Poverty reduction

BANTAY GOBYERNO
Ike Señeres

Secretary Jose Eliseo Rocamora of the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) recently admitted to the press that the Philippines is unlikely to reduce the incidence of extreme poverty by half before 2015 as targeted by the government, adding however that it is not likely to increase either.

The frankness and honesty of Secretary Rocamora is commendable, but it does not excuse the government from being accountable, not even with the lame assurance that it is not likely to increase, a segue that sounds like a “consuelo de bobo”.

Mind you, Sec. Rocamora was not even talking about plain and simple poverty per se, but about extreme poverty. The distinction between plain and extreme poverty appears to be an invention of the United Nations that the Philippine government has not really defined for purposes of local usage, as a statistical measure that is.

As far as I know, the Philippine government measures only the statistic of household members who fall below the poverty line based on the number of households that could not afford to buy the imaginary basket of goods, an artificial measure that is used for statistical purposes.

So far, the government does not isolate the data that would define how many percent of those who are below the poverty line are in the category of “extreme”.

Based on the usual and customary practice of statistical data gathering, all the data inputs must originate from local sources, getting these from below first, before these are elevated to the national level, for integration purposes.

Again as far as I know, there is no data that is coming from below, leading me to speculate that the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) is simply fabricating (meaning inventing) the data that it is submitting to the United Nations (UN).

As a charter member of the UN, and even as a regular member, the Philippines has the moral obligation to submit only the data that are accurate and truthful, but apparently, the government has broken this rule, an action that could practically be considered as a national crime.

As a responsible member of the UN (presumably we are), we should have made it our objective to meet the poverty reduction targets as we pledged, given the fact that we had fifteen long years to make good on it.

Out of our own choice, we have been spending a huge portion of our national budget to make good on our foreign debts presumably to preserve our national honor, but as it turned out, that honor is tainted now, because of this double failure of not being able to make good on our pledge on one hand, and not submitting honest data on the other hand.

In fairness to the new government, it is not directly their fault that this sad situation has come to be. Be that as it may however, we are faced with the reality that the rest of the free world does not care who is in power and who is not, all they care is that a pledge is a promise that has to be met by our nation as a whole. As far as us local citizens are concerned, we are double victims, as we are put to shame by a national crime, and as we are short changed by a government that is supposed to be working for us.

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Here comes the Indies

Bantay Gobyerno
Ike Señeres

Indie is a genre of rock music that emerged in the 1980’s. Nowadays, Indie is better known as a genre of cinematic films that are independently produced, as distinguished from those that are commercially produced by the big studios.

The term has since evolved to refer to fashion items that are independently designed, as distinguished from those that are produced by the big designer names. If the trend will continue, the term Indie could eventually apply to any product that is independently produced.

There are many products that are coming from independent sources. Many of these sources are socially oriented, for instance the small and medium enterprises, the producer cooperatives and the livelihood associations, among others. Generally speaking, they do not have a problem with production, but almost always, their problem is in marketing, meaning that they always have a difficulty in selling what they produce.

Housing and livelihood are two public policy concerns that are seemingly not related to each other, but are actually directly connected in more ways than one. When I was with the Ministry of Human Settlements (MHS), I learned the lesson that housing beneficiaries need livelihood in order to earn the money to pay for their mortgage. I also learned that they needed marketing support, so that they could sustain their livelihood projects.

As far as I know, the government has not yet officially defined the meaning of “homelessness” in the parlance of governance. As it is generally used in other countries, “homeless” persons are those who do not have a place to stay, and that is the reason why they practically “live” in the streets.

Here in the Philippines, we have come to recognize the existence of “street children”, but for some reason, we seemingly do not realize that these children have parents and other relatives who live in the streets too, thus making them “homeless” in effect.

The informal settlers who live in makeshift huts and other forms of shanties all over the country may have a “place to stay” so to speak, but their quarters could hardly be called “houses”, much less homes. A house is not necessarily a home as the saying goes, but more so if it is hardly a house, it would be very difficult to turn it into a home.

Since their dwellings do not meet the standards of what a decent house should be, it would be more realistic for us to accept and recognize the fact that these settlers are in effect “homeless” in the proper context of the word.

Call me sentimental, but I consider as my “unfinished business” the objective of providing marketing support to the products coming from independent and socially oriented sources. I used to do this back when I was still with MHS, and I believe that I am in a better position now to pick up from where I left. Here comes the Indies!

I do not believe that I am directly in a position to do something about the problem of homelessness, but I know for a fact that with good marketing support, people could sustain their livelihood and would eventually be able to rent or buy a house once they have enough money.

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Zero poverty zones

BANTAY GOBYERNO
Ike Señeres

MANILA -- More than one hundred years after the birth of our Republic, we are still at the stage of trying to eradicate corruption. The new administration says that if there is no corruption, there is no poverty. This could be a chicken and egg situation, because it could also be said that if there is no poverty, there is no corruption.

Both problems taken into consideration, a developing country like ours should go beyond the goal of merely eradicating corruption and poverty. Ambitious as it may sound, our more objective goal should be to achieve economic supremacy and national prosperity, both being mutually reinforcing.

In my previous column I discussed the concept of eradicating poverty at the micro level, in specific self-contained communities where targeted poverty eradication programs could be manageable, compared to bigger macro levels that are more difficult to achieve. At the core of the concept is the idea that if all of the households in a given community could have easier access to the imaginary basket of goods, it could be statistically documented and proven that poverty has indeed been effectively eradicated.

The communists have adopted the strategy of surrounding the cities from the countryside. An alternative to that approach is to eradicate poverty in small areas, until the poverty free zones will spread and eventually engulf the entire countryside and the cities too. Readers who are attuned to political theories will recognize this as an application of the principle of subsidiarity, and that is precisely what it is.

Following the criterion of being self-contained, it appears that ancestral domains and remote municipalities would be the best locations for piloting the subsidiarity principle. The reason for this is very simple. These places are more self-contained than the others, and presumably would be less prone to the influence of corruption coming from the outside.

In a meeting of the Corinthian Coffee Clutch (C3), my proposal to deploy volunteer consultants to selected local communities was already approved. Based on my experience in the Transfer of Knowledge thru Expatriate Nationals (TOKTEN) program, this deployment should follow the rule of deploying only to clients that are determined to be willing, able and ready (WAR). This is just an acronym, but indeed we are waging a war against corruption on one hand and against poverty on the other hand.

In my search for new technologies that could be used in remote locations, I came across the policy of the United States to enable more households to gain access to broadband connectivity. Over 200 million households already have broadband at home in the US , and they would like to add 100 million more households.

No data is available about broadband access at the household level in the Philippines , but it would probably be less than 50,000 households, the number recorded for the countries at the bottom of the list. Broadband access at home will eventually become an issue here in the Philippines , because of its potential in increasing household incomes, among other benefits.

Broadband connectivity is needed at the community level in order to deliver remote education and remote medicine, among other services. The good news is, it is within the reach of small communities to build their own broadband infrastructure, possibly as a service provided by their own local cooperatives.

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Poverty eradication

NO HOLDS BARRED
Ike Señeres

I used to think that it is impossible to eradicate poverty, because it is a problem that has always been with humankind, even during the biblical times. Recently however, I realized that there is a way to remove or eradicate poverty in the micro level, and allow me to share my thoughts with you on this subject.

Poverty is an economic concept wherein all those belonging to a household that could not afford the imaginary basket of goods are considered poor or are below the poverty line. While that method of measuring poverty may still be valid technically speaking, there is yet another technicality in dissecting the difference between affordability and accessibility.

Naïve as it may seem, I would dare to say that if household members could be given access to the contents of the imaginary basket of goods, by way of reduced prices or extended payment terms, then they would be able to avail of the values of these goods, even if they are still technically poor. This analysis is of course based on the assumption that they would have the means or the mechanisms to avail of these goods.

