1. Very sad! Action, Mr. President!
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Pnoy Neglected Power crisis in Mindanao
1. Hmmmm
Aquino: Power crisis in Mindanao caused by long neglect
Admitting that the power problem in Mindanao had been neglected for years, President Benigno Aquino III urged the people there to be patient as his government was working to solve the crisis, which may take more than two years.
Speaking in Filipino and English at the birthday party of Imus Representative Erineo Malicsi Sunday night, the President acknowledged the power situation in Mindanao was a long-standing problem.
“We admit it, the problem was neglected,” Mr. Aquino said, noting that the Agus 6 hydroelectric power plant in Iligan City was built in 1953, or 59 years ago, and it had been running since then although its vital components were good for only 30 years.The power plant needs to be upgraded.
“I did think that if 30 years ago, when I was still a college student, they had fixed this problem, then I would not have this problem now,” the President said.
The National Power Corp. will rehabilitate the power plant. The President said the rehabilitation of the two Agus 6 generators would take 30 months and cost a hefty
P2.6 billion.
Water more expensive
While the rehabilitation of the hydroelectric plant is going on, two coal-fired power plants would be built. To ease the power shortage, power barges would be used, but this would be expensive because the barges would be powered by crude. The President said crude was expensive, but power from water was more expensive.
“If we don’t want brownouts, we have to accept this until the construction of the two coal-fired power plants is finished, and that will take two years,” he said.
Reacting to reports that the Zamboanga International Airport had been shut down by a power outage, the President said he never promised to fix the power problem in Mindanao in just two days.
“It’s not like we’re changing a light bulb here,” Mr. Aquino said. The development of the two coal-fired power plants will take two years so the people of Mindanao have to understand that relief from the power shortage will take that long to come.
The President said he could not tell people to be patient because the problem did not start during his term. But he said he could promise that he would ask for help to get things going so that people need not suffer.
Businesses affected
In Malacañang, presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said in a press briefing that Mindanao would have “power difficulties” for the next two years, but by 2014 “we will have sufficient plants that are going to go online.”
Lacierda said the Palace had no “hard figures” yet on the impact of the brownouts on Mindanao’s economy, but acknowledged that the outages “certainly … affect businesses.”
Meanwhile, Bayan Muna party-list Representative Teodoro Casiño urged the government to take over the privately owned barges to ease the power crisis in Mindanao.
Casiño said small and medium enterprises were bearing the brunt of the power shortage that causes 15-hour brownouts a day in General Santos City, three hours in Zamboanga City, and two hours in Davao City. He said businesses needed immediate relief from the high prices charged by the owners of the power barges.
With the government taking over the operation of the power barges, Casiño said the 150,000 small and medium businesses in Mindanao, mostly in retail and food, would get relief until the new power plants were
Monday, March 12, 2012
Malling in Basilan?
1. Wow! Malling Basilan. Perfect fish in order!
“It’s time the shopping mall magnates took a serious look at Basilan,” remarked Regional Board of Investments Chair Sakiran Hajan of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), as he kindly accompanied me in a series of visits and meetings in his home province last week. Anyone not familiar enough with the island province, especially one coming from faraway Luzon, would have dismissed the statement as wishful thinking. But after an enlightening visit to this much-dreaded (unduly, to my mind) part of our country, the statement does make sense to me. With a local economy that has all the signs of dynamism and growing purchasing power, the Sy, Gokongwei, Gaisano or Zobel families would do well to have a look for themselves. They may yet be convinced that putting up a moderately sized shopping mall in Isabela City, the province’s capital, could be a missionary investment that would not only make money, but would also help hasten Basilan’s emergence out of its killing-fields image.
