside. We were about to fall in line when a woman’s voice announced: “Paalala lang pos a ating mga kababayang Pilipino. Hindi na po natin kailangang pumila. Pwede na po kayong dumiretso sa pintuan.”

Wow, the advantage of being Filipino! We quickly went to the door beside the entrance. Joy explained to the Chinese man guarding it what we had just heard. The man went inside and a second later, we saw a Filipina. “Pilipino po kami,” we said. With that magic password, we were inside the Philippine pavilion.

The pavilion’s theme was “Performing Cities” (thus the performing hands enveloping the façade). Inside we heard an upbeat song sung by a live band. “Why is the song English?” Joy remarked. In the center was a display of traditional musical instruments. Large photos of tourist spots were hung aroundl.

The mood was festive. A line was forming outside the massage area, just a small room really. The Chinese were willing to wait for an hour for a free 10-minute massage.

The Travel Café dining area was packed, though I did not see food on the tables. The souvenirs area attracted many shoppers. The first thing we saw were Oishi products. Oishi is a big brand in snack food in China, and I learned later that the Chinese were surprised to find that Oishi is from the Philippines. Also sold were native bracelets, keychains, and other trinkets. Bench sold t-shirts from its Proudly Pinoy line.

On another corner of the pavilion was a photo exhibit of mining areas in the Philippines. These were sponsors too of the pavilion.

Some have said that there’s not much to see in the Philippine pavilion. Indeed, I would have liked to see a bigger showcase of the tourist attractions of the Philippines. But I appreciated the festive atmosphere of the place, and I felt it captured a part of what it feels like in our country. Music plays an integral role, and I’m sure it would be livelier when the Tagum City rondalla group performs there in September.

Walking along, we saw the pavilions of our neighbors from the Asia-Pacific, such as Malaysia, Indonesia (looked so refreshing), Cambodia, and New Zealand (looked relaxing too).

Malaysia

Indonesia

Cambodia

New Zealand. The red tree is a Pohutukawa tree, also known as New Zealand Christmas tree.

We walked to Zone A where we entered the Pavilion of City Being. We could not understand the exhibit, which tried to depict a City. We only got so far as the nervous system (transportation). Joy and I spent the next half hour sitting outside, letting our bodies adjust to the warm weather.

Fairly rested, we walked to the elevated pedestrian lane. This turned out to be the ideal place to rest. Since it was elevated to about two stories high, there was a cool wind in the airy space. It was also the place to take a picture of the distinctive roof of the China pavilion.

The roof is made of traditional dougong or brackets, which was widely used in 770 BC-467 BC. In the dougong style, wooden brackets are fixed layer upon layer between the top of a column and a crossbeam. The result is interlocking wooden brackets.

At this point, we met up with May Ann, a friend since my Beijing days. Her office had given her two free tickets to the Expo. She had gone there when PGMA inaugurated the Philippine pavilion, but today was the first time for her to go around the park.

Beside the massive China pavilion is Taiwan’s – small in comparison. In order to get in, one had to have a reservation.

At Zone A, we passed by more pavilions: Nepal, India, Saudi Arabia, and South Korea. At this point, we decided not to enter if we saw the line was long.

Nepal

India

Saudi Arabia and South Korea were popular pavilions. Saudi Arabia’s was shaped like a huge hanging boat and boasted of a 1,600 sq. m. screen inside, one of the world’s largest.

Saudi Arabia

The pavilion of South Korea, or the Republic of Korea, was especially cute and colorful. Its design is inspired by the basic letters of their alphabet. It also has an escalator to go up to their main exhibit area.

South Korea

Along the way, we saw these reminders for polite behavior:

At the Asia Joint Pavilion, we did not see a line, so we went inside to Laos and Myanmar. Theirs was just a room where they showed photos or dioramas of their structures, and handicrafts, mostly wood carvings.

Laos

Myanmar

Next: A visit to the Axis of not-so-Evil

Surviving the Shanghai World Expo 2010 (Part 1)

2010-08-20T15:45:00.007+08:00

I call it “surviving” because after a full day of touring the Shanghai World Expo 2010, that’s how it feels like: an achievement for surviving the heat, crowd, long lines, and huge expanse of the site.

We went to the Expo on July 18, the day after we arrived in Shanghai. It was a Sunday, and we later learned that some 447,000 visitors went to the Expo that day. If we had gone the day before, we would have been welcomed by the biggest number of visitors so far in a day at the Expo – 554,000 literally warm bodies. It was the peak of summer in China.

On the highway from the airport to the hotel, we had seen the Expo parking lot across Huangpu River packed with rows and rows and rows of tourist buses. We also caught a glimpse of the pavilions from above.

The World Expo is open from May 1 to October 31 this year. China expects 70 million visitors at the Shanghai World Expo to make it the most visited World Fair. By the time we went, I think they have had some 28 million visitors. The theme for the international fair is “Better City, Better Life.” We did not fully grasp this theme, that is why we expected the country pavilions to look like tourism showcases. Some did, while others had to be interpreted.

That Sunday, we arrived outside the Expo gates before 9 am, the opening time. Deviating from our instructions, the driver dropped us at Gate 9 near Zone D, which was on the other side of the river from where we wanted to go – Zone C.

Joy, our navigator, opened her map and learned there was a Metro line within the Expo Park. We waited in line under a tent to enter the park. The heat was slightly alleviated by mist sprays. This was a thoughtful and consistent feature around the Expo Park in the queue area outside the different pavilions.

After about 30 minutes, the line started to move. We placed our bags inside the X-ray machine. The gloved inspectors opened our bags and took out our bottled mineral water. We had read in a magazine that mineral water was not allowed inside, but because we could not believe it, we still brought our own. Now it seemed it was true, so we drank our bottles while the inspectors watched us. When our bottles were almost empty, they told us we could go in. We brought our bottles inside. Throughout the walk around the park, we refilled our bottles in water refilling stations. Drinks are also sold inside.

From Gate 9, we rode the MRT to Zone C, where the European pavilions were. The Expo has5 zones distributed across its 5.28 sq. km area. The more than 190 country pavilions are at Zones A, B, and C. Corporate and industrial pavilions are situated at Zones D and E.

At Zone C, the first pavilion we saw was Portugal’s.

The line was short and fast-moving, so we decided to go inside. We got in after five minutes. Inside the air-conditioned pavilion were paintings relating the historical relationship of Portugal and China.

Farther on were some models of the future like an electric car, a performance enhancing swimsuit, and a shirt that could measure your heart rate. At the exit was a souvenir shop, where we bought magnets.

Outside, Papa and Achie wanted to try Portuguese egg tarts. This was for a fee, of course. Joy and I ended up finishing the tarts. They were delicious, but we’re not missing much thanks to Lord Stow.

Walking around, we saw the pavilion of Finland.

Our next stop was the Denmark pavilion. Again, it took us only 5 minutes to get in. In the early days of the Expo, reports said visitors had to wait for hours to enter the Danish pavilion.

Its chief attraction is the famous Little Mermaid statue, removed from its place in Copenhagen port and flown to Shanghai for this Expo. The Expo must mean a lot to Denmark because the Little Mermaid is its top tourist attraction. And they brought it to China for six months.

Denmark’s pavilion was well-designed. It was airy inside and there were slopes up and down. Joy wanted to ride the bicycle but she was told she’d have to fall in line for at least an hour. At the top of the pavilion, we took photos of the view despite the growing heat.

***

After Denmark, we took time to rest and go to the toilet, which was clean and had seats. At the ladies’ toilet, Joy called out, “Chie!”

“Yes, I’m still inside,” said Achie from the stall.

“OK, just checking,” said Joy, who was done. Silence.

“Ako pala?” I called out from my stall.

“Ok,” said Joy. “Dits!”

“What about me, Shob?” said Tikay, who is the only one who calls Joy “Shobe.”

“You too, Tiks!” said Joy.

After re-applying sunblock and powder, we were ready to move on. So far, so good. At Portugal and Denmark, we spent only 25 minutes each from falling in line to exit.

Spain was different. It is one of the most photographed pavilions at the Expo. The unusual design resembles a hand-weaved wicker basket. It is supported by a steel framework. More than 8,000 wicker panels were used, which were handmade by craftsmen in China’s Shandong province.

I think I was the one who wanted to enter Spain because it had just won the World Cup. The line was long but it was moving. We figured it wouldn’t take us long. Inside the snaking line, we felt the weather getting hot and humid. The shade and mist sprays gave only brief relief. Ice blocks were put in some areas beside the line, and I could not help touch the ice to cool myself a little. Aside from battling the heat, we had to protect our place, for some Chinese would just casually jump on the line. This was China, and no one would complain because jumping a line is not a great cause for offense.

Group picture... and the photographer, solo na lang.

It took us 50 minutes to enter Spain. From the white noon heat outside, we had to quickly adjust to the cold, black interiors. The dark was due to the giant video screens reflecting the flamenco dancer onstage and other videos. It was too much for Papa, Achie, and Tikay who had been feeling unwell already at the line. They walked out the exit door across the stage, while Joy and I continued our Spain tour.

There wasn’t much to see in terms of Spain the country. Here was a pavilion that stuck to a theme. Visitors had to have prior information. Like what is that giant baby for at the end of the room?

It turns out that Spain’s theme is “From the City of Our Parents to the City of Our Children.” That explains the videos of babies and the giant smiling baby.

Outside, our companions were recovering from heatstroke. They were not the only ones affected. On average, there are around a hundred people who suffer from heatstroke at the Expo, which has a clinic.

Papa decided he would not go on with the Expo. “It’s too stressful,” he said. Achie, Tikay, and John had had enough as well. It was too hot and they were getting old. That put an end to any plans of a second day at the Expo. Joy and I would stay and go around the Park as far as we could that day.

We had lunch at a German beer-themed restaurant. The food was average, the service less. But we were seated comfortably in a cool place.

After lunch, our companions left and returned to the comforts of the Park Hotel in Nanjing Road. Joy and I took it slower that early afternoon, more mindful of the weather and our bodies. We decided to choose more wisely the pavilions we would go to, since we did not want to feel sick by frequently going into cool pavilions and out to the midday heat.

Next: Philippines and Asia

Shanghai World Expo 2010 photo slideshow

2010-08-13T12:06:00.001+08:00

Finally finished uploading my photos from the Shanghai World Expo 2010. My family went to Shanghai last July. Weather at the Expo was very hot. The mist sprays helped, but not too much. Long lines, so many people, but interesting pavilions. I'll write a longer piece on our visit to the Expo. For now, enjoy the slideshow! To see the captions, click the "Show info" link on top right of page.

Warning: many photos! Also, Flickr slideshow doesn't show the captions. If you want to view the captions, please click the Flickr link, Slideshow, and 'Show Info' at the top-left of the photo page. Enjoy!

Promising day

2010-06-30T21:30:00.022+08:00

Today our new president took his oath and started his first day of office. I hope I could bottle this hope and inspiration and open it from time to time when disillusionment strikes. But I’m positive, and hopeful, that the country will be in a better place six years hence. It’s not the president alone who needs to shape up. It’s every Filipino. “If there is no corruption, there is no poverty.” Everyone wants change. But are people willing to give up their corrupt habits for that change?

***

Today was a holiday, and I got to do my favorite things for the soul.

After watching the live coverage of the presidential inauguration, I went to the Brahma Kumaris center for an afternoon program on “Harmonizing Relationships.” I always learn something from BK’s public programs. They’re practical and I am reminded of things I have forgotten. Some insights:

- Like in music and dance, harmony is present when there is coordination, flexibility, mastery, flow, and natural movement. The music is in tune and each performs his own role.

- The immediate result of feeling out of harmony is discontent. The immediate result of harmony is peace.

- Harmony in relationships has four levels: harmony with one’s self, others, nature, and God.

- Harmony with one’s self is the foundation. When we take the time to fill ourselves with power from silence, we achieve clarity.

- Our origin is not sin, but goodness. We are full of virtues. Our soul knows inherently the truth.

- We find harmony with others when we learn to accept them as they are. We don’t have expectations of others and do not fall into the “victim consciousness.” I am the master of my soul, a catalyst, a benefactor.

- Instead of trying to change others, change myself first. A simple story: One of the attendees shared that before, she could not get through to her son. He would just stare at them and not react or say a word. Gradually, she and her husband changed their approach. Instead of shouting at him or calling him in a strong tone, they became more kind and used a more melodious tone. Their son began to open up to them. “I realized it was very simple,” said the mother. “Even at work now, I feel more peaceful and avoid confrontations.”

- A slogan of BK: “When we change ourselves, the world changes.”

At the end of the session, we were given “blessings” or notes with an affirmation or blessing. Mine was: “You like to remain in solitude and enjoy the company of God.”

I took this as a gentle reminder to meditate and spend time in silence.

This is what this blog is supposed to be, renamed for the nth time. A way for me to tend to the garden of my soul. I write as a creative outlet. I write this to express myself. Should anyone find a nugget of this blog enlightening, I am happy to help.

***

After the sharing program, I went to Victoria Plaza, where a used books sale was ongoing. From food for the soul to food for the mind. But books feed the soul too, and I feel that books are my dearest friends.

I buy more books than I can read, but I’ve become more selective now. I buy books that interest me. I don’t trust critics that much, but if I’m unsure of a choice, the blurbs help. I like scanning at used books because they’re cheaper, and that makes me freer to experiment. I’ve discovered some of my most favorite books through this bazaar.

Tonight I added the following to my unending pile of to-reads:

1. The Swiss Family Robinson, Johann David Wyss. I like classic adventure stories.

2. The Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan. A classic, but not all classics appeal to me. I usually read the first words of a book, and this one captivated me:

As I walked through the wilderness of this world, I lighted on a certain place where there was a den, and laid me down in that place to sleep; and, as I slept, I dreamed a dream.

3. The Herb Book, John Lust. Appealed to my tree-hugger side and interest in natural remedies. I should look for herbs to combat tonsilitis, a frequent ailment of mine this past year.

4. The Dead Sea Cipher, Elizabeth Peters. My favorite author! Her Amelia Peabody series is my favorite. I also saw Curse of the Pharaohs from that series, but I already have it. I hope someone will buy it and enjoy it as much as I did. Cipher is not a Peabody novel, but I miss Elizabeth Peters. The locale should also be interesting.

5. Body and Soul, Anita Roddick. I hope to be inspired reading about how she found and built the Body Shop business and philosophy.

6. Archaelogy 5/E: A Brief Introduction, Brian M. Fagan. A college textbook but it doesn’t read like one. Thanks to CW Ceram’s Gods, Graves, and Scholars and Amelia Peabody for this interest in archaeology. Who knows, this could be a helpful textbook when I attempt to write my first adventure novel

I also bought a March 2010 issue of Color magazine, my first, “for collectors of fine photography.” No harm experimenting.

After I buy new books, I stamp the first page with my Chinese name seal, write my name, and the date I bought the book. My older brother has his own habit. He writes on the last page the date he finished the book.

Only two weeks ago, I went to the same used books sale and bought these books:

- The Reckoning, David Halberstam. Should be an interesting read, about the clash of America’s Ford and Japan’s Nissan. And Halberstam is a great journalist.

- Washington, The Indispensable Man, James Thomas Flexner. Bought this primarily for W, but if he doesn’t like it, I wouldn’t mind reading it myself. I like biographies that read like stories, not academic tomes.

- The Book of Five Rings: The Real Art of Japanese Management, Miyamoto Musashi. A few pages into this book on Zen, and I’m learning a lot. Unfortunately, that’s not the same as having applied it already.

- Shakespeare Alive! Joseph Papp and Elizabeth Kirkland. Looks like an accessible telling of the times and customs in London at Shakespeare’s time.

- Emily of New Moon, LM Montgomery. If I go to Canada, I will go to Prince Edward Island, home of my beloved Anne of Green Gables. Emily is not Anne, but I like LM Montgomery.

- Words to Live By, Eknath Easwaran. Daily doses of spiritual lessons.

***

These words out, I feel much better now

Billboard war in Davao City

2010-05-06T17:37:00.003+08:00

Mud-slinging and pointed remarks abound in this year's campaign for local leadership in Davao City. House Speaker Prospero Nograles, running for Mayor, was first to put up billboards that said, "Change is coming" or "Change we need, change we must." Weeks later, his opponent's camp, Vice Mayor Sara Duterte, installed billboards countering Nograles: "Change? What for? We have the best!"

I think this exchange captures the competition in Davao City. Do people want change or not? We'll find out in Monday's election.

Probing the Supreme Court

2010-04-14T16:18:00.003+08:00

Writing Shadow of Doubt: Probing the Supreme Court was no doubt Marites Dañguilan Vitug’s most difficult book. From research to writing to printing and distribution, she encountered obstacles that would have discouraged the faint-hearted. A respected journalist, Vitug wrote the book out of that journalistic instinct to lift the veil over an institution that is rarely written about.

“The Supreme Court has quite an awesome power,” she said at the launching of her book in Ateneo de Davao, April 7. “It has a quiet kind of power derived from its mystique, silence, and culture of secrecy.”

Little is known about the people and workings behind the Supreme Court. But as readers will learn in Vitug’s book, that knowledge will inspire not so much confidence but doubt, questions, and distrust. We learn about justices who violate the code of conduct, who flip-flop on decisions without solid basis, who decide cases based on personal loyalty.

Integrity, character, and leadership are words Vitug repeats throughout the book. For as the ‘last bulwark of democracy,’ the Supreme Court is expected to zealously guard the Constitution and the public interest.

Shadow of Doubt is timely especially with Malacañang’s insistence to appoint the next Chief Justice despite a constitutional ban on presidential appointments two months before election. In an unpopular decision, the Supreme Court ignored an earlier ruling and allowed Arroyo to appoint the next CJ.