Goods that are produced by private corporations are necessarily priced high, because they have to cover their high costs of production, distribution and marketing, citing just a few expense areas. Conversely however, goods that are produced by public cooperatives could be priced lower, because their costs could be lower in a controlled micro economy.

Assuming that the goods produced by public cooperatives could be priced lower, it would then follow that the household members would be able to afford what are in the imaginary basket of goods, in effect placing them above the poverty line. This would be difficult to do in an open market macro economy, but it appears to be doable in a closed micro economy.

In a manner of speaking, the household members in a self-contained community that is producing their own goods and services would actually in effect belong to a closed micro economy, because they will be buying the goods and services that they are also producing through their own public cooperatives. The term “public” applies here, because the cooperative shares are available for anyone to buy.

The key words in this discussion are “closed” and “self-contained”, and because of this, it would appear that the ideal locations to pilot this approach are the ancestral domains where the tribal members would be able to organize themselves into public cooperatives. For practical reasons, they need a functional cooperative structure that would complement but not compete with their existing tribal structure.

To meet the criterion of being self-contained, a location has to be small enough to be manageable. In theory, the barangay is supposed to be the smallest unit of governance, but in reality, many barangay units are too big to be manageable. The solution to this limitation perhaps is to scale down the size to the smaller unit of a zone within a barangay. This zonal approach could work in both urban and rural settings.

“Rethinking” is the buzz word in the development circles today. Perhaps we have no choice right now except to stick to the conventional method of measuring the poverty rate, but if we do not rethink the challenge of eradicating poverty, this problem will not disappear. Obvious as it may seem, the apparent solution is to make the goods in the imaginary basket reachable or accessible as the case may be, so that more households will be able to afford it.

Access to clean and potable water is a good example of explaining this concept. In many locations today, there is no access to clean water, and that is why the people in these locations have to spend for bottled water. To solve this, a local zone could put up a cooperative that will function as the water utility, providing filtered tap water to their members.

The cooperative approach has a democratizing effect in the sense that anyone could join. The approach enables members to earn from their own consumption by way of rebates and dividends. By enabling cooperatives to grow, members are not only able to afford the lower priced goods; they also earn more money that will give them more access to these goods.

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Institution building

NO HOLDS BARRED
Ike Señeres

Together with some friends, I started the Corinthian Coffee Club (C3) that now meets every Friday afternoon at the Elks Club located at the Corinthian Plaza in Makati City . From the very start, we wanted it to be an informal gathering of Filipinos and foreigners who are committed to the advocacy of nation building.

Originally, we wanted C3 to be simply a forum for the exchange of ideas between the proponents of nation building initiatives, and those who may be in a position to support these initiatives, particularly among the business chambers that are represented by their members.

After two months of successful meetings however, many of the members want C3 to be more than just a forum for the exchange of ideas, they now want it to be an active proponent of, and a participant in actual nation building programs and projects. In other words, they do not want to simply talk, they now want to walk the talk.

At first I thought that this change in direction would be in conflict with our original purpose, but after a period of discernment, I have found a practical approach that would solve our dilemma. Rather than talk about nation building in general, our practical approach now is to lead in institution building.

After more than one hundred years of being an independent country, it would be reasonable to think that by now, we would already have very strong institutions at the local and national levels, each institution serving its own purpose for the good of the nation. Unfortunately however, instead of growing in strength, we have seen many of our institutions either getting weakened or destroyed, partly due to political reasons. The sad part is, political factors might have also prevented the establishment of some basic institutions that are now absent from the national picture.

Everyone is now talking and complaining about the failure of the Philippine National Police (PNP) to properly handle the hostage incident in Manila . After all the talking subsides, would it not be good to have permanent solutions that would prevent the problem from happening again?

Just to use it as an example, the PNP is an institution that should have been built and strengthened in the first place to deal with all public safety tasks such as handling hostage situations. It is not too late to help them do it now.

If we really want our country to take its place in the global community of developed nations, we should look at the institutions that the other countries have built, and thereafter, we should make it our national goal to build these institutions in our country as an initial step, at the same time go towards the direction of strengthening and sustaining these institutions in the long run.

What could these institutions be? These could probably vary in form or character, but it would be correct to say that any facility or organization that serves the public interest in particular and the good of the nation in general could be considered as an institution. In the absence of clear directions as to what to do and where to start, we could start looking at what is obvious around us, in our own local communities.

Yes, look around you and you will see that many institutions are missing from our localities. These are either missing or lacking. If these are present at all, they are probably weak or unstable. More often than not however, we only notice the weaknesses when something bad happens. Just like what happened in the hostage incident.

To cite a few more examples, very few localities have orphanages, senior homes, first aid clinics, homeless shelters and dog pounds. Do we really need dog pounds? The answer is yes, if we really are concerned about sanitation and the humane treatment of animals. Do we really need orphanages? The answer is yes, if we really need a more long term to the problem of street children.

Many of those who attend C3 are also members of the United National Integrated Development Alliance (UNIDA). Because of this relationship, it may be practical now to formalize the cooperation of the two groups by making C3 the governing board of the UNIDA on one hand, and by making UNIDA the operating arm of C3 on the other hand.

As a practical direction, C3 could now lead in inviting volunteer consultants who could help national agencies and local governments in building their institutions. As the operating arm of C3, the UNIDA could pick it up from there to assist these volunteers in their actual places of assignment.

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Revival of career bureaucracy

NO HOLDS BARRED
Ike Señeres

Word has it that the new government is having a hard time filling up the vacant positions in the bureaucracy, because of a shortage of qualified candidates. Have they ever stopped to think that there is an existing pool of career professionals that they could immediately tap?

Perhaps in the rush to change the “old” appointees with “new” faces, the new government has forgotten that there is a deep bench of deserving potential appointees who are not simply qualified, they have been officially certified to take senior positions after passing rigorous tests and difficult requirements.

I am referring to the pool of professionals who have passed either the Career Service Executive Examination (CSEE) or the Career Executive Service Officer (CESO) examination, or both. The CSEE is a qualification granted by the Civil Service Commission (CSC) in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution.

The CESO on the other hand is granted by the Career Executive Service Board (CESB) in accordance with the provisions of a Presidential Decree. By comparison, the CSEE is a higher qualification compared to the CESO, but the government seems to have forgotten the difference between the two. A Presidential Decree is practically similar to an Executive Order, but it has the force and effect of a law since it was issued duringMartial Law, nevertheless, a qualification created by the law could not be higher than one that is created by the Constitution.

The new government might have won on a platform of change, but that does not mean that it should change what is already provided for in the Constitution. To do that, it would have to go through a constitutional change, but that is apparently not in their agenda now. The platform of change implied that it should go for what is right, but that does not mean that it should ignore what is already right, even if it is already old.

The direction that the new government should be towards what is right, coming from what is wrong, and not towards what is new, coming from what is old. In this context therefore, the goal of the government should be to put up or to bring back what is right, regardless of whether the right thing to do is old or is new.

It is implied in the platform of change that the institutions that were ignored or destroyed by the previous administrations should now be noticed to say the least, or restored, to say the best.

To take an inventory, it could be said that many institutions, in fact too many were ignored or destroyed by the previous administrations, but for purposes of this discussion, let us just say that the institution of the career bureaucracy should be given the topmost attention, because the career people in the bureaucracy are supposed to be the lifeblood of the institutions that they are sworn to serve and preserve, at least that is how it is supposed to be.

As it is supposed to be, based on the Constitution and our system of governance, all government officials starting from the level of the Undersecretaries all the way down to the level of the section chiefs are all supposed to be career officers. Only the Secretary is supposed to be the political appointee, and no one else.

In many parliamentary systems, the most senior Undersecretary is appointed as the Permanent Secretary, and the Minister, as the name actually implies, performs only the “ministerial” functions.