Several ferries and fast craft ply the Basilan Strait daily between Zamboanga City and Isabela City or Lamitan City. It takes about an hour to negotiate the 31-kilometer crossing (or half that time with the fast craft). Counting trips and seating capacities, Hajan calculates that more than 2,000 Basileños make that trip across each way every day, many of them to spend a day of shopping and recreation in Zamboanga City. Basilan had a population of half a million as of 2007; it would be much more by now. It has a bustling agricultural economy, with rubber, coconut, coffee, cassava, fruits, fish and seaweeds providing a good source of income for its farmers. The island is also home to an estimated 10,000 overseas Filipino workers sending back large sums of remittance income.
All these add up to ample purchasing power within Basilan. Indeed, if my hometown of Los Baños, Laguna, with a population one-fifth that of Basilan, can support a Robinson’s town mall (and two supermarkets as well), there seems no reason why Basilan can’t. If it’s any indication, Basilan now boasts a Jollibee restaurant—for many, a sure sign that a place “has arrived”—and it has been there for six years. On the other hand, the closest that nearby Sulu has had so far is a “McMickey” knock-off of the other popular fast-food chain in Jolo.
While coconut remains the single biggest crop planted, it is rubber that has made the Basilan economy, both historically and again more recently. In the past, the island hosted large rubber plantations of familiar names in rubber—BF Goodrich, Sime Darby and Menzi, among others—making Basilan the country’s rubber capital, then and now. The University of the Philippines also obtained a 4,000-hectare land grant on the island, planted mostly to rubber and coconut. All that made Basilan a first-class chartered city in the 1950s and 1960s, exporting copra, coconut oil, rubber and lumber to California via Guam and Hawaii.
But the onset of the Moro conflict in the 1970s ravaged the local economy, and subsequent passage of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program in 1988 dissolved Basilan’s multinational plantations. The large companies abandoned their investments on the island, leaving the coconut and rubber plantations to agrarian reform beneficiaries who managed the farms as cooperatives. The UP Land Grant turned into the Sta. Clara Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Integrated Development Cooperative, and the BF Goodrich and Sime Darby rubber plantations were merged and converted into the Latuan Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Association Inc. Vast tracts of the American-owned Yakan Plantation in Lamitan were initially acquired by then Defense Minister (now Senate President) Juan Ponce Enrile and turned into his Cocoland Plantation, but later redistributed as the Lamitan Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Cooperative.
A massive rubber replanting program embarked on by the provincial government in 2003 has since returned rubber to prominence. As of now, there are 26,000 hectares of productive rubber farms, and another 10,000 hectares of still immature rubber trees that will become productive in a few years. Meanwhile, observers note how rubber has brought new life back into the once war-ravaged economy of Basilan, and the economic energy is evident to any new visitor right upon alighting from the Zamboanga ferry at the Isabela City port. Driving through the island into the city of Lamitan, one cannot help but appreciate the great natural wealth in the island’s fertile agricultural lands and lush vegetation.
Endowed with a rich watershed and even climate, the island has much hydropower potential that remains largely untapped. We were told of one existing mini-hydro power facility, which helps lower the overall cost of power dominantly coming from expensive diesel-fired power barges. The Basilan Electric Cooperative, while still among the worst performing in the country along with other ARMM electric cooperatives, nonetheless performs better than its similarly placed Sulu and Tawi-Tawi counterparts. Power generation is in fact one promising investment area in Basilan; we learned that an outside investor will soon bring the island’s now deficient 7.5-megawatt capacity up to 11.5 megawatts. With current requirement estimated at 8 megawatts, there should be room for even more given the rate at which the local economy is booming—and especially if one of those mall chains decides to come in. And there are many more investment opportunities in this rich, fertile, and much misunderstood island that once upon a time was among the most progressive local economies in the country—and could very well be again.
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E-mail: cielito.habito@gmail.com
Friday, March 9, 2012
War: an Inherent Gift for Mindanao Children
1. War after war, generation after generation, oppression after oppression!
2. War, the inherent gift for Mindanao children?
OIC fears unrest in Mindanao
Manila, Philippines – With unresolved issues still on the table, the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) expressed concern last Wednesday about renewed unrest in Mindanao if the tripartite review of the 1996 Final Peace Agreement (FPA) breaks down.