Vitug wrote her book with a plan to publish it before the election so that judicial reform will be a priority issue. Anyone who has read Shadow of Doubt will realize the importance and necessity of reforms in the judiciary. One hopes the next President as well as next Chief Justice will put institution above selfish interests.

***

Some readers might be uneasy about the book’s lack of names as sources. This is not an uncommon practice in journalism, especially when sources do not want to be named, but it will disturb lawyers looking for absolute proof.

Indeed, when Vitug was invited to speak before lawyers of SyCip Salazar Gatmaitan & Hernandez, the country’s largest law firm, she was cross-examined by one lawyer. For one, how did she know her source was trustworthy? Vitug felt very tired after that grilling.

“Journalists and lawyers operate differently,” she said. Journalists experience the world second-hand and spend a lot of time talking to sources. Lawyers look for evidence that can stand in court.

Vitug is a journalist, and her writing style makes it easy for the layman to understand the issue and why it matters. Like the boy who squealed on the naked Emperor, you can’t look at the Supreme Court and its justices the same way again.

That’s why Vitug’s original publisher and distributor backed out after their lawyers read her manuscript. Her organization, which publishes the online magazine Newsbreak, took over as publisher. Vitug found another printing press. True to the delicate operation it was, the printer agreed to drop off the books at separate locations.

You won’t find Shadow of Doubt in the country’s largest chain of bookstores, but in Fully Booked and other small bookstores. You can also order from the Newsbreak website.

The book has gained both positive and critical reviews, but that is not surprising considering the nature of Vitug’s topic. “I think the libel suit (by SC Justice Presbitero Velasco) and (threatening) text messages are because this is the first time a book about the SC has come out,” she said.

Finding sources was not easy. Vitug covered the military and defense beat for years, and found the judiciary the same – secretive and hierarchical. Some spoke openly but did not want their names mentioned. She had to earn their trust. She double-checked information with different sources. She wrote letters to justices; some did not reply. Some sources were reluctant to speak. “Maybe others will not talk to me after this book,” she said.

The high court holds its mystique because they release little about themselves. “It would help reporters covering the judiciary if the Court is more transparent with their records,” said Vitug. For one, the SC does not share its financial records with the Budget Department.

Perhaps the Supreme Court wants to protect its reputation by hiding its internal workings and defects under a thick carpet. But these things have a way of coming out, much like the child abuse cases the Roman Catholic Church now confronts. Always, the best protection and assurance of reputation is good conduct and utmost integrity, not by attempting to hide wrongs.

“Transparency breeds trust” is a guiding principle in Vitug’s book. The aim is to make the public vigilant about what happens in the Court. Likes priests in robes, justices have to be scrutinized. After all, an effective judiciary is a prerequisite for a country to truly develop. The unfortunate state of the Supreme Court is a reflection of how much our country needs leaders of character and integrity.

Presidentiables discuss issues in Quiboloy’s forum

2010-03-09T23:54:00.004+08:00

Religious leader Pastor Apollo Quiboloy and six presidential candidates gather for photos after the Sukatan 2010 Presidential Forum, March 9, 2010 in Davao City. The forum was organized by the Sonshine Media Network International. Attending the forum were Bro. Eddie Villanueva, environmentalist Nicanor Perlas, former president Joseph Estrada, Sen. Jamby Madrigal, Sen. Richard Gordon, and former defense secretary Gilbert Teodoro.

RELIGIOUS aphorisms and terminology were abundant when presidential candidates convened in Davao City on March 9 for the first presidential forum organized by a religious group.

The “Sukatan 2010” forum by Sonshine Media Network International, the media arm of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ group, gathered at least 2,000 people from various sectors who listened to six presidential candidates.

Former president Joseph Estrada, senators Richard Gordon and Jamby Madrigal, former defense secretary Gilbert Teodoro, environmentalist Nicanor Perlas, and religious leader Bro. Eddie Villanueva attended the forum which ran for more than two hours. Senators Noynoy Aquino and Manny Villar initially confirmed attendance but backed out at the last minute. (See related story.)

Kingdom of Jesus Christ leader Pastor Apollo Quiboloy said the forum was a venue for the public to know the candidates’ stand on issues. “We (should) not only look at personalities but issues. Issue-based ang ating arguments, not personality-based.”

The panel of Sonshine Media executives posed a wide range of questions on government policies and current events. No religious issues were raised but the candidates could not help using terms usually associated with religion.

Madrigal invoked good and evil on her decision to run for presidency. She said reforms will follow once leadership has spiritual, moral, and ethical values. She also compared herself to David battling Goliath. “We may be lesser in surveys but we are probably stronger in faith… In the end it is all God’s will.”

Perlas emphasized the need for “inner change and spiritual grounding.” He said, “I ran despite all odds because I want to ensure that God’s will is followed against all odds.” Later he described pork barrel as a “money temptation… It’s time to turn stone into bread.”

Villanueva, a pastor and evangelist for 31 years, said his governance would be anchored on justice and truth for a “zero-corruption Philippines.” He cited later the biblical Joseph who set up food banks to secure food in the land.

Gordon, Teodoro, and Estrada stuck to practicalities. Gordon said he would eradicate corruption; boost tourism, agriculture, and information technology; and raise the salaries of teachers and barrio doctors.

Teodoro batted for early childhood literacy training and education reforms, more infrastructure projects, sustainable peace, and universal participative health care.

Estrada said he would focus on peace and order, food security, and eradicating graft and corruption.

The forum was moderated by election lawyer Atty. Romulo Macalintal and aired live on the Sonshine channel worldwide. The audience was a mix of members from the local government, military, non-government organization, private sector, and Kingdom followers. Also in the audience were Gordon’s running mate Bayani Fernando and Villanueva’s vice president Perfecto Yasay. Davao City councilors also attended the forum.

Issues

The candidates presented their solutions to a variety of issues. On how they would handle the energy crisis in the first 100 days, all candidates said power barges should be used. Madrigal and Perlas pushed for environmental conservation and use of alternative energy. Gordon and Teodoro said they would study the creation of a nuclear plant as long as it is safe. Villanueva will order a review on the EPIRA law and a study on the return of regulatory powers to government over the oil industry.

On ensuring food security despite El Niño, the candidates promoted agricultural modernization. Estrada and Perlas said the solution was irrigation. Villanueva, Teodoro, Madrigal, and Gordon said help must be given to farmers. Teodoro said government must “know the accurate count of shortfall. Don’t over-report.” If there really is a shortfall, then government should import.

The candidates had different stands on whether or not to abolish the pork barrel, seen as a major source of corruption. Pushing for the abolishment of pork barrel were Madrigal, Estrada, and Perlas. Madrigal said the funds would instead go to farmers, fishermen, small entrepreneurs, education, and social services. Estrada said, “Congressmen are elected to enact laws, not projects.” Perlas said pork barrel was the reason many party lists are being established.

Gordon said one should think hard before abolishing pork barrel. How it is spent should be transparent and published. Villanueva said he would establish a Bantay Pork Barrel that would examine the budget by line.

Teodoro said any public expenditure is also subject to corruption. Pork barrel helps as a bridging tool to poor places which use the funds for social services. The proposal and its consequences have to be studied.

Peace and progress

On armed conflict and poverty, Estrada said the next Commander-in-Chief should have a strong will. He cited his all-out war against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) after they broke their agreement. “I’m not a war-freak,” said Estrada. But the secessionist movement has gone on for so long. “Government must negotiate from a position of strength… Enough is enough.”

Gordon blamed lack of governance as the cause of rebellion. Education and economic help are new solutions to the problem.

Teodoro said peace paradigm should be institutionalized. The law should be enforced against violators.

Madrigal said she would demilitarize Mindanao and put more agricultural subsidies. Perlas said poverty must be tackled systematically. Villanueva challenged rebel groups to give their legitimate demands and his party would give full support.

Criticisms

Despite the moderator’s opening comments that the forum be positive and devoid of tension, some candidates managed to criticize their opponents.

Estrada frequently looked at Macalintal whenever he talked about his term being cut short by Macalintal’s “boss,” President Arroyo. Macalintal said he is not a lawyer of the administration and is not connected with the government.

On campaign donors, Gordon said his friends know not to expect anything from him in return. “Do you really believe that if a candidate spends so much money on a campaign, he won’t try to get it back If you do, talagang mahina na tayo.” Gordon recently accused Villar’s camp of trying to buy him to withdraw his candidacy and signature from the Senate’s C5 report against Villar. Villar denied the accusation.

Madrigal said she would kill nepotism. “I will not allow my relatives to serve in public office.” She will jail any of her relatives who do not pay taxes. “I know them,” she said.

A slight tension was felt when Perlas talked about his experience battling corruption. “Pardon me,” he said and looked at one candidate, “including corruption during Erap time.” The crowd chuckled but Estrada did not look amused. After Perlas was done, Estrada asked what corruption he was talking about, but Macalintal said firmly that rebuttals were not allowed.

By the end of the forum, Teodoro noted this election was the widest information-driven campaign in the country, with several presidential forums and constant media coverage. But voters must not rely on these alone. “Voters must themselves examine candidates,” he said. “Don’t just rely on what we say. Judge for yourselves.”

Former defense secretary Gilbert Teodoro

Former president Joseph Estrada speaks while senators Richard Gordon and Jamby Madrigal listen during the Sukatan 2010 Presidential Forum

Quiboloy to Aquino, Villar: Where’s your word of honor?

2010-03-09T23:44:00.001+08:00

Religious leader and founder of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ movement Pastor Apollo Quiboloy

“Commitment is your word of honor. When you fail to fulfill your commitment, you have no word and you have no honor.”

Religious leader Pastor Apollo Quiboloy of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ opened his group’s presidential forum on March 9 with these critical words aimed at Sen. Benigno Aquino III, who backed out at the last minute. Quiboloy was equally disappointed with Sen. Manny Villar, who confirmed attendance but failed to show up.

The Sukatan 2010 Presidential Forum of the religious group’s Sunshine Media Network International was originally scheduled for February 11. But Aquino’s group requested for another date citing conflict of schedule. When the organizers told them to choose the date, Aquino chose March 9.

But the day before the forum, Quiboloy said Aquino and his group called saying he might not be able to come. Quiboloy read an email from the senator who said he was advised by his physician to avoid travel by aircraft for two days due to barosinusitis.

Barosinusitis is defined by MedicineNet as “sinus troubles, particularly with pain, due to changing atmospheric pressures, as when going up or down in a plane.”

Sen. Manny Villar gave no reason for his absence despite arriving in Davao City in the morning. Call time for the candidates was 2 pm and even then Villar’s group told Quiboloy’s staff that the senator was on his way. He never showed up.

Former president Joseph Estrada was late due to aircraft repairs in Manila.

The wait for Estrada and Villar caused the forum, scheduled at 3 pm and aired worldwide through the SMNI network, to be delayed a half hour. Estrada arrived at 4:30 wearing shades.

Aside from Estrada, the Sukatan Presidential Forum was attended by Senators Richard Gordon and Jamby Madrigal, former Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro, environmentalist Nicanor Perlas, and religious leader Bro. Eddie Villanueva. JC delos Reyes declined from the start.

It was the candidates’ second forum in Davao City for the day, having attended another at the Ateneo de Davao University in the morning. Aquino, Villar, and Estrada did not attend the Ateneo forum.

Quiboloy thanked the candidates who attended the forum. He said voters should look at issues and not personality.

Interviewed by reporters later, Quiboloy said he found Aquino’s reason “shallow,” based on the pastor’s own standards of leadership. “Kung ako may sipon lang, may commitment ako malayo pa, I am a presidential candidate, it is only death that can prevent me from going,” he said.

Quiboloy said he will announce his choice for president on his birthday on April 25. The Kingdom of Jesus Christ has six million members, with more than three million able to vote.

“We will study all their answers to the issues thrown at them (from the forum),” he said. “From there we can see the quality of the next president.”

Asked if the absence of Aquino and Villar would affect his consideration of them as president of choice, Quiboloy said, “Malaking bagay sa amin yun. When you honor your commitment, you honor not only one person. Look at these presidential candidates, they also cancelled their commitments. They also have commitments and it’s unfair to them. And we also have our own commitments. We cancelled them for a month. And so it’s unfair to me. It’s unfair to them, it’s unfair to all of us, and it’s unfair to the Filipino people.”

Quiboloy said his group will next organize a vice presidentiable forum.

Davao through a German photographer's eyes

2010-03-06T18:54:00.000+08:00

Davao City is the subject of an exhibition by German photographer Ingar Krauss in San Francisco, USA. His images depict people and things of everyday life. I'm fascinated by how a foreigner sees my hometown. And after seeing a selection of his photos on his site, I saw a different side of the city's inhabitants. Common things for me like the nipa hut, rooster, and carabao seemed unusual to Krauss by the very fact of their inclusion in the exhibit.

Krauss' pictures on Davao have been exhibited in Leipzig, Rome, Milan, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin and Bari.

Krauss describes Davao City as "a paradox: on one hand it is the second largest city of the Philippines and at the same time it is in large part still dominated by agriculture and a rather rural life."

More information at the Goethe Institute San Francisco website.

On forums, perception, and real change

2010-03-05T09:52:00.003+08:00

Is Davao City really interested in a mayoral forum? I began wondering so when, mid-way into the forum at the Ateneo de Davao University last week, students and guests gradually left the auditorium even as the candidates were still speaking. I don’t know if they were bored, apathetic, or rude.

By the time the forum ended, left in the audience were the organizers, supporters, and a handful of students and media. The mayoral forum, organized by the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and Ateneo, did not receive much attention in the media. It was overshadowed by the homemade bombs at City Hall and Central Bank, found – intentionally or not – at precisely the same time three candidates attended the first-ever mayoral forum.

Perhaps the lack of interest was because only one of the attendees was a serious candidate. Let’s be clear: I’m referring to Speaker Prospero Nograles, not to Roger Buenzon and Rodrigo Sulamin. The news prior to the forum was about Vice Mayor and mayoral candidate Inday Sara Duterte declining to attend.

Like many voters, I wished Sara had joined the forum. As the IBP pointed out, this was not a debate but a forum. The best speaker may not necessarily lead or win the coveted post. If this were so, Gibo Teodoro and Richard Gordon should be the top presidential contenders by now.

Only in this election do we have an abundance of forums that gather presidential candidates. The forums that are televised and cater to businessmen have been well-attended. Manny Villar, initially allergic to these gatherings, finally realized he should show up.

That we have a number of presidential forums can be taken as a positive sign of our growing political maturity as a nation. But we will only know for sure once the last vote is counted.

One can interpret the disinterested reaction on the local mayoral forum in a number of ways: lack of political maturity, apathy on the electoral process, or unpopularity of the candidates.

Why are forums important? They exemplify democracy in this country. The fact that rival candidates can gather together peacefully and share their plans demonstrates freedom of speech. Granted, forums are too short to get to know the candidates well enough. But they provide a glimpse of how quick they think, respect for the audience by their very presence, and subtle clues from body language such as confidence and bearing.

Forums are important because they give equal opportunity to candidates. We don’t see print and TV ads of presidential candidates Nick Perlas and JC de Vera but at forums they are given the same time as the more popular Noynoy Aquino and Manny Villar. That allows the audience to know the plans, priorities, and opinions even of less popular and less moneyed candidates.

A sophomore student at Ateneo was one of a handful who finished the mayoral forum. “I stayed because I have to hear something,” Jed told me. “We already hear Duterte on TV. I wanted to hear what Nograles has to say.”

He was disappointed that Mayor Duterte did not show up.

“Why did you expect the mayor to show up when it’s Sara running for mayor?” I inquired. He paused. “Bitaw no, si Sara man diay mudagan (Yeah, that's right, it's Sara running),” he exclaimed. He was disappointed she didn’t show up.

Jed’s friend, Caren Joy, said it would have been nice to hear from Sara, her preferred candidate whom she has read in the news. But after listening to Nograles, she saw that “he has knowledge and capability.” The Speaker’s observations about what he called a “very expensive failure” that is the waste segregation program of the city struck a chord with Caren. She goes home late in the evening and sees two to three open dump trucks in the streets. The smell, she said, is very foul.

Jed wants a mayor who can answer how the city’s money is being spent, someone who will put an end to insurgencies and summary killings. Caren wants a mayor who can help the poor and make Davao more competitive.

***

This is a pivotal year for Mindanao’s biggest city. For two decades we have been ruled by Mayor Duterte. With him unable to run again, we choose whether to continue under his leadership through his daughter Sara or change to a completely new one under Nograles.

For proof of how contested this election is, only look at how the campaign is turning more negative each day. Frankly I wouldn’t mind if the accusations are based on issues, not personality; on truth, not lies; on hard evidence, not imagination.

The difficulty is that speaking against one automatically creates the impression of being a lapdog of the other. But no, to speak against Duterte does not make one pro-Nograles. To speak against Nograles does not make one pro-Duterte. Politics should be about issues.

But in the Philippines, politics is heavily based on personalities. Perception counts. Nograles suffers from a reputation as a traditional politician. Sara, for all her initiatives, will be voted primarily because she is her father’s daughter.

A critical look reveals a criticism on one can be thrown at the other. Trapo? Aren’t the Dutertes – father as mayor, daughter vice mayor, son councilor – exhibiting the traditional political behavior of dynasty-building? And Karlo Nograles, for all his initiatives, will ride on the coattails of his father in his run for Congress.

Both promise change, but will it be true, positive change? The youthful Sara will be a change from her father, but with him as vice mayor, how much different will she be?