Over the years, encompassing many past administrations, it has become the practice to assign political appointees in career positions, from top to bottom, practically “freezing” the career officers in the bureaucracy, bypassing them in fact to a point that they are completely ignored. As a result, we have ended up with officials who have no sense of corporate history on one hand, and have no institutional memory, on the other hand.

As it is supposed to be, Cabinet nominees are not supposed to assume their posts to perform their functions not until they are confirmed by the Commission on Appointments (CA), not even in an “acting” capacity. By allowing this wrong practice to prosper, the Executive Branch is not only ignoring the independent power of the Legislative Branch as an institution, it is also insulting a co-equal counterpart.

As an unsolicited advice to the new government, they should make it their profound objective to restore the institution of the career bureaucracy, and not just simply pursue the shallow purpose of filling up vacant positions. A good personnel officercan fill up empty jobs, but it takes a good leader to restore damaged institutions.

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Municipal madness

NO HOLDS BARRED
Ike Seneres

The hostage incident in Manila was a police matter indeed, but it was really a municipal matter too. Mayor Alfredo Lim had the right to be there because he was the local chief executive, but was he right in giving orders to arrest the brother of the hostage taker?

The PNP is supposed to be a civilian organization, but many of its officers are still graduates of the military academy. The search and destroy mentality is apparently difficult to forget. As they say in the vernacular, “Utak pulbura”.

Why are PNP officers still using military ranks even if they are supposed to be civilian officers? Military ranks and military insignias are part of an old culture that they should already forget, because their job now is to maintain peace and order, not to fight foreign aggressors. Those among them who think like soldiers should be sent to battle against insurgents.

Hong Kong is a city but as a Special Administrative Region (SAR), it has the functionality of a province. That being the case, it is more correct protocol for MMDA Chairman Francis Tolentino to deal with Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang. For all intents and purposes, MMDA has the functionality of a province.

The Senate and the House are having a heyday investigating the incident. Of course the Congress has the right to investigate whatever they want in aid of legislation, but is it not also right for the Manila City Council to have their own investigation, this being a municipal matter?

Former Manila Mayor Lito Atienza may have a chance to get back to his old post, after the COMELEC allowed him to pursue his election protest. The issue in this case is not whether there was cheating or not, nationally or locally. The issue is whether the PCOS machines used in Manila were defective or not.

Members of the media are being blamed for some fiascos in connection with the hostage taking incident. Why not blame the police instead? Media people are just ordinary civilians who would obey what the police would tell them. If the government does not want media people to make certain actions, they should just tell them what to do and what not to do in crisis situations.
***
DILG Secretary Jesse Robredo reported that the PNP still has a remaining budget for the modernization of their equipment for crisis situations. Well, what are they waiting for? Are they waiting for a crisis before they would spend it? That fund, whatever it is, is not like the calamity fund that has to wait for a disaster before it could be spent.

Some DEPED employees want Secretary Armin Luistro out. Is it not too soon for them to make such a demand? What is the matter with them? Is Bro. Armin making it difficult for them to go about their old evil ways? Too bad for them, he is presumed to be working on good faith, while the corrupt ones are perceived to be on the negative side.

DOT Secretary Bertie Lim is off to a bad start; after it came out that many Hong Kong residents canceled their flights and their hotel bookings. It is too soon to judge him too, because he too is presumed to be working on good faith. He is a manager, and he should know what to do.

Customs Commissioner Angelito Alvarez seems to be off to a good start, after the BOC confiscated a large shipment of illegal drugs. He should do more however, to erase the perception that he is working on bad faith, after it was discovered that he cheated on his golf scores.

Many are blaming Venus Raj for not winning the Miss Universe crown, but what would they have done if they were in her situation? We should stop while we are ahead, and we should be happy with what we get in a transparent contest where there is no corruption. What did we want her to do? Did we want her to cheat on her answers?

Some countries are funding government agencies or private foundations to discover and groom their candidates for international beauty contests. We are not doing that, in the same way that we are ignoring the local soccer teams who could possibly carry our flag to the World Cup.

What is the real score in the DOTC? Without the communications functions, should we now call it the DOT? That will be confusing, since the Department of Tourism has the same initials. Is the government pushing through with plans to create a Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT)?

It may be a good idea to merge LTO with LTFRB. That might look good, but it might not look good to see another department created while another bureau is supposedly abolished for streamlining purposes. The government should really put its act together in a logical plan of action.
***
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Watching the watchdogs

NO HOLDS BARRED
Ike Señeres

A new form of activism is emerging. Tired perhaps of taking to the streets or going up the mountains, activists are now getting involved in government coordinating councils as a way of getting directly involved in governance.

Our Barangay, Inc. (OBI) is now calling on their members nationwide to join the Regional Development Councils (RDCs), Provincial Development Councils (PDCs), Municipal Development Councils (MDCs) and Barangay Development Councils (BDCs).

It’s good timing that the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) is now reviving these councils, as instructed by President Noynoy Aquino. OBI Chairman Ms. Elsa Bayani herself is ready to be appointed to the RDC of Region VI.

I wonder why these councils became inactive in the first place. According to the law, the representatives of accredited Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) are supposed to be invited to become members of the councils. As active members, they in effect become the watchdogs of the officials who are supposed to be watching over the utilization of the Internal Revenue Allocations (IRAs).

La Salle, Ateneo at Lahat Na (LAAL) is also calling on its members nationwide to join the Regional Management Coordinating Committees (RMCC) of the Department of Interior & Local Government (DILG). These committees are composed of the DILG Regional Directors, and the Regional Directors of the Philippine National Police (PNP), the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) and the Bureau of Jail Management & Penology (BJMP).

LAAL leader Mr. Patrick Pantaleon is now trying to mobilize at least 85 of their members to become active in the 17 RMCCs all over the country, in the hope of assigning at least 5 members to each RMCC. Later on, they will go down to the level of the Provincial Management Coordinating Committees (PMCCs). At that level, they have to mobilize 400 of their members to send at least 5 representatives to the PMCCs of the 80 provinces. This is democracy in action, ordinary people getting involved in governance.

The Citizens Foundation for the Prevention of Crime and Injustice (CFPCI) is also mobilizing to recruit and train paralegals who will volunteer to work with the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) all over the country. PAO is mandated to assign lawyers to more than 3,000 courthouses all over the country, but they only have less than 1,000 lawyers. Newly appointed CFPCI President Atty. JG Grapilon is coordinating this project with PAO Chief Atty. Persida Acosta, CFPCI Director Mr. Thomas W. Lee and the Sigma Rho Foundation (SRF).

CFPCI, a 30 year old foundation now chaired by Col. Octavio Alvarez is now also looking into the possibility of developing a software application that will put order into the system of assigning pro bono lawyers to serve the needs of indigent clients, using a random raffle system that is similar to the system of selecting jury members in the United States.

Speaking of the jury system, the Worldwide Filipino Alliance (WFA) led by Atty. Cita Garcia and Atty. Toto Causing is now advocating for the adoption of this system in the Philippines. I am supporting this advocacy, because it seems to be the only way to cure the corruption in the judiciary, now infested by some judges who engage in “justice for sale”. I researched on the jury system and I found out that serving in the judiciary as a member of the jury is a democratic right that is similar to the right to vote. It is a duty, but it is also a privilege to serve. Again, this is a case of ordinary citizens getting involved in governance.

It was Mr. Pantaleon who offered the services of LAAL, COMPACT, 1VOTE and 1Ganap Guardians to DILG Sec. Jesse Robredo, as a way of getting involved in the fight against corruption. These groups are now looking into ways of using cell phone cameras and video recorders to gather evidence against corrupt officials.

Governance is supposed to be a two-way process that involves the government on one hand and the citizens on the other hand, I would like this column to be a medium for reporting what is good and bad in governance, what is right and what is wrong. Send me your tips and comments, we can do this together!