Its concern was contained in a statement from the OIC, which is based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, after the second Ad Hoc High-Level Group (AHHLG) meeting in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia from March 1-2. In the OIC statement, sources who did not want identified “underlined that some concerns may hinder the negotiation process and may cause it to collapse completely, which could result in the return of unrest which the territory has been experiencing“ for four decades. They noted the Bandung meeting failed to achieve any significant progress. (Edd K. Usman)
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Misuari's MNLF Mulls Own 'Government'
By EDD K. USMAN
BANDUNG, West Java, Indonesia – The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) under founding Chairman Nur Misuari is carefully mulling the establishment of a “parallel government” and its “officials” to be appointed soon, barring any unforeseen circumstances, to address what the national government had allegedly failed to do for the Bangsamoro, or Muslim Filipinos.
In the review since 2007 of the 1996 Final Peace Agreement (FPA), signed by the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and the MNLF, under the aegis of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the MNLF has been asking for a provisional government, sharing of minerals, and expansion of the territory of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
However, no resolution has been arrived yet on the first and third issue during the 2nd Round of Formal Ad Hoc High-Level Group (AHHLG) Meeting here from March 1 to 2 at the Hotel Aston Primera Pasteur.
GPH is not likely to agree with the provisional government proposal, although this has been in the peace table already.
A source revealed the plan about a “parallel government” on the condition of anonymity.
Least the authorities get a wrong idea, the source hastened to add that the “parallel government” they are thinking about is a “super non-governmental organization (NGO),” not a threat to the established gov-ernment.
“It is a parallel mechanism to work with the government. It is just an autonomy that needs no legislation. It is being planned to respond to the Bangsamoro needs which the government has neglected to provide,” the source said.
“It appears our people can no longer wait for the national government to address fully their welfare and needs. We have to do something on our own,” the source added.
He made the disclosure regarding the sensitive issue during the AHHLG.
For example, he said, poor Moros in the countryside have little or no access at all to the government’s medical and health services, education, housing, and justice, among others.
“On security matters, we will have to work with concerned government agencies,” he stressed.
The source said that the idea was suggested by well-meaning supporters of the MNLF from foreign lands, who are willing to help bankroll the parallel government’s activities.
Misuari, a founding chairman of the MNLF, which fought for independence in the early 70s to 80s, has encouraged further discussions on the “parallel government,” he said.
“There is no definite timetable yet on the parallel government’s establishment. It is like a ‘government’ within a government. It is non-political,” he said.
“Addressing the welfare and needs of the Moros is not an easy task, it is a gargantuan task,” the source acknowledged, promising the MNLF will persevere and prevail on its noble task.
He said the proposal to have the parallel mechanism is a reaction to the still unfinished implementation of the FPA.
“Its review appears to be going round in circles without end,” the source said.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
MNLF Walk Out
1. War?
MNLF technical panel ‘walks out’ in final peace agreement talks
BANDUNG, West Java, Indonesia – In a surprising development, a technical panel of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) “walked out” Friday on their counterpart from the government, apparently triggered by the latter’s assertion that Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the 1996 Final Peace Agreement (FPA) was already fully implemented.
Indonesian Ambassador Rezlan I. Jenie, chairman of the Peace Committee of Southern Philippines of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC-PCSP), called it a “break” for the meeting.
Jenie said the two panels’ meeting was to resume later in the afternoon, after convincing the MNLF side to return to the peace table.
Lawyer Naguib Sinarimbo, a consultant for the government side, made the same assertion.
“It was a mere breakout. It was not a walkout. But anyone is free to call it any term,” said Sinarimbo.
The technical working group (TWG) of the Government of the Philippines (GPH) was composed of Undersecretary Jose Luis “Chito” Gascon of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Political Affairs (OPAPA); Deputy Director General Zenonida Brosas of the National Security Council (NSC); lawyers Naguib Sinarimbo; and Jose Lorena.