Nograles is change after 21 years of Duterte leadership, but the trapo tag weighs him down.

Real change will come if the people of Davao truly want it. That’s why it’s important that voters do own research. Don’t base your decisions simply on media reports and hearsay. Get both sides of the issue. Be pro-active. Don’t allow yourself to simply be fed information. Look for it. Think critically. Be able to justify your choice.

Ateneo students Jed and Caren Joy are good examples. Both are first time voters. Both are still weighing whom to vote. “After all,” said Caren Joy, “I’m voting not only for myself but for the future of Davao City.”

More than good food at Bon Appétit

2010-02-28T13:10:00.002+08:00

Published at M Magazine, vol. 3 no. 1

By Debbie A. Uy

Tagum City is a place you'd hardly expect to serve fine dining fare, but with its rapid growth has come good news to foodies: a charming French-European restaurant right in the heart of the City of Palm Trees.

Frenchman Yves Monestier and his Filipina wife Rosalie Garillos opened Bon Appétit in October 2008 with the aim of sharing the French cuisine and dining experience to the people of Tagum. But even customers from as far as Davao City are drawn to Bon Appétit’s bestsellers: coq au vin (chicken stewed in wine), carbonara, grilled tenderloin, quiche lorraine, seafood soup, lentil soup, tarte aux pommes (apple pie), and petits pots de crème au chocolat (small pots of chocolate cream).

Bon Appétit serves candle-lit dinners in the small courtyard outside the Monestiers’ apartment. It’s like being invited for dinner with a French family, where food, wine, and friendship are served under a canopy of stars. There is French radio and TV to complete the familial atmosphere.

The result is a memorable experience on what is French, authentic, and intimate. In Bon Appétit, Yves and Rosalie recreate proximity and authenticity in the dining experience. The chef-owner, Rosalie, cooks in her small kitchen with only one assistant. Her husband, Yves, serves guests and entertains them.

“Ours is not a traditional restaurant with a big kitchen and dining area,” says Yves. “We recreate here the ambiance of a French terrace or Italian trattoria.” Indeed, people who have traveled to Europe and partaken of dinners al fresco fall in love with Bon Appétit because it brings back pleasant memories.

Yves and Rosalie met in 2001 in Paris where Yves was an IT project manager and Rosalie the cook of an Italian ambassador. Rosalie had always liked cooking but she became a chef by accident: the diplomat had a dinner party, showed her some recipes, and asked her to cook. The result was very good such that Rosalie became in charge of the thrice weekly dinner parties. In the process she mastered Italian and American cooking. She says, “In my heart, I wanted to cook, that’s why I learned fast.”

After marrying Yves in 2002, Rosalie mastered French cooking from her mother-in-law. The Monestier family has a tradition of cooks and eating. Yves’ great-grandparents were caterers, his grandfather a gourmet, his uncle a restaurant owner, his mother an excellent cook, and Yves himself a gastronome.

In mid-2007, the couple and their two young daughters moved from France to Tagum where Rosalie grew up. “It was a choice of life,” says Yves. “In France, unless you’re very rich, you spend your life working. Everything is expensive. Life was stressful. Here in Tagum, it’s relaxing. I can walk, bike. It’s a full life. I can see my kids.”

Yves and Rosalie started with an Internet café business, which they later sold. While looking for a place to live, they saw an apartment with an inner courtyard. “I like good food and good wine. We had an idea to use the place and share the spirit of French cuisine to Tagumeños,” says Yves. Bon Appétit’s first customer was Tagum City Mayor Rey Uy and his family. Rosalie remembers that first day clearly: 20 minutes after the arrival of the city’s VIP, there was a brownout. But she managed to cook and impress her customers, now among her loyal clients.

Rosalie also can’t forget the summer of 2009, when she and Yves climbed Mt. Apo to cook for Tourism Secretary Ace Durano. He wanted to celebrate his birthday atop the country’s highest peak. Despite the cold temperature and strong wind, the couple whipped up hearty fare like carbonara, and coleslaw cooked with wine and beer.

Down in Tagum, most of the restaurant’s suki are Filipinos. Bon Appétit keeps their menu fresh and exciting by changing it every Tuesday. A set menu consists of an entrée, main dish, dessert, and a glass of wine – all for P600. For those who know their food, that is a very good deal.

Yves and Rosalie are proud to use local ingredients. Tenderloin beef comes from North Cotabato, lamb from Sto. Tomas, fresh greens from Eden, and goat cheese from Malagos.

“Local ingredients are fresh and cheap,” says Yves. “We French like to go to the market. The fresher, the better. That’s what we look for: freshness and quality. Imported doesn’t necessarily mean better. It’s not because we are a foreign restaurant, we won’t use local products. It’s our duty to promote the product of the Philippines.”

Yves is certainly at home here (“Tagum is safe, safer than Paris. I like to see my kids growing up here”) and is grateful for the hospitality of the people. Like any other business, their restaurant has its share of good and lean days, and plans for expansion depend on the right time. As Yves tells it, it’s not money that drives them.

“Our purpose is to have pleasure and be a little ambassador of my country in a place that is still developing. I do my best to make people feel that they are in Paris,” he says. “We don’t give people only food. We try to give them a dream and an experience.” A graduate of Fine Art History from the Ecole du Louvre, Yves will gladly share with you stories of Paris. His passion in art has led him to organize art film showings in Bon Appétit.

Yves is as excited about Filipino talent. He plans to hold an art exhibit in their restaurant in January featuring artists from Sto. Tomas with works ranging from expressionist, symbolist, to surrealist. “Maybe people will be surprised, but I want to try. I want to promote Filipino products and artists,” he says. “We are integrated in the Philippines and we are proud to promote Filipinos.”

Yves’ genuine love for his new country and Rosalie’s kitchen talents have earned them more than just customers. Rosalie smiles and says, “What we’re happiest about is through Bon Appétit, we’ve made many friends.”

And that’s what food is really all about.

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Bon Appétit is located at 1381 Sobrecarey Street (beside GSIS), Tagum City. Tel. (084) 370-1388. Open Tues-Sat, 6-11 pm. http://resto-bonappetit.com/

Dinner with the President: GMA on roads, VAT, MinDA

2010-02-21T17:16:00.007+08:00

“Before the VAT, you could not conceive of a P5-billion project without foreign funding,” so said President Arroyo during a dinner with the media, Tuesday (Feb. 17) at the Waterfront Insular Hotel.

She was in Davao for the second time in two weeks for her Super Regions tour. At the dinner by the garden, the president was in a relaxed mood, matching the cool breeze of the night.

As GMA winds up her term, she has been on a nationwide tour to promote her administration’s accomplishments over the last 10 years. She has also made herself more accessible to the media. In Manila after the death of Press Secretary Cerge Remonde last month, she held a dinner with various journalists, and went to newspaper offices to sit down with editors.

Two weeks ago GMA was in Davao City for her Cyber Corridor Cities tour, extolling the government’s accomplishments in the ICT industry. As with other local visits, there was hardly an interaction with media. The Feb. 17 al fresco dinner at Waterfront provided national and local media closer access to her.

As she table-hopped, she raved about the Surigao-Davao Coastal Road.

The 300-kilometer road is almost complete, with only eight kilometers to go. The road connecting Bacuag, Surigao del Norte and Mati, Davao Oriental cuts travel time from Davao to Surigao from eight to four hours.

The P5-billion road “is the biggest budget allocation for a road project by the national government,” she said. It’s not the biggest road, but it was done without foreign funding. Thanks to VAT, said GMA.

Her administration will release P300-million to finish the road connecting Bislig in Surigao del Sur and Boston in Davao Oriental. An appendix road to Lingig in Surigao del Sur will also be built. GMA described Lingig as “pobre kaayo (very poor).” Out of one million poor families under the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, 4,000 are from Lingig.

With the roads, “Boston and Lingig will be closer to development,” she said.

“The biggest anti-poverty instrument is the road,” the president said. A road spurs trade and development and peace and order.

The president, who grew up in Iligan City, is clearly proud of what her administration has done for Mindanao. She said, “You look at Mindanao 10 years ago…” – and shook her head.

“It’s come a long way.”

In her travels to the region, she notes that carabao roads are now concrete roads. But progress would have been faster had there been a Mindanao-wide agency like the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA), she said.

As envisioned, MinDA “shall promote, coordinate and facilitate the active and extensive participation of all sectors to effect the socio-economic development of Mindanao.” MinDA will also recommend to the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Board for approval Mindanao-wide and Mindanao-specific inter-regional programs, projects and plans.

“If only I had the MinDA bill, I would have signed it here,” she exclaimed. That morning before leaving Malacañang for Mindanao she had cleared her table and signed the Senior Citizens Act. But the MinDA bill was not yet on her desk, she said.

(The next day, President Arroyo finally signed the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) Act of 2010.)

“The human and natural potential of Mindanao is so great. It will be the bread basket of Mindanao. The people of Mindanao deserve development rather than fear of violence,” she said.

Peace talks with the government and MILF have been resumed, but she acknowledged its difficulty. “The tricky part of the peace talks is not those who want peace but those who are against the MOA-AD,” she said. “We have to address the fear of the Christian leaders.”

Later she said, “I hope we can set aside our differences and work for the development of Mindanao… Peace and development go together. When one is a problem, the other is. Or the solution to one is the solution to the other.”

The president, who wore an off-white sleeveless dress, sat down at each table for at least 10 minutes, eating the grilled food. At our table, she ate two pieces of durian, papaya, and marang with her fork and knife. By the time she had coffee at the next table, she did not mind the journalists with their cameras, lights, and microphones around her.

During a lull, she said with a smile, “If you don’t have questions anymore, don’t think anymore so I can enjoy coffee.”

Of course there were more questions to ask, but it was getting late for the president. She left after an hour and a half with the media, walking out under a night of stars and a moon that shined with a lopsided smile.

Singlehood and the presidency

2010-02-11T18:00:00.003+08:00

I had an interesting conversation recently with an acquaintance about the election. He said, “I’m voting for Manny Villar because he’s married with children.”

“So?” I asked.

“It means he’s responsible. How can you lead a country if you haven’t had your own family and raised kids?”

“What about Gilbert Teodoro? He’s married too with a son.”

“My vote will go to waste. He won’t win. He’s not doing well in the surveys,” he replied.

Two things this conversation reiterated. First, singlehood can be a personality flaw in a leader. Second, people perceive that their votes matter only if the candidate is winnable.

Despite living in a technologically advanced age, marital status, it turns out, is still a major factor in choosing a president. Mar Roxas, at the time he was preparing a run for the presidency, announced his engagement to Korina Sanchez. With the married Roxas now sliding to the vice presidency, at least the Liberal Party won’t have to explain about fielding bachelors for the top two posts.

I do not believe that married men are necessarily more responsible than single men. We deal with the cards that life hands us, and Noynoy Aquino was given the card of standing as the man in his family after his father Ninoy was imprisoned and later gunned down.

Aquino, who recently turned 50, has explained why he hasn’t married yet. On one visit to his father in jail, he overheard a young wife tell her incarcerated husband she couldn’t take the ‘for better or for worse.’ “I’ll just go with better, you take care of your own life, I’ll take care of mine,’” he overheard.

“When that was shown (to me) that she was there (for her husband) for better but not for worse, that would make you think,” Aquino told journalist Raissa Robles in November. “And so I’ve been examining our life. It has perhaps not been easy and will not be easy. And that of course will make you think. Maybe, it’s really part of my fate. While God has not given (me a life partner), maybe it’s because there are still many things he’s asking to be done. So that no one else will be involved in the pain.”

Unfortunately, the Philippines is a macho society. Most of our presidents have been married, but that didn’t make them better leaders. Joseph Estrada’s extra-marital affairs didn’t stop people from electing him. Now Aquino has to face doubts about how responsible he is just because he’s not married. Is a man who has 10 children more responsible? Is a philandering husband more responsible than a single man?

Aquino may take assurance in the fact that almost half of the population is single, based onstatistics from the 2000 Census of Population and Housing. Of the 57.1 million population 10 years old and over, one percent are either divorced or separated. Forty four percent are single, 45.7 percent married, 4.1 percent widowed, and 4.3 percent in common-law or live-in arrangements.

If elected, Aquino won’t be the nation’s first president to be wifeless. Post-war president Elpidio Quirino was a widower. His daughter Vicky performed the functions of the First Lady.

Davao City under Mayor Duterte is no stranger to a First Lady-less leadership, but that is another story.

America had a bachelor president, but that was back in 1857, when James Buchanan became the 15th US president. He was engaged but his fiancée died before they married.

A candidate’s marital status cannot be basis for voting for or against him. After all, one can marry for ignoble reasons. Instead, one must look at a candidate’s performance, character, vision, and the company he keeps.

The next time someone wonders about his capacity to lead based on his civil status, Aquino can paraphrase England’s Queen Elizabeth I and say: “I am married to my country.”

ICT Davao calls for more LGU support

2010-02-07T20:35:00.003+08:00

The local government can contribute more to making Davao City a competitive destination for information and communications technology (ICT) investments.

“More policies and reforms are needed to make Davao more attractive to investors. Our incentives to attract locators are good but they must be better than other cities,” ICT Davao President Wit Holganza said during a business forum, Wednesday. ICT Davao is the umbrella organization of all ICT groups hosted by Davao City.

Local government leaders and the IT industry need to work together, she said.

She said Davao City needs to have more sites accredited by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA). Davao currently has three PEZA sites and one IT park in Damosa. PEZA-accredited sites are exempted from paying corporate income tax for six years for pioneer projects and four years for non-pioneer projects.

“When a BPO company wants to open in three to six months, sometimes other cities outdo us because they have more PEZA sites,” she said.

Holganza also proposed tax exemptions for companies who outsource ICT work to local talents. “You create an environment for ICT to be so attractive for businesses to take it up. This consequently addresses research and development and employment.”

GMA visit

Davao City is one of the 10 Next Wave Cities in the government’s Cyber Corridor Project. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo visited Davao briefly Wednesday night to promote the Cyber Corridor’s achievements.

The project, she said, will hasten economic growth, spur regional activity, and spread away the development activities from their “inequitable concentration” in Metro Manila.

“Davao City has nearly 500,000 high-quality workers, the largest talent pool among next wave cities,” she told the crowd of ICT players at Concentrix, Damosa IT Park. She cited 18 call centers employing almost 7,000 workers. Davao has come a long way as far as ICT is concerned, she said.

“The Davao International Airport was crucial on the choice of Davao as Cyber Corridor City,” Arroyo added.

The other Next Wave Cities are Pampanga, Bulacan East, Bulacan West, Lipa, Laguna, Cavite, Iloilo, Bacolod, and Cagayan de Oro. Metro Manila and Cebu are considered Centers of Excellence.

“The ICT sector should be guided by the market, not by government interference,” said Arroyo, adding government should support by giving incentives to investors.

Revenue of the IT industry in the Philippines grew from $0.024 billion in 2001 to $7.3 billion in 2009, the President said.

“Five hundred thousand jobs created in ICT is one of the legacies I’d like to leave,” she said.

The knowledge revolution is the way to bring the Philippines to the First World, “and I am glad that Davao is part of the Corridor,” said Arroyo.

Make IT Davao

ICT Davao recently launched the “Make IT Davao” campaign in line with the local tourism industry’s slogan “Make it Davao.”

“We are not just an investment destination but a tourism destination as well,” Holganza said.

The ICT industry in Davao continues to boom. “Davao City has more than 60 (business process outsourcing) companies and ICT-related industries. Contact centers and transcription groups have not been able to fill up their posts. This makes Davao a hub,” she said.

In promoting the city as an ideal investment destination, ICT Davao highlights the educated workforce available in the city and surrounding areas, first-class infrastructure and utilities, quality of life, and peace and order.

Davao ranked as the Philippines’ Most Competitive City in 2008 and placed second in the cost-competitiveness category among the 2008 Philippine IT-BPO Next Wave Cities.

Davao company makes Facebook app on election

2010-02-04T20:09:00.021+08:00

A Davao-based IT company is using the popular social networking site Facebook to educate and update Internet users about the country’s presidential candidate.

Mynd Consulting’s Facebook application called 2010 Philippine Presidential Election has attracted over 17,500 users. The site is a one-stop shop for news, photo, and video updates on candidates. A user can choose the candidate he supports, and have that candidate’s photo added to the user’s Facebook page.

Votes are reflected in the Leader Board, an online poll of presidential candidates. As of February 4, 2 pm, Sen. Noynoy Aquino III and Bro. Eddie Villanueva tied in first place with 26 percent of votes. Former Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro followed with 22 percent.

Mynd Consulting founder and president Myrna Padilla said they created the application to take advantage of social networking tools to inform Filipinos in the country and abroad about the presidential candidates. The application was created six months ago and started as a countdown on the number of days left for voter registration.

“Our Facebook application has fresh, relevant content focused on the election and candidates,” Padilla told reporters Wednesday. Local ICT players that day welcomed President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo as she visited Davao City, one of the 10 next wave cities in the government’s Cyber Corridor program.

There are other Facebook pages on the election, but Padilla said theirs is a more sophisticated application that aggregates news, blog, photo, and video content from Internet sources. Their application provides a short summary and links to the original content provider.

“As an OFW before, I had this application developed as our company’s social responsibility,” Padilla said. Her company also created the OFW Watch application on Facebook, another aggregator of news related to overseas Filipino workers.

The two applications use Mynd Consulting’s Moderation Marketplace service. The company creates a Facebook application or WordPress blog and wires it into their mashup aggregator called Moderation Marketplace that ensures content is regularly updated.