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Distance education

NO HOLDS BARRED
Ike Señeres

In my younger years when I was with the UP Mountaineers, I used to climb mountains “Because it’s there”. This is now the same reason why I am using technology to deliver on-air and online education to all levels, to all locations in the Philippines . I want anyone to learn anything from anywhere, using any available means. Why? Because it’s there!

In earlier columns, I talked about Mr. Harry Tambuatco who is helping us deliver on-air education via cable and satellite. I also wrote about Mr. Bycon Bulatao who is helping us deliver online education via the internet, through the technology of video streaming to computers. This is actually internet protocol (IP) technology that we are using.

With cable, satellite and internet working together, we have now actually achieved triple play capability to education programming. Soon however, we will be able to deliver online education via the cellular phone network, through the technology of video streaming to cell phones that have 3G access. With this move, we will be able to have quadruple play capability. Students may not want to watch lessons on a small screen, but what if that is the only means available to them? Why am I using this relatively unused means of delivery? Because it’s there!

If he is alive today, Dr. Jose Rizal would be scandalized by the fact that there are about 9 to 16 million children who are classified as Out of School Youth (OSY). By any measure, this is absolutely unacceptable, and we as a nation should be ashamed that we have allowed this to happen.

Since we are a member of the United Nations, we should realize that this very high figure is indicative of the fact that we are too far away from the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of achieving universal education. This is the reality that we must face, and there is no excuse to that we could think of to exonerate our guilt, considering that the technologies that are needed to solve this problem are already available and are affordable.


Online education is of course the more desirable, because the internet is more interactive, and the graphic effects are more powerful. Given a choice between on-air education and online education, I would go for the latter, but practical reasons, we should make use of any form of connectivity that is available and is more affordable.

The truth is, we have not even fully tapped the potential of cable television even if it is already available almost everywhere. Through the wide coverage of Destiny Cable in Metro Manila, we will soon be able to deliver on-air education via cable television to most parts of the metropolis, complemented by satellite television in areas that could not be reached by cable.

Because of the Social Education Network (SEN), it is now possible to meet the MDG target of universal education before the set deadline on 2015, assuming that all the players in this exercise will cooperate and move fast. After Metro Manila, we are going to extend the reach of the SEN project to the other cable areas in the provinces.

With the infra component practically spoken for, we are now working on the content side for the DEPED Channel. As assured by Mr. Paul Soriano of the DEPED, many top teachers are now ready to produce the content needed by this project. Prof. Mel Garcia of De La Salle University (DLSU) is also taking steps to tap the entire DLSU manpower base into this project.

In a recent development, the Commission for Higher Education (CHED) has also shown an interest in creating a separate CHED Channel for all four year courses. CHED Executive Director Atty. Lito Vitriolo said that the legal basis for this already exists, through the Expanded Tertiary Education Equivalency and Accreditation Program (ETEEAP).

The National Statistics Office (NSO) reports that our functional literacy rate is 84%, and that is generally interpreted to mean the percentage of people in the population who could read and write. That is good for bragging rights, but is no good for our people if they are not educated enough to get jobs. Newly appointed Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) Director General Joel Villanueva has hit the nail in aiming to increase the employable rate of TESDA graduates that is now 20%. To help TESDA, it may also be good to have a TESDA Channel.

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Nation building

NO HOLDS BARRED
Ike Señeres

I am a broadcaster and a columnist. Perhaps it is because of this that I get to meet many people who love our country and who would like to do something for nation building, in whatever way possible. Tom Lee is one of these people, and because of this common bond, we agreed to organize what is now known as the Corinthian Coffee Club, or C3 for short.

C3 now meets every Friday from 3 to 6 pm at the Elks Club located at the 7th Floor of the Corinthian Plaza Building along Paseo De Roxas Avenue in Makati City . The purpose of C3 is to bring together people who love our country and who would like to do something for nation building, regardless of whether they are Filipinos or foreigners.

The format of the C3 meetings is very much informal. We sit around in a table and each one is free to talk about what he or she is doing for nation building, and what kind of help he or she needs if ever. Conversely, anyone could also talk about what he or she could do for nation building, as an individual or representing a company or an organization.

As an informal gathering, C3 does not intend to implement projects on its own. Our intention is to give the opportunity to project proponents to talk about what they are already doing, or what they are planning to do. Anyone in the gathering who wants to help any project proponent could do so on his own or on her own, as an individual or representing a company or an organization.

Many people talk about nation building, but they generally do not have the ways or means to implement what they are talking about. This is precisely the purpose of C3, to help the people who want to do something for nation building, so that they could do more than just talk. There is nothing wrong with talking, but nothing will happen to our country if we just keep on talking without doing anything.

Tom is one of the founders of C3. He is a Filipino of Chinese descent who left the Philippines when he was 15 years old, and came back when he was nearly a senior citizen. Tom was an early engineer in Silicon Valley . He invented the first Apple printer and became a business guru later on. Already an American citizen, Tom founded the University Consortium (UNICON) in the Philippines , which he patterned after the Apple Consortium in the United States . Quality education is the advocacy of UNICON. Its goal is to improve the quality of education by improving the technology and the connectivity of its member schools.

Dr. Virginia (Benji) Teodosio is also one of the founders of C3. She is a professor at the University of the Philippines School of Labor and Industrial Relations (UP-SOLAIR). Her advocacy is nation building through the development of our social capital and our natural capital. Because of this advocacy, she has been very involved in expanding the economic opportunities of indigenous peoples and rebel returnees through the cooperative approach.

It was through the persistence of Benji that I met Mr. Paul Soriano who is the Executive Director of the Department of Education Adopt-A-School Program (DEPED-ASP). Paul is a professional manager from the private sector. Benji, Paul and I are now in the process of putting a DEPED Channel on the air, in cooperation with the Global News Network (GNN), through Mr. Harry Tambuatco.

It was also through the persistence of Benji that I pursued the idea of acquiring a dedicated channel from Global Satellite (GSAT) so that the DEPED Channel could be beamed down to any location in the Philippines where there is a cooperative, using a satellite dish provided by GSAT. Harry is also helping us with this, because GSAT is a sister company of GNN. The real passion of Benji is to educate the Out of School Youth (OSY) in this country who number about 9 to 16 million, according to Paul. Benji is now trying to convince the cooperatives in this country, numbering about 30,000 to acquire the satellite dishes, so that the OSY children of the members of the cooperative could go to school.

Inspired by the zeal of Benji, I am now requesting Harry to also open up a CHED Channel and a TESDA Channel. Meanwhile, we are now ready to stream the DEPED Education Channel via the internet, courtesy of my friend Mr. Bycon Bulatao of Inventiv, Inc. Technology works, but we have to make it work!

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Sustainable development (Last Part)

NO HOLDS BARRED
Ike Señeres

Since financing is always the biggest problem of livelihood projects, I propose that bankers should be placed at the core of the human resources needed for livelihood delivery. This is also the other reason why I am suggesting that the DOF should be placed on top of livelihood at the local level. By bankers, I mean those coming from the private and government banks. Needless to say, the banks should be the focal points for livelihood delivery.

Since public safety issues almost always end up with a legal problem, I propose that lawyers should be placed at the core of the human resources needed for public safety delivery. The main focal points for the delivery of public safety should be the police stations where the actions of arrest are finalized, but this should also include the other focal points in the other four pillars of justice.

In a manner of speaking, the lack of livelihood is a justice issue, social justice to be exact, because it is poverty related. Directly or indirectly, the lack of livelihood could lead to crime, although I still maintain that poverty should not be taken as an excuse to commit crime. More often than not however, the poor people who are led to commit crime become the more intense victims of injustice, as they are unable to afford the high costs of justice in their defense.

Financing is just one aspect of livelihood, and it might even be the easier part of the challenge. The harder part I think is marketing, but this too has a financial dimension, because livelihood projects need the financial muscle to be able to finance not just the costs of production, but also the costs of marketing, inventory costs included.