On the MNLF side, lawyer Randolph “Bong” Parcasio; lawyer Omar Yasser Sema; Hatimil Hassan of the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF); and Abdul Sahrin, a senior MNLF leader.
Up for discussion of their panels was on the MNLF’s proposal to expand the territory of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) through a plebiscite.
Earlier, the five governors of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) urged the MNLF to present a single voice and strike a peace deal with the Philippine government.
They said without an agreement, the Bangsamoro people and their constituents will continue to suffer.
FPA is the landmark accord signed by GPH and MNLF on Sept. 2, 1996 brokered by the Organization of Islamic Cooperaton (OIC). It has Phase 1 (political and security) and Phase 2 (socio-economic). (Edd K. Usman)
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Parasites in Campus
1. Wake up, educators!
Parasites in Campus
Ed Ladja
Professional gangsters are no different from corrupt person who walks in good outfit with good grin elsewhere in campus. These people are no wonder tricky, dishonest and unprincipled clique now taking advantage of everything from WMSU.
Public Services always require fees no question about that and that I should say “order of the day”. I supposed everyone waits for his turn to take the wheel of fortune. But what if the chance is slim for moonlighting? There goes the hocus-pocus a new magic-trick just to earn money.
We are not aware of some officials who receive something out of nothing in WMSU. If this is the learned culture among the influential, who I labeled them “gangsters”, I think we need to stop them once and for all before WMSU may become known for a hub of syndicated academicians.
There are people craving for wealth and there are also people who seem hopeless of success in life. The latter belong to menial and janitorial services in campus, known “unprofessional”, but don’t you know they are a bit “honest” than the former?
They are paid according to the number of hours they have rendered, unlike the known syndicated academicians who claimed “professional” they are paid more than what they served. This hoax is translated into corruption and sad to note nobody cares about.
A famous line among old folks goes, “Bato-Bato sa Langit ang Tamaan ay Wag Magagalit” if you are one of those whom I am referring here then, watch out your fate and better reform now because “Karma” is a situation that no one ever had escaped.
You are in your frame of mind, rational and judicious of things around you. I ask you to reflect indignity and disgrace you bring into your soul, how much time you waste for your whims? You are enchanted by evil deception of wealth and luxury. I beg of you to start feeling ashamed of who you are.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Filipino Muslim Youth Introduce New Concept of Valentine Day
1. While Pinoy artist in Luzon unveiling Valentine project in Facebook, Muslim youth in Zamboanga introduce unique concept of celebrating the valintine day.
2. Instead of dating with especial someone, Muslim Youth Movement for Peace and Development members give blessing to the street children.
2. Instead of dating with especial someone, Muslim Youth Movement for Peace and Development members give blessing to the street children.
Pinoy artists unveil collaborative Valentines art project on Facebook
Despite some netizens’ negativity about the concept of love and Valentine’s Day, two Filipino multimedia artists took to Facebook to voice their optimism and to engage everyone in a feel-good exchange intended for this special day.
“I posted a poem from Kahlil Gibran with the header: pag-ibig findings. We used to have art exhibits way back using this title, every February 14 we do this. She thought of doing an online exhibit about it,” Zafra told GMA News Online.[read more
Valentine 2012, the youth spending their valentine with the street children in the city as their annual traditional practice of giving few blessing [read more]
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Peace Business in ARMM and Mindanao
1. Peace is always been big capital business in the ARMM and entire Mindanao. The major players are Government officials, politician, NGO, donors, and rebels?
Investment and peace in ARMM
TUESDAY, 07 FEBRUARY 2012 19:07 MERCEDES B. SULEIK / FREE ENTERPRISE
THE Mindanao problem has been festering for far too long. Many of us do not fully understand it nor the peace processes that have been continually bruited about by every administration. Neither do we appreciate what is necessary to bring peace and development to Mindanao.