Padilla said her company has no plans yet to create a Davao City election version of their application. “But someone approached me and I said they should not ignore technology. Postering should not only be done in the streets but also on the Internet.”

DLSU Sikat solar car goes to Davao

2010-02-02T21:18:00.013+08:00

'How is it like to drive a solar car?' I asked one of the drivers of the Sikat solar car when we met them last week. The Davao City alumni of De La Salle University hosted a dinner for the DLSU

Sikat team from Manila when they came here for a roadshow promoting the Sikat project and solar energy. The team is composed of teachers and students from the College of Engineering of La Salle. No extra points for the students though; their work on Sikat is voluntary, but it does open a lot of opportunities - such as touring the country for a roadshow.

Sikat will be the Philippine's entry to the World Solar Challenge in Australia in 2011. The prize is a trophy, but more important is the recognition it will bring to the Philippines (and to DLSU, of course). In 2007, the first solar-powered car, Sinag, also by DLSU, finished 20th out of 38 participants.The materials alone for Sikat cost P5 million, but that's peanuts compared to Belgium's $2-million budget for its solar car that won four times in the contest.

The difference among the cars is the solar cells. Sikat has improved solar cells that are 21 percent efficient; higher efficiency means more expensive price.

Driving Sikat is not much different from driving an ordinary car, said Danver Panganiban, one of the car's six drivers. You still need to know how to drive. The car has an accelerator and brake, and knobs for going forward and reverse, hazard lights, and signal lights. Drivers must wear a helmet and four-point seatbelt. It's hot and cramped, said Danver, but his legs are more relaxed with the right angle sitting position. Besides, he enjoys what he's doing.

Student Jeffrey Yu, an aerodynamics engineer for the team, said the driver's seat is angled 27 degrees. "It's the safest angle for driving," he said, citing studies. The head cover, which has has air holes, was made small to prevent drag.

At 190 kilos, Sikat is lighter than the 295-kilo Sinag. The team also reversed the wheel arrangement for speed -- this time 1 wheel in front and 2 at the back. Compared to Sinag, Sikat is lighter, faster, and more efficient.

Davao City gave them the best welcome so far, the team said. The University of Mindanao welcomed them with a dance and a choir. The morning after our dinner, they had to leave early to travel to Cagayan de Oro. Their roadshow will take them as far north as Laoag City.

For some techie information, view the slideshow below.

DLSU Sikat Solar Car goes to Davao on PhotoPeach

Promoting Davao City

2010-01-10T22:23:00.005+08:00

At a recent media forum with tourism representatives, the discussion centered on this: how can the tourism sector improve Davao as a destination?

The city is promoted as an island to highland destination. You can go to the beach in the morning, be downtown at noon, and end the day at a mountain resort. But as long-time travel operator Susan Palad pointed out, “Once you’ve seen the city’s destinations, that’s it, you’ve already seen them.”

What next?

Aside from being promoted as an adventure destination, the city is also being pushed as a convention site. We don’t have the capacity yet for really big conventions like the Ad Congress, but Davao is an attractive destination for smaller meets and conferences. Davao City will have a strong presence in February’s MICE (Meeting, Incentives, Conventions, and Exhibits) gathering in Subic to prepare us to bid in next conferences, said hotel and restaurant businesswoman Gene Bangayan. Palad, Bangayan, and Wanda Teo were elected to the Board of Trustees of the newly-formed Philippine Tourism Congress. Palad is VP for Mindanao, Bangayan Treasurer, and Teo Secretary. This is good news because Mindanao is finally getting equal representation – three out of nine in the board.

Still, we have a long way to go. Resources for promotions are not enough and Davao City still has an image problem.

But our local tourism industry is finding niches. Recently, 37 students from Singapore stayed in Davao City for eight days for a leadership program. They built houses for Gawad Kalinga and were impressed with the smoking ban, cleanliness, and peace and order in the city, said Palad. It was such a success that organizers are thinking of sending two or three more batches.

The Lakbay Aral program has been a big boost despite its bad reputation, said Palad. Aside from visits to Pearl Farm, Philippine Eagle, and Eden Nature Resort, tour organizers also include learning from Brgy. Ma-a’s disaster preparedness program and building houses for GK. “Davao is not only any of these tourist destinations. There are many people (we can tap) who have become experts because of challenges,” said Palad.

Davao has also attracted visitors who want to know how a city implements a smoking ban. And some tourists request for a picture with the Mayor, according to travel operator Wanda Teo.

Indeed it’s time to get creative about promoting our beloved city. Money and promotional materials from official sources may take a long time coming. But we can use our inherent resourcefulness and resiliency to take novel approaches on tourism and promotions. Here are some ideas:

1. Use social networking tools. It’s cheap and reaches the world in a click. The tourism and ICT sectors can partner to promote Davao City as a safe and exciting destination on Facebook, Multiply, Flickr, YouTube, and Twitter. On their own, netizens are already doing that.

As Bangayan said, “The best way to promote Davao is through word of mouth and personal experience. People who go to Davao are surprised because it’s different from what they read in newspapers.”

2. Organize walking tours. A few years back, I joined a walking tour by Carlos Celdran of Intramuros and Quiapo and a food tour of Binondo by Ivan ManDy, and enjoyed all of them. I thought, why can’t we have this in Davao? I regret that I don’t have the personality of an entertaining tour guide, but am eager to learn about a city’s history and culture. It’s fun to see the destinations, but there should be more to travel than that. Until we know a city’s history and culture, we do not really see its soul. What better way to soak it in than walking on the very streets that Davao’s pioneers walked on decades ago? It’s also practical proof of the boast that Davao is safe to walk around anytime.

A challenge would be to find interesting spots for a walking tour. Manila has Intramuros, Quiapo, and Binondo. Davao has – San Pedro and Chinatown? We can invite the Department of Tourism’s talented Mabuhay Guides to create a walking tour of Davao for local and national media, tour operators, travel writers, bloggers, and tourists.

3. Culinary tours. Davao is not all about ihaw-ihaw. Our fertile land boasts of so much more. Travel organizers can create a tour focusing on the city’s best food and products. It won’t just be an eating exercise but an educational tour on how these products are made. The artisan cheese products of Malagos Farms, the organic greens of Eden Nature Resort, and the world-famous Davao chocolate are some stops. Naturally, the tour will cap with the best of grilled food eaten on a hilltop.

4. Screen tourism. Davao has been featured several times in Sports Unlimited, but what I’d really like to see is a primetime show or movie shot on location here. Survivor: France gave Camarines Sur global exposure. Tayong Dalawa became a great recruitment tool for the Philippine Military Academy. I remember in the 1980s the drama show Davao starring Dawn Zulueta with parts filmed in Tagum City. But that was back then. Star Cinema already filmed in Bukidnon, maybe it won’t be so hard convincing them to do a movie in Davao. And just to make it clear, for tourism purposes, it should be a romantic comedy, not horror.

5. Gimmick ala “World’s Best Job.” This Australian marketing strategy was one of the great public relations successes of 2009. Thousands around the globe applied to be paid to be an island’s caretaker in exchange for giving regular online updates. In the Davao context, this idea is admittedly hard to copy. We can’t deny the fact that we’re in Mindanao – subject of many travel warnings. And a promo like this requires close cooperation and enough resources from both government and private sectors. Maybe they can come up with a project on a smaller scale that will make people experience the best of Davao. After all, our city deserves so much more visitors.

Smoke-free Davao City recognized

2010-01-06T19:55:00.006+08:00

How successful has Davao City been in enforcing its landmark no-smoking ordinance?

By official health numbers, it’s been a success. Davao City was recently awarded by the US-based Global Smokefree Partnership for its exemplary leadership and commitment to a smoke-free environment. Davao was the only city awardee along with countries Turkey, Colombia, Guatemala and India.

Since the ordinance was implemented in November 2002, Davao City has recorded a decreasing number of cases of lung cancer, said Dr. Domilyn Villareiz of the Anti-Smoking Task Force, Monday (Jan. 4) at the Kapehan sa SM.

Mortality rate from lung cancer dropped from 118 in 2008 to 38 in 2009. Ninety percent of them were heavy smokers, smoking one to two packs a day, said Villareiz, while 10 percent were non-smokers. In 2008, 153 got sick of lung cancer, while 104 were recorded in 2009.

These numbers show the direct effect of the smoking ban on improving people’s health, which, after all, is the intent of the law. The ordinance cannot be expected to stop people from smoking, but it protects non-smokers.

In seven years, 9,244 violators have been apprehended. From 1,500 in 2008, 1,193 were apprehended last year.

But as anyone who has partied in Torres St. will tell you, there are still many violators – establishments and people. This despite the required posting of restaurants of signs warning against smoking and a maximum penalty of P10,000.

Establishments can apply for a smoking room, as some coffee shops and hotels have done. The task force has approved only nine smoking rooms in the city because “we discourage putting [them] up,” says Villareiz. But there have been no closures of establishments that violate the anti-smoking ordinance. “They comply if we give them the notice of violation,” she said.

Still, she admits they can’t monitor all establishments. There are only 18 of them in the task force, which is why they need the help of Davao City police. But they can only do so much.
Says Davao City Police Office chief Sr. Supt. Ramon Apolinario, “Though we have regulations on smoking, drinking, and loud noise, we still respect the rights of entrepreneurs to make money. Torres St. is the converging point of those who want to see and be seen. It is booming, especially on weekends.”

Villareiz doesn’t see a conflict between business and anti-smoking. “The ordinance is not a threat to business or tourism. It’s for public welfare,” she says.

In fact, Davao City has become a tourist destination for orientations on a smoke-free city. Villareiz says visitors from Manila, Hanoi, and Bangkok have come here to witness how a city implements the anti-smoking policy.

“It’s the in thing now for cities to be smoke-free,” she says. And Davao, as its lawmakers and people will tell you, was first.

New Year blessing

2010-01-03T14:36:00.001+08:00

Sharing here a New Year blessing sent by a friend from Brahma Kumaris:

These first days of 2010, receive seeds from the garden of daily living and follow these instructions:
Plant three rows of peas:
peace of mind,
peace of heart,
and peace of soul.

Plant four rows of squash:
squash gossip,
squash indifference,
squash grumbling,
squash selfishness.

Plant six rows of lettuce:
lettuce be faithful,
lettuce be kind,
lettuce be patient,
lettuce be generous,
lettuce be humble
and lettuce really love one another.

To enhance your garden here is our seed of thyme:
thyme for God
thyme for each other
thyme for family,
and thyme for friends.

Water regularly with patience and cultivate with love.
There will be much fruits in your garden. Remember: You reap what you sow.
Happy planting not only today but always!

A blessed new year to you!

Christmas in Davao City 2009

2010-01-03T14:20:00.000+08:00

A bit late but hopefully not too late -- my photos of Christmas in Davao City. Free slideshow thanks to PhotoPeach. Enjoy!

More photos in my Flickr Christmas set.

Happy new year!

2009-12-31T18:54:00.000+08:00

"The object of a new year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul." - GK Chesterton

May the new year bless us all with kindness, happiness, and love!

Street scenes

2009-12-31T13:09:00.002+08:00

Driving around Davao City this December, I managed to capture some street scenes. I should bring my camera more often!

12.21.2009 I saw this puppy pop out of the car in front of me. It made driving in the now traffic-heavy roads a happier experience.

12.27.2009 Driving in Davao City, I was struck by this dramatic sunset.

12.29. 2009 A passenger wears a helmet while riding a tricycle. He doesn't have to, unless riding a motorcycle. Sigurista sya!

Slideshow: Forum, candle-lighting a month after the Nov 23 Maguindanao massacre

2009-12-24T11:21:00.000+08:00

Buluan Vice Mayor Esmael "Toto" Mangudadatu, his younger brother ARMM Assemblyman Toy Khadafeeh Mangudadatu, and Fr. Bert Alejo of Konsult Mindanaw talk to Davao City press on Dec 23, 2009 at the Marco Polo Davao, exactly one month after the gruesome massacre of 57 women, men, and journalists in Maguindanao. They also led candle-lighting ceremonies at the Freedom Park in memory of the martyrs.

ACFJ offers 15 journalism fellowships for 2010

2009-11-23T19:54:00.001+08:00

Manila, 19 November - Applications for the 2010-2011 Fellowships for M.A. Journalism are now being accepted by the Konrad Adenauer Asian Center for Journalism at the Ateneo de Manila University (ACFJ).

The fellowships are awarded to full-time Asian journalists who have excellent professional and academic record, strong commitment to good journalism and leadership qualities. A grant covers tuition and other expenses for the two-year M.A. Journalism program which is offered by
the Ateneo de Manila University with ACFJ's support.

Since its inception in 2003, 90 journalists from 15 Asian countries have received grants.

Ateneo's M.A. Journalism is distinctive for its innovative use of online and conventional learning methods. The master's program covers 12 courses which are conducted using a mix of online and conventional methods. Six are purely online courses, three are held in the conventional classroom, and another three are hybrid courses that take place alternately in the online and on-campus. The program's design allows working journalists and other media professionals to study at their own pace and time, and in their own homes or workplaces. Courses in ethics, media law and news writing are at the core of the program. Journalism courses which are regional and cutting edge in content comprise the electives. Lecturers come from Asia as well as Australia, U.K., and the U.S.

ACFJ, a joint project of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) and the Ateneo, was founded in June 2000 to promote good journalism in Asia by providing training opportunities primarily for working journalists.

Application forms for the fellowship grant may be downloaded from http://www.ateneo.edu/acfj or requested by e-mail at newsroom@admu.edu.ph. ACFJ may also be contacted by phone at (+632) 9263253 or (+632) 4266001 (local 5296), or fax at (+632) 9263254.

Deadline of application is on Friday, 12 February 2010.

For admission to the M.A. program, a separate set of application forms are required. These are also available from ACFJ or Ateneo's Office of Graduate Studies (OGS).

'It's not writing. It's what you write about'

2009-10-21T19:16:00.009+08:00

On TIME magazine, Malcolm Gladwell's advice to young journalists:

"The issue is not writing. It's what you write about... Aspiring journalists should stop going to journalism programs and go to some other kind of grad school. If I was studying today, I would go get a master's in statistics, and maybe do a bunch of accounting courses and then write from that perspective. I think that's the way to survive. The role of the generalist is diminishing. Journalism has to get smarter."

ARMM LGUs push for greater autonomy to solve conflicts

2009-10-21T13:10:00.006+08:00

(Published in Mindanao Insider, Oct. 21, 2009, W)

Local government units in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao have made great strides in conflict resolution, but they need greater autonomy to improve their justice system. This was one of the proposals discussed at the 2009 Governance Symposia yesterday in Davao City hosted by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Local Governance Support Program in ARMM (LGSPA).

The symposia advocates for good local governance by showcasing good or innovative practices of LGSPA-participating LGUs in ARMM in pursuing peace and development through excellence in local governance.

“There is a need to improve the justice system both in the Philippines and ARMM,” said Guiamel Alim, Executive Director of Kadtuntaya Foundation Inc., a civil society organization working with ARMM communities to help resolve conflicts. Alim and mayors of LGUs in ARMM met reporters yesterday to discuss the symposia.

“The problem is there is forum shopping on justice system today,” said Alim, referring to the practice of those in conflict finding another justice system favorable to them.

“For now there is the shari’ah (Islamic law) court but not everyone submits to this,” he said. He added that this can be resolved with a more meaningful political system that strengthens the court.

“To avoid rido, there should be a justice system that is quick, responsible, and fair… [because] the longer it takes, the more people are involved,” he said. He admitted that the situation gets more complicated with the involvement of members of revolutionary groups.

Alim said conflicts among different groups can be resolved with a tribunal court especially established for the purpose.

Special Assistant to the Regional Secretary DILG-ARMM Atty. Nagrib Sinarimbo said, “This brings to the fore the need for decentralization” at the LGU level. This will give LGUs in ARMM “autonomy to create mechanisms for resolving conflict.”

Dialogue

An effective way to resolve conflicts has been through a council of elders, as practiced in the towns of North Upi, Maguindanao and Kapatagan, Lanao del Sur.

The Mayor’s Council in North Upi has resolved 90 cases since they started peace process through dialogue, said Mayor Ramon Piang. The people of Upi are composed of Muslims, Christians, and indigenous peoples.

The tribes themselves selected the elders to represent them in the Mayor’s Council, said Piang. “As mayor, I only approved the selection. Thus people have a sense of ownership, and they follow the decisions of the council.”

When Raida Maglangit won as mayor of Kapatagan, Lanao del Sur in 2000, she also took in respected elders to help settle peace problems. Back then, her town was a “no man’s land” suffering the effects of the all-out war declared against revolutionary groups. The MILF headquarters Camp Abubakar, located in the area, was overrun by government soldiers in 2000.

“There were no people, and there was no sense of governance,” Maglangit said. “It was difficult to make people trust in government again and to remove their fears.”

In South Upi, Maguindanao, the BLEYE-KITAB (House of Justice) is an effective local conflict resolution mechanism that also uses a tri-people approach.

“Our approach to settlement is mediation and counsel,” said Timuay Jovito Martin. “We seek to bring parties into harmonious agreement.” He said the Bleye-Kitab has settled 50 murder and civil cases. None have been revoked or brought to government courts.

Livelihood

Mayor Datu Mohammad Paglas of Datu Paglas, Maguindanao credits their town’s peace and order to their livelihood program.

“We have barangay justice folks, but our priority is livelihood,” said Paglas. “Our style is, may takot sa tao at sa Panginoon (we have fear in people and Allah). We base our guidelines on the holy Koran.”

