Common Cause @

MANILA: We Filipinos are rebelling loudly against the politicians who have made themselves filthy rich with the people's money to the tune of PhP 10 billion. There is much hate email, so much hate comments, so much social (mass) media furor. And yet we don't rebel loudly against the politicians who have deprived the poor coco farmers of their income to the tune of PhP 150 billion; there is hardly any social media uproar. That is to say, we Filipinos are rebelling because of the stolen 10 billion but not because of the stolen 150 billion. We Filipinos are crazy! As for me, I'm thinking less of the dozens of erring politicians and more of the suffering millions of farmers. So, I'm announcing a Coop Revolution for millions of poor Filipino cultivators of the soil. In Creative Thinking, you don't have to be crazy, but it works! Everyone is thinking of what to do with those Senators and Representatives who have enriched themselves - shame them, jail them,

MANILA: We Filipinos are rebelling loudly against the politicians who have made themselves filthy rich with the people's money to the tune of PhP 10 billion. There is much hate email, so much hate comments, so much social (mass) media furor. And yet we don't rebel loudly against the politicians who have deprived the poor coco farmers of their income to the tune of PhP 150 billion; there is hardly any social media uproar. That is to say, we Filipinos are rebelling because of the stolen 10 billion but not because of the stolen 150 billion. We Filipinos are crazy! As for me, I'm thinking less of the dozens of erring politicians and more of the suffering millions of farmers. So, I'm announcing a Coop Revolution for millions of poor Filipino cultivators of the soil. In Creative Thinking, you don't have to be crazy, but it works! Everyone is thinking of what to do with those Senators and Representatives who have enriched themselves - shame them, jail them, make them pay.

MANILA: IMOD is what to do with those billions in coco funds in the Philippines. IMOD is a 100 billion-peso lesson from India courtesy of ICRISAT. I'll tell you more about it after I harvest other proposals and leave them to dry under the tropical sun. They're all wet! So, there are 100-150 billion pesos of the coco levy fund that belongs to the coco farmers. So, many people have proposals on how to spend those billions in the short term (such as distribute the cash), in the medium term (spend on infrastructure in 2014), and in the long term (put it in a trust fund; apply industry clustering using the value chain approach; create a council to oversee the fund). I prefer the long term, but  not their  long term. Eminent economist  Bernardo Villegas  quotes his colleague  Rolando Dy , another economist and Dean of the Center for Food & Agribusiness of the University of Asia & the Pacific, as recommending "a council for the levy fund that is guided by a board composed