The subject of sustainable communities implies that it should be local in scope, the more local the better. Geographically speaking, this should mean that the smaller the community, the better it is in terms of planning for its long term sustainability. Having said this, it would be best if planning is focused at the village level, meaning that it should really be below the barangay level, given the fact that there could be several villages within a barangay. The situation could be different in the provinces where a village is practically synonymous to a barangay.

I also understand that there are many kinds of banks, ranging in size from universal banks to rural banks. Regardless of the size of the banks however, I think that it should become the culture of these banks to go down to the level of the villages to look into their livelihood needs, and to check on ways through which they could help in financing. This culture formation should be encouraged by the DOF among the banks.

As a service to the nation, the United National Integrated Development Alliance (UNIDA) has been reorganized so that each of the alliance members could lead in three priority concerns namely health, education and social services.

The lead organization for health services in the alliance is now the Inter-Charity Network (ICN). The lead organization for education services is now the University Consortium (UNICON). The lead organization for social services is now the Philippine Foundation for the Prevention of Crime and Injustice (PFPCI).

The National Statistical Coordination Board (NCSB) defines social services as programs that are designated to provide meaningful opportunities for the social and economic growth for the disadvantaged sector of the population in order to develop them into productive and self-reliant citizens and promote social equity. This fits very well into the original purpose of the Foundation which is social justice.

Under this new reorganization, the Foundation shall now lead in self-employment assistance and practical skills development assistance, as defined by the NSCB. In addition however, the Foundation will also lead in legal assistance and housing assistance, also two of the original purposes.

In coordination with the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO), the Foundation will now train, certify and deploy volunteer paralegals to courthouses, police stations and barangay halls all over the country, the latter in support of the barangay justice system. These paralegals will act as deputies to the organic and volunteer lawyers of the PAO.

In coordination with the Department of Health (DOH), Inter-Charity will now will now train, certify and deploy volunteer paramedics to the school clinics, health centers and public hospitals all over the country. It will also coordinate with Our Barangay Inc. (OBI), an organization that is committed towards supporting the school clinics, health centers and public hospitals.

In coordination with the Department of Education (DEPED), UNICON will now train, certify and deploy volunteer teachers to the school libraries and Alternative Learning Centers (ALCs) of DEPED. It will also coordinate with OBI, given the fact that OBI will now also support these school libraries and learning centers.
***
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Sustainable communities(Part 2)

NO HOLDS BARRED
Ike Señeres

With all the basic needs clearly identified and incorporated into the UNIDA framework, we now have a roadmap for integrated national development. This is now the basis for integrating all the basic needs into one master plan.

The dimension of public safety is actually encompassing, because its benefits could extend towards the other three dimensions. For instance, environmental safety is really part of public safety, and this would include the other environmental concerns such as climate change and global warming. Environmental safety also affects the sustainability of shelter and livelihood projects.

As required by the laws, all municipalities (my preferred collective term for both cities and towns) are supposed to prepare their own Municipal Development Plan (MDP), in cooperation with their own Municipal Development Council (MDC). In theory, the MDP is supposed to incorporate the inputs of the barangay units, but apparently this does not happen.

Due to the lack of material and technical resources at the municipal level, it would be best to mobilize the more active participation of the private sector in the MDC, in the spirit of public and private partnership (PPP), an approach that is supported by many international development organizations.

In the past, there were already many efforts exerted by the private sector in support of the MDC, but the results have not been encouraging, due perhaps to the lack of cohesion among the participants to agree on a common framework for integrated development. This is the vacuum that could be filled by the HDI method.

Despite the large number of municipalities all over the country, it would be still be realistic as common objective to identify at least one non-government organization (NGO) that will be assigned to assist each and every municipality, at the same time promote the adoption of the UNIDA framework. In this context, civic organizations could be considered as NGOs.
On the practical side, it would be best for these local NGOs to form four technical working groups (TWGs) from among their members. Given this approach, one TWG will be able to focus on the four priority dimensions, namely health, education, livelihood and peace and order.

It is not clear which national government agency is on top of livelihood at the local level. The most suitable agency for this I think is the Department of Finance, mainly through the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA). It is clear that Department of Local Interior and Government (DILG) is on top of public safety, though the Philippine National Police (PNP).

I understand that livelihood is not generally seen as an employment issue, given the fact that livelihood generally falls under the category of entrepreneurship or small business. Looking at it another way however, livelihood could be seen as a form of self-employment. From the perspective of data management, it should really be the DOF that should know how many people in a locality would need financing for self-employment.

I also understand that public safety is more than just police work. As a matter of fact, the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) and the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) are also considered as public safety agencies under the DILG. From the perspective of data management however, there is a need to review the role of the PNP in reporting the criminality rate, because of perceived conflicts of interest.

In so many ways, public safety as a basic need is very closely associated to the delivery of justice, yet another human need. As a matter of fact, the DILG is directly involved in two of the five pillars of justice, namely arrest (accusation) and penology (transformation). The other pillars of justice are prosecution, judgment (promulgation) and parole (reintegration).

The delivery of basic services is generally affected always by the lack of human resources, and the inability to clearly identify the focal points of the delivery process. It is clear that doctors should be the core of the human resources needed for health delivery, in a similar manner that teachers should be the core of the human resources needed for education delivery. It is also clear that hospitals should be the focal points for health delivery, in the same manner that schools should be the focal points for education delivery.

In the case of livelihood however, it is not clear who should be at the core of the human resources, and it is not clear either where the focal point of livelihood delivery should be. This is also the case of public safety, wherein it is not clear who should be at the core of the human resources, and where the focal point of the delivery should be.

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Sustainable communities (Part 1)

NO HOLDS BARRED
Ike Señeres

The United National Integrated Development Alliance (UNIDA) has consolidated four statistical methods into one development framework, now to be known as the UNIDA framework.

The most fundamental method among the four is the Minimum Basic Needs(MBN) approach. This statistical method measures access to basic human needs such as health, education, livelihood, food, water, clothing, shelter, public safety, recreation, transportation and the environment.

The Human Development Index (HDI) of the United Nations is a statistical method used to rank the level of human development among its member nations. The HDI has three dimensions, namely (1) life expectancy as a measure of health and longevity, (2) adult literacy as a measure of knowledge and education, and (3) economic prosperity as a measure of the standard of living, as indicated by the gross domestic product per capita.

Looking at it another way, the HDI is a composite measure of how much access the residents of a country actually have to three basic services, namely (1) health, (2) education and (3) livelihood. Also looking at it another way, the HDI recognizes the three most critical problems of developing countries, namely (1) themortality rate, (2), the illiteracy rate and (3) the poverty rate.

In the interest of national development, I am advocating the full adoption of the HDI as a popular method of measuring access to the three basic services not only in the national level, but also in the local level, meaning the Local Government Units(LGUs). So far, the HDI method has not been used to measure local development, and we could have a breakthrough if we will become the first country to do it.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), also of the United Nations is a program aimed to achieve eight specific development goals on or before 2015, namely (1) eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, (2) achieve universal primary education, (3) promote gender equality and empower women, (4) reduce child mortality, (5) improvematernal health, (6) combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, (7) ensureenvironmental sustainability and (8) develop a global partnership for development.

The Non-Economic Measures (NEMs) approach quantifies the initiatives of national governments to improve the standard of living in their own jurisdictions. NEM includes initiatives in (1) social investment, (2) environment, (3) taxation and (4) quality of life.

The social investment component of the NEM approach includes (1) infrastructure, (2) education, (3) health, (4) water and (5) shelter. The environment component includes (1) pollution, (2) waste, (3) nature and (4) land use. The taxation component includes (1) tax compliance and (2) incentives. The quality of life component includes (1) material wealth, (2) mental state, (3) stress and (4) crime.