He said a main problem of Muslims is livelihood. When his brother, the late mayor Toto Paglas, returned from an exposure in Canada, he put up signs around the town that said, “Bawal ang mga tamad.” (Lazy people are prohibited here.) Toto Paglas also brought in investors, among them banana plantations.

From a crime-infested area, Datu Paglas was transformed into a peaceful and thriving investment haven. “We talked with rebel commanders and gave them jobs,” said current mayor Paglas.

Video: The Philippine Eagle and his keeper

2009-10-19T12:10:00.002+08:00

Watch this feature on what it means to take care of a Philippine eagle.

I produced this video for my Multimedia Journalism class.

Slideshow: Philippine Eagle

2009-10-19T12:02:00.001+08:00

Who discovered the Philippine Eagle? Which famous man advocated for its protection? Know more about the Philippine Eagle in this photo slideshow.

Keeping Hope: A Philippine Eagle and his keeper

2009-10-19T11:49:00.004+08:00

Taking care of the Philippine Eagle means more than work; it's keeping hopes alive for the endangered species' survival.

Debbie A. Uy | Oct. 16, 2009, Davao City

It is breeding season at the Philippine Eagle Center in Davao City, southern Philippines, and senior animal keeper Eddie Juntilla is in just after the sun rises. He is busy at this time, caring for three magnificent Philippine eagles – endangered species endemic to the Philippines. As human surrogate partner of male eagles Pag-asa, Pagkakaisa, and female Kahayag, Juntilla spends at least one hour with each eagle as part of imprinting.

Imprinting is the process of developing a relationship between a captive animal and human for the purpose of artificial insemination. The human caretaker collects semen from the eagle and inseminates this to the female bird.

Imprinting is similar to courtship, and during the breeding season from June to January, Juntilla practices courtship behavior to the eagles. To male eagles, he is the female; to the female, he is male. He brings twigs and leaves to the eagles to make as nest. He brings food such as rabbit, white rat, horse meat, and goat meat. In the wild, male eagles hunt food for females. The captive Pag-asa practices this natural food transfer behavior by leaving half of his food for his partner Juntilla.

Pag-asa was the first Philippine Eagle bred and hatched in captivity through artificial insemination. His birth and picture – a fluffy white chick and dark curved beak – made headlines; his name, Filipino for “hope,” spoke of the desire that the critically endangered species could still be saved.

Pag-asa was born on January 15, 1992 to parents Junior and Diola. Since then, 22 eagles have been born at the center. One of them is Pag-asa’s brother, Pagkakaisa (Unity), hatched nine months after him.

Juntilla has worked at the Philippine Eagle Foundation for 23 years. He was initially assigned to prepare food, feed the animals, and landscape the area. Today aside from being senior animal keeper, Juntilla oversees incubation and chick rearing. Pag-asa was born after he and a colleague returned from an egg management training abroad. Juntilla counts Pag-asa’s birth as the most unforgettable part of being his keeper. He’s taken care of Pag-asa since, from feeding to breeding.

Now 17, Pag-asa is a little overweight at 5.9 kilos, says Juntilla. The average male weighs 5 kilos; females 7 kilos. He easily gets tired after flying, says Juntilla. He knows this when Pag-asa opens his beak – a sign that the eagle is panting.

Juntilla wears a thick padded leather jacket and glove whenever he enters the eagles’ cages. It serves as his protection when the eagle mounts or perches on his arm and head. The glove and jacket’s hood are marked with pecks from the eagle’s large beak. Juntilla tried to change the glove but Pag-asa would not come near it. So he uses the mended old one.

The jacket and glove serve not only as protection but as the keeper’s identity. If the keeper needs to be out, someone else can wear the leather jacket and glove. But that doesn’t assure the eagle will respond.

To Juntilla, the most important part of his job as caretaker is to help produce an offspring. But Pag-asa is not producing enough semen yet to inseminate to a female eagle. That’s why the center prohibits disturbing eagles during the breeding season. Only keepers are allowed near them.

“It’s important Pag-asa has an offspring,” says Juntilla. “We hope it happens someday.”

The exact number of Philippine Eagles is unknown; at the center, there are 34. Estimates range from 180 to 500. The eagles’ existence is threatened by deforestation brought about by illegal logging, mining, agricultural expansion, and overpopulation. The Wildlife Conservation and Protection Act of the Philippines punishes those who kill endangered species with jail or a huge penalty. Yet Philippine Eagles are still caught, shot, even eaten, despite public education about the eagles and the Philippine Eagle Foundation’s community-based initiatives.

On July 2008, the eagle Kagsabua – released in March after being rescued and treated – was shot with an air gun by a 22-year-old who cooked the eagle into a soup. In September this year, a wounded eagle was rescued by the Philippine Eagle Foundation but it too died.

Breeding eagles in captivity then becomes ever important as the eagles remain critically endangered. One hopes the Philippine Eagle survives long so future generations can see for themselves why famous aviator Charles Lindbergh called it the “world’s noblest flyer.”

A special book: Travels with Herodotus

2009-10-03T20:59:00.008+08:00

I've just finished reading Ryszard Kapuscinski's Travels with Herodotus. What an extraordinary book. Those who love reading, writing, and traveling -- this is a must-read. More than a great writer, Kapuscinski was a good man (I know even just by this book), and that's what I look for in my favorite writers. I like kind, decent, unassuming, and compassionate people, and you can tell from the way they write. Maybe that's why in the last two years I've been picky with my writers. Kapuscinksi is not flashy. Even if he is in the story, he doesn't draw attention to himself.

I'd like to read this book again, and hopefully Herodotus when I'm ready. Most especially, I'd like to write even just a little bit like Kapuscinski. (I know, but wishful thinking won't hurt!)

Some of my favorite passages:
- "Old Delhi! It's narrow, dusty, fiendishly hot streets, with their stifling odor of tropical fermentation. And this crowd of silently moving people, appearing and disappearing, their faces dark, humid, anonymous, closed. Quiet children, making no sound. A man stares dully at the remains of his bicycle, which has fallen apart in the middle of the street. A woman sells something wrapped in green leaves--what is it? What do those leaves enfold?"

- "I noticed, too, the relationship between naming and being, because I realized upon my return to the hotel that in town I had seen only that which I was able to name: for example, I remembered the acacia tree, but not the tree standing next to it, whose name I did not know. I understood, in short, that the more words I knew, the richer, fuller, and more variegated would be the world that opened before me, and which I could capture."

- "A journey, after all, neither beings in the instant we set out, nor ends when we have reached our doorstep once again. It starts much earlier and is really never over, because the film of memory continues running on inside of us long after we have come to a physical standstill. Indeed, there exists something like a contagion of travel, and the disease is essentially incurable."

- "When we look at lifeless temples, palaces, and cities, we can't help but wonder about the fate of their builders. Their pain, their broken backs, their eyes gouged out by errant splinters of stone, their rheumatism. About their unfortunate lives, their suffering. But the very next question that invariably rises is: Could these wonders have come into being without that suffering? Without the overseer's whip, the slave's fear, the ruler's vanity? In short, was not the monumentality of past epochs created by that which is negative and evil in man? And yet, does not that monumentality owe its existence to some conviction that what is negative and weak in man can be vanquished only by beauty, only through the effort and will of his creation? And that the only thing that never changes is beauty itself, and the need for it that dwells within us?"

- "Man knows, and in the course of years he comes to know it increasingly well, feeling it ever more acutely, that memory is weak and fleeting, and if he doesn't write down what he has learned and experienced, that which he carries within him will perish when he does. This is why it seems everyone wants to write a book.... Engendering this reality is the impression of writing as an easy and simple pursuit, though those who subscribe to that view might do well to ponder Thomas Mann's observation that 'a writer is a man for whom writing is more difficult than it is for others.'"

- On looking for the big events as a traveling reporter: "Until that awakening [in Algiers] I had been searching for spectacular imagery, laboring under the illusion that it was compelling, observable tableaux that somehow justified my presence, absolving me of responsibility to understand the events at hand. It was the fallacy that one can interpret the world only by means of what it chooses to show us in the hours of its convulsions, when it is rocked by shots and explosions, engulfed in flames and smoke, choked in dust and the stench of burning, when everything collapses into rubble on which sit people despairing over the remains of their loved ones."

- "[M]any centuries before us, [Herodotus] discovers an important yet treacherous and complicating trait of human memory: people remember what they want to remember, not what actually happened. Everyone colors events after his fashion, brews up his own melange of reminiscences. What are available to us are only its various versions, more or less credible, one or another of them suiting us better at any given time. The past does not exist. There are only infinite renderings of it."

- "But when the doors close and it grows dark, the curator presses a switch turning on small lightbulbs inside the little vessels, bringing to life the fragile, matte pieces of glass, which start to sparkle, brighten, pulsate. We stand in deep, thick darkness, as if at the bottom of the sea, at a feast of Poseidon's, surrounded by goddesses each holding an olive oil lamp above her head.
"We stand in darkness, surrounded by light."

A typhoon’s aftermath

2009-10-01T10:50:00.004+08:00

(Published Sept. 30, 2009, Mindanao Insider)

We in Davao can feel grateful that we live in a typhoon-free area and was spared from ‘Ondoy’s unceasing downpour. Even so, we have not been free from floods brought upon by heavy rains, poor and clogged drainage system, increased population, and improper trash disposal.

We like to think of our city as clean and green, but we know it is just a matter of time before our city starts to decay. The city lacks an updated long-term plan and the will to follow it; proof is the alterations on land reclassification. The solid waste management system has not been strictly implemented. The biggest lesson government has learned from typhoon ‘Ondoy’ is to be prepared. For leaders outside Luzon, there is no need to wait for a storm before local governments start preparing. The time to do so is now.

That is also good advice for us. We shouldn’t wait for government to help. Indeed, it is most especially during government inaction that Filipinos reveal their true character.

‘Ondoy’ is showing the best and worst of us Filipinos. Some leaders put themselves first or take advantage by politicking, others sell what should be relief goods. Yet the more common stories are those that inspire – of Filipinos showing bayanihan spirit, generosity, initiative, and courage.

TV networks and the Internet are full of stories of survival, tragedy, hope, help, and cheer amidst gloom. My favorite is about the man who asked his rescuers on the boat if it was already Sept. 28. Yes it was. The man said quietly, “Birthday ko na pala.” The rescuers turned around and began to sing, “Happy birthday.” Truly Filipino.

For each story of survival, there is a story of heroism. A teen, a soldier, five militiamen – who knows how many others – rescued scores before the murky waters carried them away. Celebrities joined rescue efforts and telethons and donated relief goods. Rich and poor alike were victims; rich and poor are helping.

Beyond donating, what else can we do to prevent another disaster like ‘Ondoy’? From the government, we must demand moral leadership. We may have come to a tipping point on what we expect from our government: concern for people, right priorities on spending, fast delivery of services.

The old ways of doing things are no longer enough. Simple things like recycling, throwing trash properly, and turning off appliances when not in use, help reduce global warming. In our own ways, we can save the world.

***

The most striking images and videos of ‘Ondoy’ came not from media but from ordinary citizens who used their mobile phones to record the tragedy. As the Mumbai bombings were to Indians, storm ‘Ondoy’ is to Filipinos – the shining hour of citizen journalism.

On YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and blogs, Filipinos shared information on missing persons, how to help, photos and videos. A Google map was set up to represent locations of those who need rescuing. Media borrowed from what citizens were producing, and distributed them to a greater audience on TV, newspapers, and news sites. By so doing, media acknowledged the increasing power of ordinary people in the new ways of doing journalism.

Mobile devices and the Internet are leveling off the hierarchy of information. We see now this trend: breaking news will come from citizens – those on the ground. Journalists will see a shift in their roles – from providing straight facts, which citizens can as well provide, to going in-depth. This means people will look to journalists to answer the “why” and the “how.” Why was government unprepared? How did ‘Ondoy’ end up being our worst typhoon?

Journalists will need to provide context and analysis. It is a more demanding role, but the relevance of our profession depends on it.

Davao City: Donations to 'Ondoy'

2009-09-29T15:02:00.012+08:00

Send donations (clothes, medicines, blankets, towels, water, infant milk, slippers, etc) to:

- Ateneo de Davao Jacinto campus. Drop off at the Samahan office
- ABS-CBN Bantay Bata 163 in Matina
- Philippine National Red Cross
- 2GO outlets
- Davao Light outlets (Bangoy, Bajada, Panabo)
- 1st Congressional District Office, Quirino Ave. corner Mabini St
- SM City Davao
- GMA Network Davao (Shrine Hills, Matina)
- IBP Davao Chapter in Ecoland, beside Hall of Justice near Ecoland Terminal.Accepting until Oct. 2.

Cash:
- Philippine National Red Cross through cellphone:
Text RED (space) AMOUNT to 4483 (Smart) or 2899 (Globe)
- ABS-CBN Sagip Kapamilya
Bank: Banco de Oro, Mother Ignacia branch
Acct name: ABS-CBN Foundation Inc.
Acct no.: 5630020111
- SunStar Online

UPDATES:

- Davao Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Inc. (DFCCCII) is accepting
donations in cash or kind (clothing, footwear, etc.), from Sept. 29 to October 1, 7:30-11:30 am, 1:30-4:00 pm.

For cheques, address payment to Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Inc.

Drop off donations to the DFCCCII office at 2F, DFCCCII Bldg., Monteverde Avenue, Davao City (beside the Davao Volunteers Fire Brigade, across OWWA). Tel. 227-4598

All donations will be forwarded to Manila on Friday, October 2. All goods for transport to Manila will be handled by Sulpicio Lines free of charge.

Audio report on Mindanao Science and Technology Fair

2009-09-24T00:31:00.004+08:00

My audio report on the Mindanao Cluster Science and Technology Fair, Sept. 23-27 at SM City Davao. The fair shows off DOST innovations and services, companies that have availed of them, and technology matching opportunities.

Video report on Mindanao Science and Technology Fair

2009-09-24T00:27:00.002+08:00

My video report on the Mindanao Cluster Science and Technology Fair, Sept. 23-27 at SM City Davao. The fair shows off DOST innovations and services, companies that have availed of them, and technology matching opportunities.

Photos from the Mindanao Science and Technology Fair

2009-09-24T00:20:00.003+08:00

Slide show of photos from the Mindanao Cluster Science and Technology Fair, Sept 23-27 in Davao City. Also in my Flickr set.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Mindanao Cluster S&T Fair showcases innovations

2009-09-23T21:34:00.003+08:00

Robots, bio-ethanol from coco sap, squash bread, paper from natural fibers– these and more are on display at the Mindanao Cluster Science and Technology Fair ongoing in Davao City.

The fair highlights the role of the Department of Science and Technology in responding to the present and future through S&T.

“You will see in today’s fair that the DOST has come a long way from suka (vinegar) and toyo (soy sauce) and sex reverse tilapia,” DOST Davao Regional Director Dr. Anthony Sales said at the fair’s opening this afternoon (Sept. 23).

The fair shows off DOST innovations and services, companies that have availed of them, and technology matching opportunities. DOST grants loans to start-up businesses so they can buy technology and equipment to improve their processes. Business guides are available on topics from making soaps to raising hogs.

A crowd-drawer is the small robots made by students of the Philippine Science High School as a school project. The robots can walk, stand and sit, follow claps, raise arms up and down, and detect light.

“This can be used as prototype for better (robots), with more capabilities and that can think by itself,” said third-year student Neil Herrera.

Also popular with visitors are paper products made from durian and abaca fibers, and healthy breads made with squash. Other consumer products are coco sugar, iodine-fortified drinking water, squash noodles, calamansi capsules, and biofuel made from used oil. The creators were assisted by DOST in production, training, technology transfer, even packaging and label design.

An ingenious technology is the use of saluyot (jute leaves) and water hyacinth as fiber for clothes and fabrics.

Seminars are held daily on various S&T topics such as solid waste management, food safety, energy audit, cleaner production technology, intellectual property rights, patent assistance and prototyping, food processing, and meal management.

The fair is the second of two S&T fairs in Mindanao, the first held in Butuan recently. The Davao fair runs until September 27 at SM City.

Presidentiables: Mindanao must be empowered

2009-08-30T09:23:00.009+08:00

(Published in Mindanao Insider, August 28, 2009, F)

Forum with the Presidentiables, held August 27, 2009 in Davao City. From left, Sen. Chiz Escudero, Sen. Loren Legarda, and environmentalist Nick Perlas talked about their agenda for Mindanao.

Three presidential aspirants pushed for increased resources, sustainable development, and genuine peace as their agenda for Mindanao in yesterday’s (August 27) Forum with the Presidentiables in Davao City.

Sen. Loren Legarda, Sen. Chiz Escudero, and environmentalist Nicanor Perlas faced some 100 businessmen and civil society members in a forum organized by the Mindanao Business Council and The Asia Foundation held at the Grand Regal Hotel.

MinBC said they invited 12 candidates but only Legarda, Escudero, and Perlas confirmed. The others were unable to join because of a conflict in schedule. Last weekend, senators Manny Villar, Mar Roxas, Escudero, and Legarda were in Davao to join the Kadayawan festivities. Pampanga Gov. Ed Panlilio had earlier confirmed attendance but had to beg off due to the recount of his votes, according to the organizers.

In the forum, seven representatives from different sectors – agri-fisheries, business, education, indigenous peoples, Muslims, women, and youth – posed questions to the presidentiables, who were each given five minutes to answer.

Legarda, Escudero, and Perlas talked about the problems of Mindanao, what they would do should they be elected to the presidency, and what kind of leader they would be.

Leader for Mindanao

The next president “must be able to understand the dynamics of Mindanao, criss-cross the island, must understand the need for authentic genuine peace, and must have a guidemap for real economic prosperity for this region,” said Legarda.