In two fora sponsored by the Eisenhower Fellows Association of the Philippines (Efap), efforts to bring about an understanding of the Mindanao conflict and the developmental requirements of the region were held at the Ayala Museum last Oct. 7, 2011 and Jan. 20, 2012.
In October 2010, the issue tackled was what the paper presentor, Mr. Ariel C. Fernandez, dubbed as “The Other 50 Percent of the Mindanao Conflict and the Challenges Ahead” in which was discussed the proposal that all the peace talks in Mindanao could solve at best only 50 percent of the conflict.
The other half, Mr. Hernandez opined, is about Demobilization, Community and Enterprise Development, and Reconciliation, which is different from the Demobilization, Disarmament, and Reintegration that was once offered by the Arroyo administration. He emphasized the challenge of delivering the basic and social services to the communities affected by violent conflict, and the challenge to the business sector to invest in the conflict-ridden areas even as the peace agreement is still shaping up. When people can participate in business and social enterprises, it will be the most effective demobilizing mechanism and will even be the answer to the disarmament issue.
Quite understandably, the business sector is wary of investing in conflict-ridden areas, and the question of whether or not it is possible to develop business models for expansion and replication from existing socil enterprises around Mindanao with cooperatives and NGOs. Also, it is also asked if the time is ripe for business sector to actively participate in building a constituency of entrepreneurs as a key foundation to sustaining peace, and whether the business sector would be willing to share the production technologies and offer these to the market.
The second forum last January picked up from the first, and covered the topic “Opportunities Amid Conflict – A Forum on Business Opportunities in ARMM.” Organized again by Efap together with the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), the forum reached out to several business groups such as the Makati Business Club, the Financial Executives Institute, and the Management Association of the Philippines as well as to the interested public. The keynote speech of ARMM OIC Governor Mujiv Hataman stated that “Investing in the ARMM is good for business, good for peace,” and presented in the forum his plans on how to institute reforms in the region with the support of P8.59 billion that the current administration promised to invest in the ARMM to fast-track its economic development.
A panel of speakers shared their experiences on doing business in the ARMM. Mr. John Perrine, Chair of Unifrutti Philippines (who by the way claimed that he chose Filipino citizenship, thus emphasizing his commitment to this country), gave his thoughts as CEO of one of the country’s leading banana exporters, and how it is actually expanding its operations in ARMM. He debunked the general impression that ARMM is unsafe for business, saying that it was no more unsafe than other places in Luzon, and that he and his family have lived there in complete freedom of movement without the need for bodyguards.
Another ARMM industry leader and President and CEO of EA Trilink Corp., Dr. Alfredo Panizales, provided insights from his experience in managing the only franchisee and licensee to provide telecommunication facilities and services in the ARMM. He said that EA Trilink also implements the Rural Information and Communications Technology Program of the Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area for the entire Mindanao and Palawan.
Two other panelists, Dr. Fermin Adriano, World Bank Consultant for Mindanao; and Mr. Ishak Mastura, former Chair of BOI ARMM also shared their insights for Mindanao peace and development.
Dr. Adriano helped to formulate the World Bank strategy, which led to the creation of the multi-donor Mindanao Trust Fund. He gave a list of 11 successful companies, some of which were foreign investors, with his observations on these companies operating in the conflict-affected areas (CAA), and some lessons obtaining from them. To cite a few: (1) Conflict did not prevent private investments in Mindanao’s CAAs; (2) Security and land access are critical investment constraints; (3) Risk-sharing through greater state participation; and (4) There is no single model for development.
Mr. Mastura reported that as of the end of last year, private investments in the ARMM had for the first time reached the P1-billion mark, attributing the increase in investments to “gains in the peace process.”
Friday, February 10, 2012
Basic Education aid for A.R.M.M.
1. I notice ARMM and national government as of this early 2012 concentrating the education program for southern Philippines. This serve good appreciation.