For planning purposes, I believe that the MBN approach should be the centerpiece statistical method, because it encompasses all of the human needs that are also covered by the HDI, the MDGs and the NEMs. To be more specific, the MBN approach covers health, education and livelihood which are all within the scope of the HDI.

Still in reference to the MBN approach, the following MDGs are health related: reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, and combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases. The achievement of universal primary education is of course education related, and the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger is livelihood related. Ensuring environmental sustainability is of course environment related.

The last MDG might appear to be unrelated to all the other basic need, but we could actually say that developing a global partnership for development could be the basis for the acquisition of more resources from international sources, in support of the MBN approach.

MBNs such as food, water, clothing and the environment could be considered as basic services that are directly related to the health dimension, as defined in the HDI. MBNs such as shelter and transportation could be considered as basic services that are directly related to the livelihood dimension, also as defined in the HDI. In the past, many shelter development projects have failed because of the lack of access to transportation and livelihood.

It is interesting to note that in the social investment component of the NEMs, shelter is described as an objective to provide affordable and accessible housing to meet the needs of those who are in search of homes and employment. This validates the notion that shelter and livelihood are two twin strategies that should really go together.

With all the basic needs now fitting into the UNIDA framework, there appears to be only one local dimension that is left out, and that is the dimension of public safety as a measure of peace and order. As a way of adopting the framework to the local realities, I am also advocating that we promote public safety as a basic need, as measured by the criminality rate.
***
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Disaster warning signals

NO HOLDS BARRED
Ike Señeres

President Noynoy Aquino has reason to get down at PAGASA officials for not being able to warn Metro Manila residents about the impact of the storm “Basyang” in the metropolis. Did he probably wonder that Gloria could partly to blame for the failure?

PAGASA is an agency under the DOST and if there is anyone to blame for the failure, it should be no other than the DOST. Not unless we start believing that an attached agency has nothing to do with its mother agency and what attached agency is under what mother agency is just legal fiction.

All throughout the nine year regime of Gloria, the DOST was under Dr. Estrella Alabastro, and you would think that that would have been enough time to fix DOST and all the agencies under it, including PAGASA.

At least, Gloria made a lame attempt to claim that she did some good during her nine years, but we have not heard anything from Dr. Alabastro, not even a report of what she has done and not done.

During the inauguration of President Noynoy, a huge banner clearly announced the sentiments of the people in the crowd: “GLORIA WE ARE NOT GOING TO MISS YOU”. I wonder if anyone is going to say that they will miss Alabastro.

I have no complaints about academics being appointed to cabinet positions, but we should treat this on a case to case basis, because heading a cabinet department is a management job, perhaps too much of a challenge for someone who is good for nothing except a teaching job.

Aside from being a management job, a cabinet position is also a policy job, meaning to say that it is the job of the Secretary assigned to review and improve the policies that would affect the sector assigned to him or her. We have not heard of any major policy changes either in the time of Alabastro, so we wonder what she did during her nine years on the job.

Newly appointed NEDA Secretary Dondon Paderanga could be an exception to the rule that an academic is not always a good manager. Dondon is actually just returning to his old NEDA post, and no President would put him back there if he is no good.

No one doubts the management savvy of Dondon, but I think that his greater strength is his policy prowess, and that is exactly what we need at this time that we are trying to rise from the damage of the super typhoon Gloria that wrecked havoc on our economy.

With all apologies to my friends in DOST and PAGASA, this whole function of warning people about disaster is all about data. It is all about getting the right data at the right time, and bringing out the data to the most number of people in the fastest possible way.

Now that Noynoy has dressed down PAGASA, he should also take a look at what the DFA might have failed to do, in connection with this function of gathering the disaster data. You might wonder why the DFA could be involved, but they do have a technology transfer division that could have brought in the equipment needed to address this problem.

I wish that I will have the chance to suggest to Noynoy about what could be done to solve this problem of disaster warnings. The bottom line here is that PAGASA is still using analog weather stations, and they have less than a hundred of this old equipment all over the country, no thanks to Alabastro.

If I will have the chance to suggest to Noynoy, I will tell him that I know exactly what to do, so that we could immediately shift to digital weather stations, and immediately installing thousands of this new equipment all over the country, without so much expense, and without asking Alabastro.

It has been said that the lack of development in this country is due to the technology lag, being the problem of delay in deploying new technologies here. I think however that the problem is in the lack of vision and drive among the people who are supposed to hasten the pace. Too bad, along with Gloria, history will tell that Alabastro wasted technology in their time.

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Alternative learning system

NO HOLDS BARRED
By Ike Señeres

Paul Soriano, Executive Director of the Adopt-A-School Program (ASP) of the Department of Education says that there are about 9 to 16 million children in the Philippines who are considered as out of school youth (OSY). These are the children who should be targeted to become the beneficiaries of the Alternative Learning System (ALS) of the DepEd, a system that includes the Home Study Program (HSP) also of the DepEd.

One wonders why there would be that many children who are now out of school, considering that public schools are free to everyone who is of school age in this country. I found out that the reasons for this problem are very simple: the children could not afford the transport costs, the meal costs, and at times, could not even afford the clothing costs. One other reason, which is rather surprising, is the high incidence of teenage pregnancies, a problem that drives many girls out of school.

Dr. Jose Rizal once said that the youth is the hope of the fatherland, but what is going to be the future of this country if the youth do not have hope, do not even have the right opportunities to have brighter futures? How are we going to reconcile the past aspirations of Dr. Rizal with the present realities that the futures of these children are practically hopeless?

I consider myself lucky that after being exposed to the information and communications technologies (ICT), I have recently gained some new experiences in the mass media and broadcast technologies, particularly in cable and satellite television broadcasting. In reality however, these two technologies are very much related, and that is the reason why we are now talking about the convergence of these technologies.

Computerization and automation are the two buzz words that have become very popular in the technology circles. Because of this, it has become the knee jerk reaction of technology planners to computerize and automate everything. While I do not disagree that this is a good direction to take, these planners should also consider the cost implications of their technology choices.

A monthly subscription to a cable television account costs only about 500 pesos a month and that comes with free installation. A monthly subscription to a satellite television account costs only about 300 pesos a month, with a one time entry fee of about 7,500 pesos. These are commercial rates that are still subject to academic discounts.

A used personal computer would cost about 5,000 pesos, whereas a used television set would cost only about 1,500 pesos. It would cost several thousands of pesos to pay for educational software, whereas it would cost only a pittance to produce learning videos. Computers would require a lot of maintenance, whereas television sets are practically maintenance free. These are some of the reasons why videos are more practical to use as learning tools compared to software, at least in a developing country like ours.

Fortunately for the DepEd, a law has been passed that gives tax incentives to companies that would donate any item of value to the DepEd, for any educational use. Taking full advantage of this law, I am now in the process of establishing the Social Education Network (SEN), also to be known as the SEN Channel, a 24 hour educational channel that will be available through cable, satellite, internet and mobile broadcasting.

The primary objective of the SEN Channel is to support the ALS. The secondary objective is to support the conventional schools of the DepEd, by providing for at least one television set in every classroom. Considering the cost implications, this is a more doable goal, compared to the very costly goal of providing for at least one computer in every classroom.

As planned in coordination with the ASP, six hours of programming will be dedicated to elementary subjects, while another six hours will be dedicated to high school subjects. The rest of the remaining hours will be used for teacher training, adult education, professional review courses and vocational learning.

Through the efforts of Dr. Virginia Teodosio of the University of the Philippines, several hundred cooperatives will purchase satellite units so that the children of coop members could take all of the courses being offered.

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Development planning in provinces

NO HOLDS BARRED
Ike Señeres

With a new batch of provincial governors either elected or reelected, the provinces now have a fresh opportunity to plan or re-plan the course of their local development, as the case may be. As they face this new or renewed challenge, they also have to reckon with the additional tasks of dealing with both climate change and global warming.