“The problem in Mindanao is a developmental problem,” she said. “We must focus finances on areas where there are rebels. We have rebels because they do not feel the immediate presence of the government.”

Legarda advocated for good governance, sustainable socio-economic development, promotion of culture, and protection of eco-systems in the country.

Perlas said governance is not just about the government but about implementing processes to achieve social objectives. Perlas is a recipient of the Right Livelihood Award or Alternative Nobel Prize in 2003, and the UN Environmental Program Global 500 Award in 1994.

“Most of the problems in Mindanao are due to inequitable development and inequitable access to it,” he said.

Perlas said a leader must listen to and consult with stakeholders, have a passion for social justice, political will, and broad vision to realize the nation’s possibilities.

Escudero noted that Mindanao has been called a Land of Promise, but until now, the promise has not been fulfilled. The next president should “clean up corruption and stealing of government officials,” he said. He pushed for bigger allocation to education and infrastructure, and promotion of self-sufficiency and concentration on agriculture.

“Whoever will lead next should give to Mindanao what is due Mindanao,” said the first-term senator. “Mindanao contributes 17.7 percent of GDP but it only receives 11 to 14 percent of the budget. At the very least should be given an equal share.”

“We need a leader who knows how to listen, learn, and consult… We need a leader who fulfills promises and looks equally at Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao,” Escudero said. “The Philippines won’t grow if Mindanao won’t grow.”

Food security

The presidentiables said agriculture must be prioritized, especially in Mindanao, the country’s food basket.

“We need to fund irrigation, support services, post-harvest facilities, and modern threshing and drying methods, to improve our stock and ensure food security,” Escudero said.

He and Legarda called for the full funding and implementation of the Agri-Fisheries Modernization Act.

The three aspirants also pushed for a zoning or land use code of the country. Legarda promised she would do this immediately and not wait for her to become president. She said farmers must be given subsidy to make the agricultural sector more productive.

Sustainable development

Progress and environmental protection can work together, the presidentiables said.

Legarda said she was “for sustainable, equitable social eco development that is hinged on rural livelihood and resilient investment.”

She said that the country’s growth has been measured by statistics. “But what kind of life do we have? We have gold but our rivers are full of filth,” she said. “We must protect our ecosystems and have resilient investment.”

Based on his work with communities, Perlas said it is possible to “create sustainable organic agriculture without losing yield and income.”

It is bad governance that results in an unnecessary conflict between environment and development, he said. “It can be done.”

Escudero said modern technology now allows us to pursue both the protection of the environment and development of business.

Attracting investors

The presidentiables said more businesses can be encouraged to invest in Mindanao and the country if government addresses basic issues of governance.

Perlas said governance, fiscal management, and infrastructure must be addressed to build a business climate that attracts investors.

Legarda said the process of registering businesses must be “expedited and bribe-free.” She said in Mindanao, investments must be encouraged in agriculture and energy resources, especially with the imminent power crisis in the island.

She also cited the need to have a good business environment for the coconut and banana industries, which employ millions of Filipinos. “It is only through agriculture that we are able to find true rural empowerment in Mindanao.”

Escudero said the government needs to lower the cost of doing business to attract investors to the country. “I’d rather have their capital here and our labor here, rather than their capital here and our labor there.”

Peace talks

Legarda, Escudero, and Perlas said peace talks must be done through consultation and with transparency.

Legarda said she does not agree with the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) between the government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) that was scrapped last year. There was no prior consultation with stakeholders, she said, and talks must be held “within the ambient of our constitution and national sovereignty.”

“To be able to address concerns of MILF is not just a matter of talking peace once again but allowing them to achieve an authentic peace agreement along with developmental goals,” said Legarda. “I am certain more than half of armed men would rather hold fishing equipment than armalites. I am sure child warriors would rather hold a pen than baby armalite.”

Escudero said negotiations must be done in the spirit of transparency, consultation, and consensus-building.

“I do not agree that by signing an agreement, automatically peace will reign in Mindanao. The government must not use a Christian approach to a Muslim problem,” he said.

Perlas said he supports the rehabilitation of the MOA process but we must learn from its mistakes and achievement.

“There should be no conflict between the right to self-determination and right of nation state. If we want to have peace in Mindanao, we need to restore historical and social justice issues.”

Indigenous people

The three presidentiables were one in saying that more effort must be made to make the indigenous people of Mindanao integrated into mainstream society but without them losing their identity and cultural heritage.

Education is key to this. Legarda said scholarships be provided to the IP community, while Escudero said the first two to three years of education must use the native language.

IP culture and heritage must be preserved. Legarda cited her cultural village program, where Region XI is the pilot project area, which promotes IP cultures, arts and crafts, and rituals.

Perlas said modern Filipino society has forgotten the “profound wisdom of IPs in agriculture, medicine, art, and other indigenous knowledge… Thus we have a society that does not appreciate IPs and looks down at them as indigents.” At the same time, he noted that “many IPs have become cultural artifacts, one of the worst forms of commoditization.”

Escudero called for a genuine implementation of the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act of 1997 and a review of it at least every five years.

At the Shrine in Davao City

2009-08-27T22:03:00.003+08:00

A short video -- my first! -- on my favorite place in Davao City, for a class assignment. Please forgive the choppy video shots; the photos have better resolution. I used a digital camera to take videos thinking it would be better than a mobile phone. Or maybe I used the wrong settings in Premiere; I'm still new at it. Hope you like the video.

‘Endangered’ brgy a model for green practice

2009-08-12T14:52:00.004+08:00

(Published August 12, 2009, W, Mindanao Insider)

In Davao City, which used to be clean but is now gradually flooded by trash, Brgy. Vicente Hizon is emerging as a model for solid waste management.

Believing that a clean environment is essential to life and health, barangay captain Marissa Salvador Abella initiated a solid waste management program and in July started operating the first Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) in the city.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) donated the facility to Davao and two other cities in the Philippines, Sagay and Calbayo, as a pilot project area. The P3-million MRF has a small office, laboratory, shredding machine, and soil composter.

A group composed of journalists and barangay leaders visited the MRF recently as part of an orientation on human rights. Environmental rights are essential to preserving basic rights to life, health, and safety.

The JICA donation is a big help to the four-year-old barangay, which does not receive an Internal Revenue Allotment from the national government. Officials describe the barangay as ‘endangered’ because they rely only on the mayor’s donation and on fund-raising initiatives. The lack of resources has intensified collection of fees on garbage collection and community and real property taxes.

Homes in the barangay are oriented to keep four kinds of trash bins: biodegradable, recyclable, residual, and toxic. Biodegradable materials such as food waste are encouraged for use in a home compost. The recyclables are turned over to the barangay garbage truck that goes house to house twice a week.

Solid waste management is a pet project of Abella, who talks about the topic as an advocacy. Garbage, infested by insects, is a source of sickness. Methane gas that comes from trash contributes to global warming, which leads to climate change. This consequently affects food production.

“In last year’s Kadayawan, there wasn’t much harvest in fruits due to the rain,” she said.

Waste management is not just about trash bins, said Abella. “Containers are nice but people should be educated how to use it…. In Davao City, people were educated but there was no implementation. So here in our barangay, we do house to house (calls).”

The local school has gotten into the act. At the Vicente Hizon Elementary School, water containers are recycled as brightly colored trash bins and labeled biodegradable, recyclable, and residual.

The school promotes conservation of electricity, water, and paper, and prevention of pollution. Recyclable materials are turned into useful and income-generating projects. Water bottles are transformed into lamps, foils into flowers, papers into pen holders. These initiatives, said school administrator Filipinas Samblingo, have made Vicente Hizon a candidate as most eco-friendly elementary school in the region.

Sixth grade student Katrina Vequizo knows to throw her trash properly. “It makes the environment clean and orderly, and prevents sickness,” she said.

It is for the future of children and grandchildren that Abella fights for the environment. Aside from monitoring the barangay solid waste management program, she is also keen on waste diversion, such as turning durian husks into charcoal briquettes and incorporating residual waste into hollow blocks.

“Because of global warming, I really get tough. If we don’t act on it, what will we do? The Philippines contributes only three percent to global warming,” she said, “but even small deeds can help.”

Barangay captain Marissa Abella demonstrates how trash should be segregated.

The first Materials Recovery Facility in Davao City is in Brgy. Vicente Hizon. The P3-million facility was donated by Japan and has its own soil composter and shredder.

The soil composter at the Materials Recovery Facility in Brgy. Hizon.

Brgy. Hizon plans to incorporate residual waste such as plastic bags into hollow blocks. The residuals do not weaken or strengthen the blocks, but it’s a way of diverting waste into something useful, says village chief Abella. The blocks will be for light uses.

Presidential forum set in Davao City

2009-08-10T14:12:00.003+08:00

(Mindanao Insider, August 10, 2009)

Mindanao will be the agenda when the country’s presidential candidates gather for the first Presidential Forum in Mindanao on August 27 in Davao City.

“The objective of this forum is to bring to [the candidates’] attention specific concerns of Mindanao,” said Mindanao Business Council Executive Director Jason Magnaye in a media briefing yesterday. “We hope to get from theme concrete answers in so far as Mindanao development is concerned.”

MinBC, in cooperation with the Asia Foundation and USAID, is organizing the forum as part of their Transparent Accountable Governance Project.

Pampanga Governor Ed Panlilio and environmentalist Nick Perlas have confirmed their attendance, said Magnaye. Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay will not be able to attend as he will be in Cebu that time.

“Everyone has shown interest,” Magnaye said. Also invited are Vice President Noli de Castro, Senators Manny Villar, Mar Roxas, Loren Legarda, Francis Escudero, and Richard Gordon, Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro, MMDA chair Bayani Fernando, and former president Joseph Estrada.

Their attendance will be a good litmus test on their concern for Mindanao, said Magnaye. “If Mindanao really matters to you, please be here,” he said, addressing the candidates.

MinBC has listed a number of topics for discussion. A panel composed of representatives from various sectors in Mindanao will pose questions on specific topics. These include issues on women, health, youth, governance, education, indigenous people, Muslims, agri-fishery, environment, peace and order, and labor.

The forum, to be held at the Grand Regal Hotel, will be attended by about 200 representatives from the business industry, local government units, civil society groups, MinBC organization partners, media, and representatives from project areas of Transparent Accountable Governance in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, according to Project Team Leader Joy Almanzor.

“The audience will be a good cross-section of Mindanao,” said Magnaye. He added that the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao Business Council has expressed interest in joining the forum.

Cory Aquino: A woman of faith

2009-08-03T11:45:00.003+08:00

(Mindanao Insider, August 3, 2009, M)

“It’s very simple, I just tell my sad story, and people weep.” – Corazon Aquino

I was too young to remember Martial Law or EDSA Revolution. But Cory Aquino was my first president, the woman in yellow and big eyeglasses, smiling and flashing the Laban sign.

As I grew older, I began to understand what Cory meant and her role in restoring democracy to the country. As a private citizen, Cory continued to command respect and love despite the faults and failures of her administration. She was the moral voice of the country. To people, it was not her position that mattered but who she was and what she did for us.

Journalists will always be grateful to Cory for restoring and respecting the freedom of expression and of the press. “The media are effective as the instruments of truth, from which they draw their real power,” she said in the US in 2001. “And, even armed with the truth, the media’s power is frail. Without the people’s support, it can be shut off with the ease of turning a light switch.”

For this right to write freely, I owe Cory and all who fought for it.

***

How Cory lived her life is an uncommon lesson in power. Born into a political family, she did not dream of politics. In fact, her brother Peping did not see leadership qualities in the young Cory, the sixth of eight children. She excelled in her studies, and after marrying the talented Ninoy Aquino, became a devoted housewife. Ninoy’s loving poem to his wife, written in his prison years, described the transformation of Cory from “fragrant and cool as the morning dew” to a source of strength, comfort, and hope.

After Ninoy’s death, Cory carried on with his work. She did not want to, but asked herself a simple question: “What if I can make a difference?” She did not want to live her life regretting a chance to make a difference.

It did not matter that she was derided as a mere woman and plain housewife. Cory was the anti-thesis to the power-clinging Marcoses. She served as the unifier of a divided opposition.

“I do not have all the qualities of the ideal President who never existed,” she said in 1987. “But I have the qualities for the leadership of our nation in these times. After years of stealing, degradation and abuse from our leaders, the Filipino people made a clear choice.”

Exactly because she did not seek power was why power was bestowed on her. She was simple, humble, and sincere. She was as anti-trapo as you could be at that time. She became the country’s moral force.

“As I came to power peacefully, so shall I keep it,” she often said. People believed in her because she was true to her word. In her last State of the Nation Address, Cory made it clear she was leaving office. She led the peaceful transition of power to her successor, Ramos.

These are things one can’t say about Arroyo, or Ramos and Estrada. I don’t believe the outpouring of gratitude that Cory is receiving today will be matched by the three presidents that came after her. They will be lucky to receive such affection from Filipinos of all walks of life.

Cory represented more than the presidency. She was an icon of democracy, a woman of extraordinary faith. She proved that true power comes from inside, not from the trappings of office or an exalted position.

In facing life’s tragedies, she exuded quiet courage, gentle strength, and a commitment to peace that came from a tough core. Cory described courage as “not simply a patience which passively suffers until the storm is past. Rather, it is a spirit which bears things, with resignation yes, but above all with blazing and serene hope. And for me this blazing and serene hope is founded on Faith.”

Our nation today requires this blazing, serene hope that someday, somehow, life will be better. That our leaders will enrich the country and not themselves, that families won’t be separated to work abroad, that journalists can report the truth without fear for their lives, that our streets will be safe, that our government will listen to us.

Cory asked herself, “What if I can make a difference?” She followed a path that was not easy for her but one she felt she should. It is a question that we should ask ourselves too: “What can I do to make a difference to my country?” It can be as simple as obeying traffic rules to being honest to choosing leaders wisely in the next election.

“Be not afraid to do something you believe in,” Cory told the youth last year. “Be true to yourselves and to your faith, and God will do the rest.”

It’s very simple. We just tell Cory’s story, and people are inspired.

Duterte vs. Nograles: The fight begins

2009-07-22T15:44:00.003+08:00

(Published in Mindanao Insider, July 22, 2009, W)

The election is still a year away but Davao City is already feeling the heat from its biggest political rivals.

Mayor Duterte and Speaker Nograles themselves won’t face off in the local elections – both are serving their last terms in office – but there has been talk of each running for the other’s post. The two have been quiet about their plans, which could see them compete against the other’s child, but that only adds fuel to the fire.

The headlines we see now are just the start of a long, grueling battle for Davaoenos’ hearts, minds, and votes. Let us count the ways: the controversies on the CHR inquiry on the Davao Death Squad, the demolition of the Erico Nograles Park and subsequent suspension of three City Hall officials, and the reported absence of Nograles scholars in the Comelec list of voters. Remember too we had a taste of their bitter fight and blame game two years ago after a young, impoverished girl committed suicide.

What are we learning from this great exercise of power, politics, and propaganda? A lot.

The inquiry on extra-judicial killings is not just a legal issue. It is more importantly a moral examination of us as individuals and members of civilized society. “We could feel we were unwelcome (in Davao City). We were rocking the boat. We were going against the grain of public opinion,” said CHR Chair Leila de Lima on TV last week, about their first public hearing on the DDS. It was this “public apathy, even acceptance” by locals that De Lima worried about. This, aside from the Mayor’s “incredible, bold statements short of tolerating the killings.”

The discovery of a mass grave was strong evidence of a vigilante group and bolstered CHR’s investigation. The subsequent complaint of a Jonathan Balo against De Lima, Nograles, and police officers attempted to douse the fire, but the timing and motivation are very much questionable. Is CHR succeeding in overturning the public’s apathy or acceptance of summary killings, even those of criminals? Such change will be significant, for even the simplest things begin to look different with a change in mindset.

In their responses and arguments to controversial issues such as the Nograles Park demolition and Ombudsman’s suspension of City Hall officials, we can see what our leaders think of us, the public. We are not lawyers and cannot claim full knowledge of the law as much as they do (hopefully). The Speaker, Mayor, Karlo, and Sara are all lawyers. Are we then made more educated or ignorant? Do we allow them to interpret and bend the law at their will, because they have the power and can get away with it?

In a political rivalry as heated as Duterte-Nograles, the media can be winner and loser. It can bring to light issues that would have been hidden had there been no strong opposing voice. At an economic level, their rivalry keeps the news cycle going. But media loses if we get carried away by ignorant and misinformed statements. A trap to be avoided is thinking that to be against Duterte is to be for Nograles, or vice versa. A journalist is neither. To be a journalist is to be for truth and good governance. It is to recognize that how a leader treats journalists is a test of respect: of media’s independence, of freedom of the press, of opposition and criticism, of journalists’ very lives.

Duterte and Nograles had a truce that was all too brief. It proves strange bedfellows can only tolerate each other for so long. The people of Davao have seen how the two lead. Duterte restored order, Nograles laid out infrastructure. Both moves are essential to the city’s development. The two will not stop fighting – the scars are too deep now – but one hopes that it is all for love of Davao City. It may be wishful thinking, but a battle of such leaders should ultimately benefit the people, who will have become more mature and discerning with each unfolding chapter of the fight to rule Davao.

Turning the tide

2009-07-13T11:01:00.005+08:00

(Published in Mindanao Insider, July 14, 2009, T)

When Commission on Human Rights chair Leila de Lima announced in February a probe on the “Davao Death Squad,” she expressed worry about the killings’ effect on the psyche of Davaoeños.