2. Recipients, poor of the poor children, expecting so much this project be implemented soon.
MANILA, Philippines — The government is committed to strengthening basic education as a core strategy in investing in the country’s biggest and most important resource – its people. It brings educational services to most young Filipinos, even in the remotest barangays, including in the conflict-affected provinces in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
“Task Force ARMM” was organized on December 1, 2011, by the Department of Education to improve delivery of basic education services in the region. The task force is reviewing ARMM’s education situation and will recommend measures to ensure that Muslim education is culturally sensitive, Islam-friendly and able to respond to their learning needs. The ARMM leadership is overhauling this year the educational system to resolve issues and concerns plaguing the sector. About 21 percent of ARMM villages do not have schools, and in those with schools, student-teacher ratios are 80-100 to 1. Though 93 percent of the school-age population enrolls in grade one, 60 percent drop out before they complete elementary school, and the percentage of high school graduates is the lowest nationwide.
The Education Quality and Access for Learning and Livelihood Skills Phase 2 (EQuALLS2), the flagship education project in the Philippines of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), is helping improve the quality of teaching by Mindanao teachers, with training programs in English, Science, and Math. USAID trained 175 local officials from 11 ARMM municipalities in education management in the second half of 2011.
The Basic Education Assistance for Mindanao (BEAM) is geared to improving access to basic education in ARMM. BEAM is funded by the Philippines and Australian Agency for International Development.
Under the ARMM Basic Education Act of 2010, the region formulated a six-year Basic Education Strategic Development Plan for 2009-2014. The plan targets the enrollment of 90 percent of eligible five-to-six-year-old children in schools, and 95 percent of out-of-school youth to become functionally literate. It seeks to increase by 15 percent the academic achievement levels of ARMM children in national and regional tests.
Through education, the people of the five provinces of Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao – Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi – will have the chance to live in peace, improve their lives, work together to attain socio-economic growth in the region and be government partners in nation-building.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Sulu Implements Infrastructure, Livelihood Projects
1. May this projects reach to the hand of Sulu people.
By NONOY E. LACSON
By NONOY E. LACSON
February 7, 2012, 6:09pm
JOLO, Sulu, Philippines – Multi-million-peso infrastructure projects and livelihood programs are being implemented in Sulu as part of the commitment of the provincial government to help its constituents improve their living conditions.
Sulu Governor Abdusakur Tan said the provincial government has embarked on a massive implementation of support and livelihood projects to help the local residents.
Tan said the projects are vital for the people of the province to improve their income.
He said his administration will continue to provide the necessary development in the province, geared towards improving the lives of the people.
In another development, Mindanao Business Council (MBC) head Vic Lao said the business sector will step in to save the benefits from the proposed Tampakan project in the municipality of Tampakan in South Cotabato.
In a recent meeting with the members of the academe in Davao City, Lao said “the Mindanao business sector has decided to step in because we do not want the benefits of this project put to waste.”
Adding that the proposed Tampakan project can contribute a solid one-percent to the gross domestic product (GDP), “and it is of Mindanao’s interest that we all help protect this investment.”
Lao lamented that several laws and regulations are not friendly with the business community in Mindanao particularly in the mining industry.
“Mining is one of the biggest contributors to the Mindanao economy and we will not allow the national government to deny Mindanao of this industry and its benefits,” Lao said.
Also last week, the MBC sent an official communication to Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary Ramon Paje expressing the Council’s disappointment over the DENR head’s decision on the Tampakan project’s application for an environmental compliance certificate (ECC).
The MBC letter signed by Lao himself stated that the DENR head’s action “was based on an unfounded basis undermines and threatens investor confidence and impacts on the stability of the local business environment in Mindanao.”
According to the feasibility studies conducted by the Sagittarius Mines, Inc. (SMI), the government contractor for the proposed Tampakan project, “the Tampakan mining project can contribute an additional 10.4 percent to the gross regional domestic product of regions 11 and 12 percent annually, throughout the mine life of the project.”