In theory, the provincial governments are supposed to organize and work with the so-called Provincial Development Councils (PDCs), but in actual practice, it is unfortunate to note that many PDCs are not operational, and even if they are, they seem to be lagging behind in their work. It is now up to the local people to demand for the activation of their own PDCs, that is if they want any development to happen in their own provinces.

I believe that there is something that is fundamentally wrong in the present structure of the PDCs. The mayors of component cities and towns are supposed to be members, but there seems to be no apparent consciousness that they are attending the meetings (if they do) not as individual persons, but as heads of their official city or town delegations.

In the Local Government Code (LGC), the “towns” are referred to as the “municipalities”, but I will write here again, as I have always written, that we need to use “municipalities” as the collective term to refer to both the cities and the towns. There is also trouble in the use of the term technical “component”, because it excludes the so-called “chartered” cities, even if they are physically located within the province.

For all intents and purposes, the PDC is supposed to be the clearing house of all municipal development plans (hence the need for a collective term), prior to the integration of the provincial development plans, in preparation for submission to the Regional Development Councils (RDCs). In turn, the RDCs are supposed to prepare their own regional development plans.

How in the world could the PDC prepare a real comprehensive and a fully integrated provincial development plan if the chartered cities are not part of their rounds of meetings? Even if the legal fiction exists that the chartered cities are technically not part of the provinces, how could they deny the fact that the chartered cities are economically, biologically and geographically part of their physical province?

The LGC stipulates that the Congressman or his representative is supposed to be a member of the PDC. It is unbelievable, but the law actually gives the Congressman the built-in excuse not to attend the PDC meetings, leaving him out of any substantive discussions that are directly related to the integrated development planning of his own constituency.

In theory, the Countryside Development Fund (CDF) is supposed to a remedial fund that will address the local needs of a congressional constituency that could not be “seen” or “appreciated” by Congress as a whole. If that is really the case, then why not subject the CDF to the disposition of the PDC, instead of the subjective determination of the Congressman?

By design, the municipal development plans are supposed to be funded by the Internal Revenue Allocations (IRAs) of the municipalities (this being my suggested collective term). In reality however, the IRAs are almost always not enough to fund the local needs, hence the suggestion that it should be beefed up by the CDF.

Also by design, the LGC allows the municipalities to enter into creative financing options in order to finance the components of their municipal development plans that could not be funded by their own revenue collections, and by their IRAs. These options include joint venture agreements (JVAs) with the private sector, and the build-operate-transfer (BOT) schemes (there are several such schemes).

By now, it should be known to all municipal and provincial officials that the business process outsourcing (BPO) approach is working very well for the private sector. Since for all intents and purposes the BPO scheme is allowed under the LGC, they should now look into this additional option. The BPO approach makes good sense for them, because it would free them from the need to buy their own equipment and to hire their own additional staff.

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Green advocacy

NO HOLDS BARRED
Ike Señeres

The green advocacy is now very popular, and that is good news for everyone in this planet. Green is not everything however, because human beings have other needs that have nothing to do with being green. This is the reason why I think there is a need for another advocacy that could be in tandem with the green advocacy, and that is the blue advocacy.

Blue is the color of renewable energy, and it is also the color of good connectivity. This is the reason why a solar powered building is called a “blue building”, and the reason why a blue light turns on in your computer when you are connected to a network wirelessly.

There have been many attempts to define and quantify the number of basic human needs. On my part however, and for purposes of developing an attainable andsustainable development framework, I now propose that we define eight priority human needs, namely livelihood, transportation, health, education, water, sanitation, food and shelter, not necessarily in that order.

If we have energy, we could have more access to livelihood and transportation. Livelihood is the answer to poverty, being the answer as well to increasing the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), as defined in the Human Development Index (HDI). Transportation is directly related to livelihood, because people could not go to work if they have no means of mobility.

If we have connectivity, we could have more access to health and education. Health is the answer to high mortality, as defined also in the HDI. In addition, child health andmaternal health are two specific Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Education is the answer to illiteracy, as also defined in the HDI. Universal education is also an MDG.

If we sustain our ecology, we could have more access to water and sanitation. These two resources actually work in tandem with each other, because without water, there could be no sanitation. It goes without saying that in order to have clean potable water; we also have to clean our land, including what goes below the surface of our soils. Sanitation is the answer to the problem of pollution.

If we sustain our agronomy, we could have more access to food and shelter. In our definition, we should include forestry as part of agronomy, because restored forests could also give us food and shelter. We should also include fisheries in the definition, because that too, is a major source of food, most especially in an aquatic country like ours. Ending hunger is also an MDG.

As it is now, green advocates are moving in a direction that is apart from the direction of blue advocates, still a small movement as of now. My wish is to bring them together in a joint Blue and Green advocacy or BAG for short. I am hoping that this would be a natural union, because the two are very much compatible with each other.

With sustainable ecology, we could have sustainable energy, and vice versa. This is also the case of water. We could create energy out of water, and using energy, we could increase our water resources. With better and broader connectivity, we could market the outputs of our agronomy better and faster, using the powers of electronic commerce.

On one hand, agronomy will give us the inputs to create energy, plant fuels being just an example. On the other hand, cheaper energy will also enable us to irrigate our farms and process our farm outputs, thus giving us more value added for what we could produce out of the soil.

Our eight basic needs are not just for the short term survival of our people now. These are also for the long term survival of our nation in the long run, for the long term. As a people however, we should not just stop with survival as our long term goal. We should go for regional economic dominance, but first, we must survive.

As a people, we could go nowhere without a unified development framework. In the past, I have advocated for Integrated Area Development (IAD) as a framework. I am still doing that, but this time with a new twist, to meld and blend the eight basic needs within a framework that combines energy, connectivity, ecology and agronomy into one. I would welcome your comments about this framework; let us work on this together.

Watch KA IKING LIVE! Saturdays 8 pm to 9 pm in Global News Network (GNN),Channel 21 in Destiny Cable. Email iseneres@yahoo.com or text +639293605140 for local cable listings. Visit www.senseneres.blogspot.com

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Poverty and productivity

NO HOLDS BARRED
Ike Seneres

The new Secretary of the National Economic Development Authority has yet to be named, but I am hoping that President-Elect Noynoy Aquino would name someone who is both technically honest and intellectually honest in reporting the poverty and prosperity figures of the incoming administration.

Technical honesty and intellectual honesty are two different matters, but they both boil down to the same thing, and that is the moral fiber of the agent, in this case the one who prepares the report (the NEDA Secretary), and the principal, in this case the one who receives the report (the President).

For many years now, the NEDA has been reporting very low poverty figures that are far below the perception of many observers as to what the real figures really are. This seems to be true also in the case of the national productivity figures, which do not seem to reflect what many believe to be the real indicators.

After nine years in office, it is not really clear how much reduction of the poverty rate was actually achieved by Gloria. She would of course claim that the economy “improved” during her watch, but are we always going to content ourselves with the qualitative claims of our leaders?

With six years ahead of him, President Noynoy now has the chance of reducing our poverty rate and our productivity rate, but this time around, and hopefully unlike Gloria, he would start by having intellectually correct and technically correct benchmarks that would be measured against his actual performance and delivery at the end of his term.

In my personal and technical opinion, I believe that the data gathering for the national poverty and productivity reports should start at the municipal level, and these should be consolidated at the provincial level before these are summarized at the national level. Any other method other than this would amount to fabrications, and are therefore dishonest.

For planning purposes, I suggest that the government should adopt the word “municipal” as the common term that would refer to both the cities and the towns. Also for planning purposes, I also suggest that the government should disregard the legal fiction that the chartered cities are not part of the provinces where they are actually physically located.

In this new global paradigm where climate change and global warming takes the center stage, we should even go beyond the usual artificial political jurisdictions of the provinces, meaning that we should now begin to plan in terms of natural watersheds and biospheres.