“The public feels (the killings) are normal. I want to save (the situation from) becoming acceptable,” she said.

Since then, the CHR has conducted three public hearings, inviting the mayor, police, military, victims’ relatives, witnesses, and informants to shed light on the shadowy vigilante group.

Their investigation is yielding results.

Since the hearings, the number of DDS-style killings has dropped, according to the Coalition Against Summary Execution.

Last week the CHR found human bones at a shooting range and quarry in the city. The exhumation was based on a sworn statement by a former DDS member. Never mind the noise generated about CHR’s supposed legal violations in searching the quarry. It looks to be an example of the adage, “When there’s smoke, there’s fire.”

But obstacles remain.

Despite finding bones in a cave in the quarry, the CHR was refused a search warrant by a Davao City judge for “lack of probable cause.” Which made De Lima wonder: Are judges in Davao afraid of DDS?

She knew it wouldn’t be easy. De Lima said as much in February, but hoped that an investigation would “have a deterrent effect… and make people in Davao realize [summary killings are] wrong, legally and morally.”

Despite their findings and a chilling report by the New York-based Human Rights Watch, it looks like the CHR still has to prove the existence of DDS to a confused public, and that the killings are wrong.

De Lima told the inter-agency DDS Task Force in a June briefing that Davao City officials are “still in the state of denial on what’s really happening in Davao. It is of course understandable at this point. For one, the ‘goings on’ there is already a `public knowledge’ especially to the residents.” But to the human rights chair, “DDS is no laughing matter and we maintain that it exists.”

The CHR and other human rights advocates have been criticized for defending the rights of criminals, killed by DDS. It is an argument that Mayor Duterte has repeated: What about the rights of the victims of these criminals?

Business leaders believe peace and order begets an attractive business climate. Residents are conflicted. When talking about DDS to out-of-towners, the tone is likely a mixture of pride, audacity, and secrecy. But when we have TV shows, restaurants, and promos with various interpretations of DDS, you know the public has accepted or at least recognized the Davao Death Squad.

But the end does not justify the means. Davao City is safe, but at what cost to our society, morality, and our very souls?

If Davao City police is so good it receives awards, why do we need DDS to weed out criminals?

If, as widely believed, those in power tolerate these vigilante-style killings, why can’t they instead use those powers to bring criminals to jail?

***

Media has been at the forefront of covering summary killings. In fact, it was local media that gave the vigilante group the name “Davao Death Squad.” But despite our best intentions and efforts, media can lose focus.

When the CHR searched the quarry, early coverage highlighted the lack of access to media and NGOs inside the quarry site. Some cried for transparency.

But perhaps due to excitement, it was forgotten that the CHR was treating the quarry as a place that required utmost care and handling. They had the bones to show for it. Like crime scenes, not just anybody is allowed inside.

At times the issue gets politicized. The CHR investigation on DDS is not about political rivalry. It is about human rights, justice, and morality. By now De Lima’s dogged determination, firm stand, and courage should prove this isn’t a simple fishing expedition. Davao City’s leaders have refrained from commenting on the probe. If they have, they cede the authority to CHR. Will they still do so when CHR releases the results of investigation?

When judgment day arrives, media must be careful not to get carried away by the finger-pointing and political mudslinging that will surely follow.

Field day for media

2009-07-09T14:46:00.003+08:00

(Mindanao Insider, July 9, 2009)

Every once in a while comes a story so fun journalists relish writing it. Such was the case with the President’s breast implant, initially denied but later confirmed by Malacanang.

You know it from the pun-filled headlines: “Palace makes a clean breast of Arroyo implant.” “NBI probes ‘boob job’ leak.” “Gov’t nosing into records of boob job exposé writer?” TV reporters too couldn’t resist using “bukas dibdib” to describe the Palace’s admission or Arroyo’s seeming nonchalance of an embarrassing moment for her.

The Palace had it coming.

“Just look if the President had a breast implant,” Press Secretary Cerge Remonde told reporters. “That’s a private matter. It’s obvious if women have had breast implants. The sexy actresses with (unbelievable) boobs, they’re the ones who underwent breast implants. We can’t say the same thing of the President… Perhaps you can look at her if she’s the type who’s likely to have a breast implant.”

As it turned out, Arroyo did – as a “medical necessity” and not for vanity, the Palace clarified without going into details.

Still, the damage was done. A rumor is best doused with truth. Covering up and prevaricating only fuel the fire. The press secretary’s valiant attempt to defend his boss from an “absurd” and “nonsensical” rumor caused greater offense and heightened stereotypes. Jess Dureza must be relieved at not having had to answer that sensitive question. But Remonde can’t be blamed. Obviously, he did not know. For who would have imagined the strict, no-nonsense GMA undergoing a breast implant? Sexy actresses, yes, but the President of the Philippines?

Media lapped it up. The Palace had been caught. Arroyo may have quarantined herself for A(H1N1) but she was not forthcoming about her other medical procedures. What if the lumps found in her breast and groin had not been benign?

The President’s health is a matter of national interest. That is a justification for reporting about her breast implant. But media can only go so far.

The breast job, without the biopsy report, would have crossed the line. Details about Arroyo’s laser treatment should not have been published. It does not serve a larger public interest save to tickle the imagination of the opposition, journalists, and bloggers.

Even without that, editors certainly had fun thinking of titles for the breast job story. It’s not everyday that journalists can exercise their creativity and wit.

I’m reminded of the stories that came out after Obama swatted a fly during a White House interview. The little fly did not stand a chance at the hands of the world’s most powerful man. “Barack Obama: The human flyswatter,” declared The Associated Press. The New York Daily News announced: “No presidential pardon for this pest.”

Ah well. It’s all in a day’s work. Sometimes journalists just want to have pun.

The riches of Compostela Valley

2009-07-09T14:22:00.006+08:00

(Published in Zee Magazine, April 2009)

Driving around Compostela Valley, the visitor notices men and women lolling outside unpainted concrete houses, whatever time of day. They’re not necessarily jobless. The tourism officer tells me some of them may look poor – until you step inside their homes and see a small gold processing operation.

That might as well describe the whole of Compostela Valley, a province that on the outside looks formidable. But dig deep and you’ll find a diverse trove of nature’s riches.

It’s what a Mandaya tribal elder found when he struck gold in Mt. Diwalwal in 1983, spurring a gold rush that has enriched the bold and the lucky but also led to violence, landslides, and pollution. In 2007, Hollywood actor Josh Hartnett filmed scenes of an independent movie in the mining area. The northernmost town of Monkayo, site of Mt. Diwalwal, is the most populous town in Comval and is considered the socio, economic, political and cultural hub of the province.

Last year the provincial government began ambitious moves to attract not just gold-hunters but eco-adventure tourists. On their 10th year as a province in March, Comval celebrated the first Bulawan (Gold) Festival to drum up its aim to be the Jewelry Capital of the Philippines.

More significant was the unveiling of the country’s biggest gold ring, now housed in a glass case with its own guard at the Provincial Capitol. The 18-carat, two-toned Solidarity Ring measures five inches wide and weighs 1.3 kilos. Local officials, miners, and private individuals from Comval and Davao del Norte donated gold to forge the ring valued at P1.5-million.

In January 2008, the local government of Monkayo established the three-year Municipal Jewelry Making Skills Training Center/ Enterprise, where visitors can buy locally crafted jewelry.

This first-class Southern Mindanao province between Davao del Norte and Oriental spans 4,667 sq. km., or 16 Cebu cities combined. Comval has a peculiar shape of a right ear with a fleshy earlobe and small hole. From the ear grows lush forests, beautiful waterfalls, and rich mineral deposits. You can’t drive around Comval’s 11 municipalities without hearing crickets or seeing small, clean waterfalls breaking from the mountain.

Comval’s diverse riches are also in its people. Its 600,000 mostly young peoples are a mix of ethnicities from Visayan migrants to nine indigenous tribes.

The capital, Nabunturan, is 90 kilometers from Davao City. The two-hour drive is smooth and the road widens mid-way in Tagum. When the road hugs the cliff, you’ll see the best view of Comval from above and afar.

At the heart of Comval, the main roads are wide and concreted. A van or SUV does the job, but if you want to tackle the winding cliffs, a 4x4 is the only way. On top, the view is of steep ravines. On rainy days, fog envelopes the highland towns of Maragusan and New Bataan, home of the peak of Comval’s mountain range.

The inner roads are trickier. When the weather is bad, even a 4x4 can’t go past deep, muddy roads. You’d need to ride a motor or a skylab, that only-in-Comval contraption named after the space vehicle of the 70s. Comval’s skylab is a motor outfitted with a roof and wings, i.e. wood planks, to seat eight including the driver. Skylabs are licensed by the transportation office, but it’s a risky ride. For drivers, it maximizes their income; for passengers, skylab is the only way through unpaved roads.

Traveling in Comval requires tolerance if your definition of indulgence is five-star hotels and luxurious resorts. There’s a reason their tourism tagline is “Conquering Compostela Valley.” The province is rough, rugged, and mostly undeveloped – qualities that attract the pioneering, adventurous, and bold who travel off the beaten path.

There are pleasant accommodations and developed attractions. In Nabunturan, the Comval Hotel and Restaurant has rooms that can sleep five for only P1,500. The town is called the Spelunking Capital of the province because of the San Vicente Cave, which boasts of unique stalactite and stalagmite formations. Four caves are open to the public. There are more caves in Monkayo, such as the Kumbilan Cave that has tunnel-like features used as lairs by fruit bats.

The most popular resort in Nabunturan is the Toyozu Inland Resort, where you can relax in small Japanese-style pools filled with hot spring water. You can adjust the temperature by moving stones over the water passages. For sauna, you can’t get as natural as sitting inside the tunnels with steaming water in the middle. When hungry, indulge in the town’s famous bibingka sold at the Bibingka City, a line of stalls owned by five siblings.

The hot spring water in Nabunturan comes from the tiny volcano of Mt. Angelo at the back of Bukal Elementary School. Mt. Angelo, said to be named after a school principal, is less than five feet and grows by the day. The area has an otherworldly glow. Steaming water runs over ground discolored green or orange by the water’s sulfur. It almost passes for a post-apocalyptic scene, except that the surrounding vegetation is green.

The hour-long drive from Nabunturan to Maco is not smooth, but it rewards. If you want to bathe in hot water straight from the mountains, the Mainit Sulfuric Hot Springs is best.

The water, steaming at 35oC, drips from high, rocky ledges. No swimsuits here; in rural provinces like Comval, adult ladies still bath in conservative shirts and shorts.

Another hour’s drive from Mainit is the majestic Lake Leonard. The caldera lake formed from the crater of the active volcano Leonard Kniaseff stretches 203 km in diameter against a mountain range coated in lush green.

In Maragusan, it is not uncommon to see wild orchids grown in homes. The town boasts of exotic flora, the biggest being the rafflesia that blooms between September and October. Of Maragusan’s 30 waterfalls, the most famous are the 13-tier Marangig and the seven-tier Tagbibinta. Cool Maragusan is a summer sufferer’s refuge, beginning with the Aguacan Cold Spring Resort. At Haven’s Peak, where the cottages are clean and charming, you’ll need to bring your Baguio attire, and strong knees. The resort is 198 steps high. On top, you’ll be treated to a bird’s eye view of the town and surrounding mountain ranges.

Cold springs are abundant in New Bataan. Lucky locals, to swim in pools filled not with chlorine but natural cold spring water. In Andap and Bamboo Garden resorts, a short walk leads to the river itself.

The towns of Mabini and Pantukan stretch along the Davao Gulf and are closer to Tagum City than Nabunturan. Two islands are famous: the private Kopiat and the eco-tourism park Lunod. The latter, also called St. Anthony’s Island, spans 17 hectares, mostly covered by healthy mangrove forests and with a rich marine life.

The resorts in Comval, especially the beaches, are places of quintessential Filipino gatherings – crowded, noisy with talk and karaoke, a barrage of smells from barbecue to cigarettes.

But this is real life, an authentic experience with locals in a place where destiny is defined by nature’s wealth and wrath. To see Comval is to witness the delicate and volatile dance between Maker and man.

For more information, contact: Provincial Tourism Office, Office of the Governor, Compostela Valley, Tel. No. (84) 3760140

CHR inquiry ends with more denials

2009-04-01T15:55:00.006+08:00

(Published in The Mindanao Insider, April 1, 2009, W)

The last day of the public inquiry on summary killings in Davao City began with denials by police and military of the presence of a “Davao Death Squad,” and ended with a report by an international human rights group suggesting the death squad operations are “state-sanctioned.”

The Commission on Human Rights investigated the extralegal and summary killings in Davao City in a public hearing Monday to Tuesday at the Royal Mandaya Hotel. CHR chair Leila de Lima has called the Davao killings “the most audacious spate of localized criminal violations against the right to life in our time.”

De Lima said the CHR will issue a report after the hearing wraps up. The Commission en banc will continue its investigation when they return to Manila. “If we need to file cases, we will,” said De Lima.

“It’s more than a question of capacity or capability. It’s a question of political will.” she said.

The Integrated Bar of the Philippines Davao City chapter recorded 890 cases of alleged summary killings from 1998 to March 27, 2009. Two more persons were killed on March 28 and 29.

Despite the numbers, police said these killings are not considered “sensational.” Despite the pattern, police said there is no Davao Death Squad.

Sr. Supt. Aaron Aquino, chief of the Regional Investigation and Detective Management Division of the Police Regional Office, said the summary killings could be perpetrated by different groups such as “gangs, syndicated crime groups, and communists.”

Aquino noted that “80 to 90 percent use motorcycles for these illegal activities.” He suggested that motorcycles have two plate numbers, at the front and back, and have the number printed on the gas tank.

De Lima rued that part of the problem may be the mindset of police treating summary killings as “ordinary crimes” despite its “pattern and brazenness.”

Not enough

Four police officers and Maj. Gen. Raymundo Ferrer, Eastern Mindanao Command chief, answered questions by De Lima under oath on the summary killings.

Ferrer said he was not well-informed on the matter. “Since I took over [this year], I have not come across intelligence reports or records of DDS.” Their main job, he said, is counter-terrorism.

The police took the opportunity to air out their problems, such as lack of manpower and equipment.

Talomo station commander Supt. Michael John Fernando Dubria said his station severely lacked policemen.

“The police-people ratio in my area is 1 policeman for 2,856 people. The ideal ratio should be 1 policeman for every 500 people. We lack 468 personnel. We only have 117,” he said.

Police said the community must help them too.

“There are a lot of witnesses but our main problem is their willingness to provide us the necessary information to provide the identity of the killers,” said Supt. Antonio Rivera, chief of Investigation and Detective Management of the Davao City Police Office.

Asked why witnesses do not participate, Rivera said, “Maybe because of attitude of bahala na or walang pakialam…. There are just instances when they refuse to cooperate.”

Watchlist

The CHR also called the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency to the hearing since victims of summary killings are suspected to be involved in drug-related activities.

PDEA regional director Supt. Glenn de la Torre said the drug situation in Davao City has “significantly reduced compared to previous years since 2005” because perpetrators had been neutralized. He said that while there are still drug users and pushers, there are “no more drug laboratories here.”

“Every time there is a killing, media calls me to confirm if the victim is part of a watchlist,” said Dela Torre. He said there were only 43 drug-related victims, not 300 plus as presented Monday by CHR.

De Lima asked for a copy of his document.

The watchlist of drug personalities for delisting listed 43 names. Eighteen were from Davao City, said Dela Torre.

De Lima noted all 43 were deceased.

Her voice raised, De Lima asked, “How do you neutralize people in a watchlist?”

“We arrest them,” Dela Torre quickly replied.

“How come they’re dead?”

Dela Torre said he didn’t know. Later he said, “We merely record this, your honor. We don’t have a hand on their death whatsoever.”

‘State-sanctioned’

The Davao public inquiry wrapped up with a preview of a report on summary killings by Human Rights Watch, an international human rights group based in New York.

Elaine Pearson, deputy director of Asia division, said their report, to be released next week, concludes that the Davao Death Squad exists, and suggests the operations are “state-sanctioned.”

Pearson cited the reasons why they believe so: Motorcycles bear no plates, and advance warnings are provided to victims by the police or city or government officials.

She said assailants “received information from police and barangay captains” and “coordinated schedules” of killings so police will respond slowly and assailants can flee.

Information from their report was gathered from witnesses and death squad insiders, said Pearson.

She contradicted government and police pronouncements that Davao is a safe place. Citing PNP figures, Pearson said while the population grew 29 percent from 1999 to 2008, the crime incident grew 248 percent per year.

“It seems there is real lack of political will by local and national government,” she said.

Witness protection

CHR chair De Lima said the inquiry will not end when they leave Davao.

“There will be a continuation in our central office. We know there are witnesses out there who may be unwilling to testify here in Davao City,” she said.

Yesterday afternoon, the commission en banc held an executive session with witnesses and potential witnesses who did not want to come out in public.

De Lima said the commission will conduct measures to protect witnesses. “We will not force anyone to cooperate with us if there is no offer of witness protection.”

“There’s still so much to uncover,” said De Lima. “We were just hoping that there would be more participants in the consultative process. That in itself is indicative that there really is a problem here.”

Links:

Mindanews has a wide coverage of the inquiry:

"What peace? What order?" asks De Lima

Mother narrates to CHR how she lost four sons to summary killings

Duterte resigns as deputized Napolcom rep

Human Rights Watch says killings may be "state-sanctioned"

Tourism dep’t sets sights on emerging markets, launches new programs

2009-02-24T13:46:00.003+08:00

(Published in The Mindanao Insider, Feb. 23, 2009, M)

Despite the global financial slowdown, the tourism industry remains upbeat of growth and has launched new programs to spur travel.

The Department of Tourism will launch in March summer getaway packages around the country.

“We’ve already sat down with airlines, hotels, and tour operators. Hopefully, the rates will be cheaper compared to going abroad,” Tourism Secretary Ace Durano told local media last week.

The DOT has also begun exposure trips across the country for Manila-based graduating students of Tourism and Hotel and Restaurant Management courses.

Two batches, or 100 students, were sent to Davao City in January for the “Tourism Apprenticeship Program,” Durano said.

“These are people who will enter the tourism industry but haven’t experienced the destinations.” The DOT began this program so when the graduates start working, they will be knowledgeable when talking about these places, he said.

The program in partnership with 20 universities in Manila also takes students to other key cities like Cebu, Bohol, and Palawan for a comprehensive experience and training on the tourism industry.

The all-expense paid trips involve two days of hands-on training in kitchen, resort, and hotel operations, and two days of sightseeing.

For the two batches in Davao, Durano said the DOT spent P1.2-million on the local economy, from hotel, transport, tour operator, and food. Two more batches of students will be flown to Davao in March.

“Tourism in Davao is developing very nicely,” said Durano. “Davao is creating its own identity as a travel destination. There’s whitewater rafting, Outland Adventure, and Mt. Apo.”

The tourism secretary was in Davao on Thursday to join President Arroyo as she toured Chinese businessmen in Samal interested in investing in mariculture. In the afternoon, Durano rode the zipline at Outland Adventure. “I can’t believe it’s just in the city,” he said.

Despite Davao’s strides in tourism, the five key destinations in the country are Manila, Boracay, Cebu, Bohol, and Palawan.

Growth

Tourist arrivals in the country grew 1.5 percent in 2008, or 3.14 million visitors. “If not for the emerging markets like Russia, China, and India, we would not be experiencing positive growth,” said Durano.

Still, the industry will be affected by the slowing economies of its top markets, Korea, US, and Japan. “When we made our forecast of 5 million tourists by 2010, the market was different then. If we stick with it, that’ll be just a dream,” Durano said. “Based on our projections, if these markets will bounce back by 2010, then we will reach 5 million by 2012.”

For the last five years, the average tourist growth has been 10.6 percent, he said, but the growth on value or spending is 40 percent. In 2008, tourist spending reached $4.8 billion, thanks to Europeans, said Durano. “Europeans stay longer, thus they spend more. Their activities are also higher-value like spa and medical services.”

Close to P600-billion have been directly invested by foreign companies such as for resorts and hotels in the country’s tourism industry in the past five years, said Durano.

Emerging markets

The tourism department is looking at a 2 percent growth, or close to 3.5 tourists, for 2009. Durano said this is beyond the 0-2 percent growth expected in Asia Pacific. “The January and February arrivals are better than expected,” he said.

“There’s not a single market that really gives us volume and growth,” he added. “Our market is diverse, so those that are down will be compensated for by others.”

The growth market, he said, will be Asia Pacific, a market of 70 million. He cited the significant increase of Chinese and Indian tourists. “With the way China is growing, it will overtake Japan” as our third market, said Durano.

He said the China market has been growing 100 percent year on year. He credited this to direct and chartered flights, and to a relaxation of visa requirements.

The Indian market grew 24 percent, or a total of more than 20,000 tourists, in 2008.

“We’ve been developing the Indian market for three years now. Indians like shopping, the urban lifestyle. They find our shopping better; we just have to make the package cheaper. The only thing missing is direct flights,” Durano said. “Hopefully by yearend, Philippine Airlines will start flying to New Delhi.” He added that PAL has already signed a contract with the General Service Agent in India.

“Indians like our local brands like Bayo, Kamiseta, Rusty Lopez. They like the style and price. They don’t come here to buy Louis Vuitton but things for daily use,” he added.

In tough times, Filipinos find ways to reinvent selves

2009-02-20T13:42:00.004+08:00

(Mindanao Insider, Feb. 20, 2009 F)

At the JIB Welding Academy in downtown Davao City, 31-year-old Eduardo Magdangal is learning the theories of welding, how to fabricate steel, and how to make pipes. Magdangal did not always want to be a welder. But last year while looking for a new career path, he became interested in welding while having his car repaired. He learned that auto shops do not just repair but also make body-building and steel fabrication. “I can do this,” he told himself.

As the global financial crisis affects more businesses and individuals, enterprising Filipinos are looking for ways to cope by doing extra work or, like Magdangal, learning new skills.

“Even in tough times, people will invest on education,” said JIB Welding Academy owner Joji Ilagan-Bian.

Skilled workers like welders are in-demand especially in the Middle East and receive $3,000 to $4,000 a month. Welding is the second most popular course at the JIB schools next to call center training, said Djan Capinpin, executive assistant to Bian. He said about 75 percent of their welding graduates find employment in local and overseas companies.

“Filipinos are in-demand abroad,” he said. “We say yes and yes to work because we want to earn, unlike other nationalities who say it’s not part of my job description.”

Magdangal was motivated to study welding so he could pursue his own path away from the family business. He had handled some of their businesses but these were greatly affected by economic crises.

In 2002, business was good for their lending shop in General Santos City. Small loans did not require collateral but they made sure the borrower had a business. In 2007, borrowers began to default on their loans. Their businesses were not doing well and they could not pay. “It became difficult for us. We could not roll our money,” Magdangal said. “You really cannot force people to pay no matter how tough you get.”

He turned the business over to his parents and was then assigned to the family’s rubber farm. Things became difficult as oil prices went on a roller-coaster ride in 2008. In January, rubber was sold for P30 a kilo. In August, the price rose to P54 then plunged to P19 in November.

“It’s really hard now to predict what will happen,” he said.

He decided it was time to shift careers, find his own path, and study again. In December Magdangal began a two-month basic course at the JIB Welding Academy. He plans to work abroad for two, six, up to eight years to earn his own money for his wife and two kids.

“Maybe later when I return I can put up my own business,” he said.

Sidelines

For 52-year-old Lani Diaz, crisis is no longer new. She went through a bigger crisis four years ago when her employer could not pay them their salaries for three months. The company, which had a real estate division, initially weathered the 1997 Asian financial crisis, but the effect of the crisis was prolonged it plunged the company deeper.

Diaz, a licensed real estate broker for the company, began selling other lots on the side. She also referred housing loan applicants to a bank where she got a commission for every successful referral. For her 2007 performance, she received a most improved broker award from the bank.

She also began preparing to switch careers. Over four years, she took up MBA at a local university. When her employer wanted to transfer her to another division, she opted to get the early retirement package.

The MBA completed, she started teaching Marketing at a college in 2007. Diaz stopped after one year to focus on her full-time work as an executive assistant at an oil company.

With a stable job and her son now a college graduate and employed, Diaz can say she survived her own big crisis. She can save more because she’s done paying for education.

“Some people are having a hard time now. I’ve been through that. Difficult times don’t last,” she said.

Her additional income from real estate commissions and loan referral fees paid for new appliances, a kitchen renovation, and house improvements.

The global financial crisis has not affected her sideline because she was able to close good deals last year, she said.

She continues to refer housing and consumer loan applicants to the bank, which she said has not changed its policy or quota despite the crisis.

On the side now, she volunteers as a religion teacher for one hour each week at an elementary school as part of her church service.

Crisis or no crisis, the Filipino will survive, said Capinpin of JIB Academy. “We’re used to crisis. We always adapt to changing demands and we look for other ways to support ourselves and our family.”

OFWs tighten belts amidst layoffs

2009-02-19T15:26:00.003+08:00

(Mindanao Insider / Feb. 19, 2009 H)

Ana Perlita Dumandan worked in Saudi Arabia for three years until she returned to Davao City in June 2008. Without work here, her savings have shrunk.

“When I’m here, money keeps going out. No money comes in,” she said. “It’s difficult times again.”

Days after the new year, Dumandan, 40, applied at the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency for a job at the Ministry of Health in Saudi, which is looking for 2,000 nurses. The government has been urged to focus on the Middle East market where many OFWs are deployed due to the region’s steady job orders.

Her husband’s job unstable, Dumandan has cut her monthly family budget from P10,000 to P8,000. That doesn’t include their child’s tuition at an elementary private school. The P2,000 would go to their savings or emergency fund. “We’re spending less now on recreation,” she said. “It’s time to work outside again to earn more money.”

Ron Lionel Bartolome, Regional Director of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration in Davao, said overseas Filipino workers have three options when they lose jobs. “They can find local employment, return abroad, or be self-employed.”

“It’s important that they know how to manage their money,” he said. “Husband and wife must plan what to do with the money being sent here.”

For Janice Abellano and her husband, their savings from working in Taiwan have gone to a store built beside their house. The store selling rice and livestock feeds is the fruit of their work in IT manufacturing firms in Taiwan; Abellano for three years, her husband for 10 months. “Even with an extra one-month pay (for retrenchment), his salary was not enough to recoup the placement fee,” she said.

Abellano, 29, was laid off by her Taiwanese employer shortly after she signed a three-year contract with them. Hundreds of Filipinos have lost their jobs in Taiwan due to the global financial crisis.

“The company said they were stable but they wanted to prioritize Taiwanese and Chinese workers,” she said.

As of mid-January, the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency has recorded 3,567 Filipinos from seven countries laid off due to the crisis. The Department of Labor and Employment estimates a million Filipinos to be laid off this year, 50,000 of them abroad.

About 1.2 million workers were deployed last year, 38,981 from the Davao region. Since December 2008, the Davao office of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration has recorded 16 displacements, 14 from Taiwan and one each from Laos and Dubai.

With expenses rising in Taiwan, Abellano used up her savings to buy a ticket home. She arrived five days before Christmas.

Without a regular job that earned her 900 Taiwanese dollars (about P1,267) a day, Abellano is worried. Her experience as an inspector of LCDs in Taiwan is not useful in Davao, mainly an agricultural region and without electronic manufacturing firms.

The eldest of eight siblings and the family breadwinner, she sent her salary in Taiwan to send two brothers to school. “Instead of spending money on myself, I’d rather spend it for my family,” she said. Her overseas work also bought them a television and refrigerator.

The store earns them P600 to P1,000 a day. From that they take P50 to P100 a month as savings. The rest they put back into the business.

The crisis means no new dresses and no shopping of non-essentials. But food, “we don’t scrimp on it,” she said.

Abellano and her husband do not plan to work outside for now. Instead, they applied for livelihood assistance at OWWA. They hope to build a boarding house to increase their livelihood. Abellano learned it would cost P200,000 for the wood alone. She’s hoping their application will be granted.

Despite the crisis, she is not scared. “It’s natural to go through hardships. We went through more hardships in Taiwan. Here it’s better. Even if financially it’s not so good, I’m with my family. They give moral support.”

Processing plants slow down

2009-02-19T15:18:00.002+08:00

(Mindanao Insider / Feb. 18, 2009 W)

On the last quarter of a year, Davao processing plants churning out products from banana chips to plastics are usually busy with orders for the holidays.

Not in 2008.

Since the global financial crisis imploded in the last quarter, processing companies here have struggled to keep plants running amidst an abundance of competition and dwindling export demand.

For the banana chips industry, the crisis doesn’t show yet in the numbers. In the first nine months of 2008, banana chips exports values reached $45.12 million, according to the Department of Trade and Industry. (Full 2008 figures were not yet available.) This is already on the range of the industry’s average growth rate of 30 percent since 2006.

Banana chips is king among Davao region exports of dried fruits, reaching Europe, US, and Asia. In 2006, banana chips exports were valued at $26.3 million, increasing to $33.9 million in 2007 with a volume of 31.5 million kilos as it became the region’s fourth top export.

But as 2008 closed, buyers of banana chips from Europe and US stopped or cut orders drastically. Volume sales went down, forcing banana chips companies to suspend or cut production to trim losses, or to close shop.

Emilia Limpot, manager of a Davao-based banana chips plant, said their company’s production output today is just 22 percent of its peak.

“We can’t stop operations totally because a lot of people will lose jobs. Still, we had to retrench,” she said. That meant keeping only a quarter of the staff they would have at peak season.

With the Europe and US markets down, banana chips companies now compete for China’s orders.

But China is grabbing the opportunity to lower prices due to the supply available and the highly competitive banana chips market, said Limpot.

From a high of P60 per pound, banana chips now sell for only P30, she said. That means farmers will have to sell their cardaba bananas, from which the chips are made, very cheap. From six pesos a kilo at the start of the year, the farm price has now fallen to one peso.

Limpot said farmers are now switching to other agriculture products since it is no longer profitable for them to plant cardaba.

Since two years ago, her banana chips company has reduced reliance on exports. Twenty percent of their production is distributed locally.

Plastic recycling

Like a domino, the global financial crisis caused oil prices to drop. For plastic recycling plants which supply raw materials to plastic manufacturers, that’s bad news.

The raw materials for plastic are byproducts of oil. When oil prices go down, the byproduct’s price decreases. If the virgin material is cheap, the recycled material must be cheaper. Otherwise, plastic manufacturers will import virgin materials. High oil price means they will not be able to afford doing so and will prefer the cheaper recycled raw material.

But even when oil peaked to $147 a barrel in mid-July 2008, the increase in business was minimal, said an owner of a plastic recycling plant. He asked not to be named due to the confidential and competitive nature of his small industry. “There is also a limit to production. If we want to produce more, we have to invest on equipment,” he said.

Recycling plants like his sort, wash, and melt plastic which is formed into strands and chopped into pellets. These pellets are sold to manufacturers who use them as raw materials to make products from plastic bags to plastic chairs.

When the global financial crisis unraveled and oil prices fell, the impact was great.

Sellers and exporters of recycled plastic pellets suddenly found fewer buyers. They turned to the local market; supply went up, prices fell. Their clients, plastic manufacturers, also cut down on production.

Some companies, like the businessman’s, temporarily stopped operations. He laid off more than half of his staff as he suspended production in the last two months.

On the new year as oil prices increased, business picked up and he restarted operations. But their output is just 20 percent of their usual production

“It’s difficult because do you sell at a loss or keep your stock? If you keep your stock, your money stays in your inventory,” he said.

Other companies simply closed. The reduced competition might help to stabilize prices, as well as a steady oil price of at least $50 a barrel, he said.

For now, processing plants that export or sell to exporters keep a watchful eye on the market.

“They say things will get more difficult in 2009,” said Limpot of the banana chips plant. “If there’s a recovery, it will probably be in the last quarter.”

Fighting the monster

2009-02-17T15:24:00.005+08:00

Debbie A. Uy / Mindanao Insider, Feb. 17, 2009 T

Davao City was in the spotlight at a Human Rights Reporting seminar-workshop in Cebu City over the weekend, and not for happy reason. The rise in vigilante-style killings in the city has sufficiently alarmed the national office of the Commission on Human Rights that it has scheduled a public inquiry in Davao City on March 30-31. It is the first CHR probe on such killings.

“We are lending the institutional standing of the CHR to have a comprehensive forum to look seriously at this phenomenon in Davao,” CHR Chair Leila De Lima told journalists attending the seminar.

The situation in Davao, she said, is worse than that in Cebu and the National Capital Region, where vigilante-style killings of alleged criminals have also occurred.

The Coalition Against Summary Executions recorded 480 persons, including children, summarily executed in Davao between 2001 and 2006. In January this year, 31 were reported to have been killed by the so-called Davao Death Squad. That’s an average of one everyday.

The CHR is as alarmed by the public’s non-reaction. De Lima said she was worried about the effect of the killings on the psyche of Davaoeños. “The public feels (the killings) are normal. I want to save (the situation from) becoming acceptable.”

In a Council-initiated hearing on the killings on February 9 here, CHR Southern Mindanao director Alberto Sipaco Jr. expressed the same sentiment about the lack of public outcry on the killings. People here think it is an effective way to curb crime, he said.

There is a history to this. In the 1980s, Davao City was a killing field by vigilantes and communist groups. Agdao was notoriously bloody and violent. When a lawyer named Rodrigo Duterte became mayor, the city gradually became peaceful and prosperous. Today Agdao is crowded with small shops, people can walk in the streets at night, and Davao is one of Asia’s “most livable cities.”

Davaoeños evidently approve of Duterte’s brand of peace and order. Duterte is now on his sixth term as mayor over a span of 20 years.

“Criminals are not welcome in my city,” he has always said. “The safety of the people in Davao is my mandate and responsibility.”

But as dead bodies attributed to the “Davao Death Squad” pile up, Duterte now has to face questions on the extra-judicial killings in his city. He has denied involvement in the killings and has declared cooperation in hearings as long they are open and public.

CHR Chair De Lima acknowledged it will be difficult to find out who is behind the killings, but hoped the probe will shed light on factors contributing to the situation. “Hopefully it will have a deterrent effect… and make people in Davao realize [it] is wrong, legally and morally.”

One could say the killings serve the criminals good, but there is always due process of law. If the law were to be bent for this case, what excuse for others? The public’s complacency is dangerous. Any killing could be attributed to the “Davao Death Squad” even if it were not. There would be no hope of finding justice for the innocent victim.

Every man is bestowed with human rights regardless of race, gender, language, religion, social origin, and status. These inalienable rights, ranging from freedom-oriented to social to needs-based, apply equally to all people. All human rights are of equal importance; one cannot respect one right and not the others. The words of US President Barack Obama in his inaugural address come to mind: “As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals.”

The peace in Davao City should not come at the expense of the law. Davaoeños may reap the economic and social benefits of our current peace and order but what of our morals and lawful justice?

The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche warned: “He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.” (DAU)