Whether we like it or not, we could no longer plan for reductions in the poverty rate and for increases in the productivity rate without taking the stat of the environment into consideration. The same is true in the case of agriculture, because we could no longer plan for good agriculture in a bad or damaged environment.

As an economic indicator, the Gross National Product (GNP) is simply just a measure of national productivity and as such, it should reflect the honest accounting of our real gains and losses, including those that are agricultural and environmental in nature.

Adapting to climate change and global warming is one thing, reducing poverty and increasing productivity is another thing. But not unless the new administration the real relationships between the environment and our economic goals, they could be facing a dual failure in this tandem of interconnected objectives.

The outgoing administration has failed to consolidate their actions in connection with the need to preserve or restore our air, land and water resources. All of the government agencies that are tasked to care for these resources seem to be going into their own separate directions, not realizing perhaps that they are dealing with the same watersheds and biospheres.

Just a postscript to the visit of Al Gore: we paid millions just to hear a foreigner tell us what we already know. What more do we need to know?

Watch KA IKING LIVE! Saturdays 8 pm to 9 pm in Global News Network (GNN),Channel 21 in Destiny Cable. Email iseneres@yahoo.com or text +639293605140 for local cable listings. Visit www.senseneres.blogspot.com

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Conflicting laws

NO HOLDS BARRED
Ike Señeres

Believe it or not, it actually happens in the Philippines that the laws passed either conflict with each other, or are incompatible when placed side by side. This is the case of the apparent conflict between the Electronic Commerce Act (ECA) and the Philippine Election Automation Law (PEAL), when it comes to the issue of data dominance or data parity, as the case may be.

But first, allow me to backtrack a little. At the time that the ECA was passed, hard copies ruled the day as the dominant data form that was admissible in court as evidence, and as the legal basis for day to day transactions. At that time, there was no recognition yet of the value of electronic data forms, so it became necessary to stipulate in the law that henceforth, there is going to be data parity or equality between the two types of data forms.

When the PEAL was subsequently passed, it made the apparent mistake of stipulating that the electronic data form was going to have dominance over the hard data form. This specific provision was apparently in conflict with a general provision in the ECA, stipulating that after the ECA was passed; all subsequent laws passed in the Philippines must be and should be in line with its provisions.

As the implementing agency of the PEAL, I was expecting the Comelec to insist upon the dominance of the electronic data form. To my surprise, it was Comelec Chairman Jose Melo himself who started quoting the provisions of the ECA, while referring to the resolution of issues pertaining to electronic signatures. Right there and then, I concluded that the issue of electronic data dominance was dead in the water, and from that time on, it would appear that data parity is here to stay as a state of being.

Ironically, the much ballyhooed “paperless society” actually never happened, as the electronic age produced more documents that had to be printed, as more people, more than ever wanted their own “hard copies” of the “soft copies” that were actually available online or in storage media.

Long before the election actually started, Chairman Melo had announced to the world that he was against a “hybrid” solution, meaning that he did not want to have manual counting alongside the optical counting. He said this at the time that he was fully confident that the automated system was “hack-free”, without bothering to say whether it was “trouble-free” or not.

As it turned out, the Comelec was actually moving towards a hybrid situation, because the votes from overseas were in fact counted manually. As it also turned out, many votes that were cast locally also had to be counted manually, after the Precinct Count Optical Scanning (PCOS) machines turned out to be not trouble-free after all.

Just to set the record straight, the past election was not really “automated” in a real sense. Real automation has to be “systemic”, meaning that the entire system has to be automated and not just certain parts of it. For the record, the voting system of the past election was actually still manual, because it used paper forms that had to be manually shaded.

Even the counting itself could not really be considered as automated, because the paper ballots had to be manually fed before these could be optically read. To call a spade a spade, the Comelec actually used a system of “optical counting”; a low-end procedure that could hardly be called “automated voting”.

Following the rule of data parity, it could be said that the Election Returns (ERs) that were printed out from the PCOS and were manually signed by the Board of Election Inspectors (BEIs) were actually valid and admissible, and were therefore acceptable as the legal basis for the computation of the Certificates of Canvass (COCs).

Many IT experts say that the Common Business Oriented Language (COBOL) will never die. This is a mainframe programming language that was developed in the 1950’s and the 1960’s but it is still being used today. Many think that the Disk Operating System (DOS) is dead, but it is actually alive, because the supposedly modern Windows operating system still sits on top of the archaic DOS. Paper will not die, it will co-exist with ether.

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Growth rates and poverty rates

NO HOLDS BARRED
By Ike Señeres

It is good to know that presidential front runner Noynoy Aquino is not impressed by the 7.3 % growth of the economy as reported by the outgoing Arroyo administration. He really has to do better than that, because he promised to remove corruption as a way of removing poverty.

Senate Minority Leader Nene Pimentel almost hit the nail when he said that the prosperity of a nation should be measured in terms of the alleviation of the poverty of the masses. He is only partly correct, because the proper measure should be poverty reduction, and not poverty alleviation.

Since Noynoy is now talking economics, he should now take the trouble of finding out the difference between poverty alleviation and poverty reduction, a very important dichotomy that has escaped the appreciation of many of our past Presidents.

To his credit, Senator Mar Roxas was correct when he said that government claims about economic growth are just like “pie in the sky”, if the benefits of the growth would not trickle down to the broader masses of the people. Perhaps Mar should explain this better though, since “trickle down” economics has been debunked by many economists.

Economists would argue that the gross domestic product (GDP) and the poverty rates are two independent measures that are not exactly directly related with each other. That may be true technically, but in practical terms, a bigger GDP should translate to higher incomes for more people, and that should result in more people going up above the poverty line.

Without directly hitting the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA), Nene said that the report was produced by “people who are eager to cover up the misdeeds of their masters”, suggesting that the figures might have been fabricated, since “they do not reflect an improvement” in the lives of the people. He seems to be talking in a qualitative sense, meaning that he is still talking about poverty alleviation, and not poverty reduction.

The problem with GDP reports and poverty rate data is that both of these are produced by the NEDA, thus making them prone to suspicions of cover up, a popular thinking that was expressed by Nene. Somehow, someway NEDA officials should be the ones who should see the connection between the two, one way or the other.

As far as I know, there are specific objective targets about poverty reduction, but these were apparently not reported by the NEDA, for one reason or another. Officially, the poverty rate in the Philippines is about 33% as reported by the government, but many believe that it is the other way around, meaning to say that it could go as high as 67%.

There are no specific objective measures pertaining to poverty alleviation, because these are qualitative characteristics and are therefore hardly measurable. Fortunately, these could be measured in terms of access to basic goods and services, based on the belief that having access to these goods and services could somehow lessen the impact of poverty, which is what poverty alleviation is all about.

I can understand that the Liberal Party was simply using a figure of speech when they made a campaign promise that they will remove corruption as a way of removing poverty. Now that the campaign is over, they should go back to the reality that at best they could only reduce corruption, and as a result of that, they could possibly reduce poverty as well.

By how much could a new President really reduce poverty quantitatively given a fixed term of six years? What could Noynoy possibly do in six years that Gloria was unable to do in nine years? No matter what poverty reduction target he will adopt, he will have to match that with real and practical resources and policy frameworks.

From a cloud of suspicion and dishonesty that characterized the outgoing administration, Noynoy now promises honesty and “living under the light”. Hopefully, in the coming months and years, NEDA will not be compelled by their new masters to do any more cover-ups. Hopefully too, they will know the difference between poverty alleviation and poverty reduction.

Watch KA IKING LIVE! Thursdays 7pm to 8pm in Global News Network (GNN), Channel 21 in Destiny Cable. Email iseneres@yahoo.com or text +639293605140 for local cable listings. Visit www.senseneres.blogspot.com

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