Common Cause @

MANILA: Climate change is a disaster waiting to happen, but Philippine agriculture has so far shown resistance to global warming. Two things convince me that this is so: One,  the Department of Agriculture (DA) has not adapted to the reality of climate change, except in words. It has no dedicated climate change program – in fact, the whole DA should be restructured to face this universal threat. It is now well into 2016. In 2014, the DA was reported that by 2015, the DA will "transform the entire DA budget into an adaptation budget," that it would be "making climate change considerations in all plans, budgets, programs so that climate change is mainstreamed by all offices under the DA," said DA Climate Change Office Director Alicia Ilaga (Pia Ranada, 08 April 2014,  Rappler,  rappler.com ). I have not read or heard of a DA Action Plan on Climate Change; I surf the Web many times a day and today, I visited the DA website, www.da.gov.ph, a few times but it kep

MANILA: You are looking at a sea of yellow. Look at Mar Roxas; look at his face; that is the face driven by ambition – to serve the people. Motivated. Forward-looking. Honest. Decent. (Image from  Sun Star,  gallery.sunstar.com.ph .) The venerable  Inquirer  columnist Solita Monsod says of him (16 April 2016,  Presidentiables sans the spin,  opinion.inquirer.net ): He's a graduate of Wharton Business School (major in economics), an investment banker in America. Congressman for seven years, senator for six years, in the executive branch for nine years, with DTI, DOTC, DILG. As legislator, authored/sponsored several laws such as RA 8759 establishing in municipalities a Public Employment Service Office as an employment facilitation and information center, and linking job opportunities within the region; RA 7880 ensuring fair distribution of the education capital budget among provinces. He authored the Cheaper Medicines Law, overcoming a tremendous lobby by big pharma. In

MANILA: The collage of images show in alphabetical order the candidates for Philippine President (image from CNN Philippines,  cnnphilippines.com ): Jejomar Binay, Rodrigo Duterte, Grace Poe, Mar Roxas, and Miriam Defensor-Santiago. Binay is Vice President; Duterte is the Mayor of Davao City; Poe is a Senator; Roxas has been Secretary of Trade and Industry and Senator; Santiago is a Senator. Binay is accused of lying about his own corruption; Duterte is accused of being a bad mouth when confronted with facts; Grace Poe is accused of being not a natural-born citizen and being American in citizenship; Roxas has been accused of being unconcerned about others; and Santiago has been labeled as incapacitated by her cancer. Now then, how do we select which candidate to vote? Zero is what I got today, Monday, 25 April 2016, when I searched using Google for ("how to select candidates" political position) including the quotation marks but excluding the parentheses. What that mea

MANILA: He is my candidate for President, and that's final. This time, I'm interested in more jobs than he promised every year. And I want to help him create those million additional jobs. It has something to do also with information technology and how the Filipino is tops when it come to working with computers, codes, content and communication. On 28 February 2016, Mar Roxas promised to generate at least 1 million jobs yearly if elected President (Paolo Romero,  The Philippine Star,  philstar.com ). He was referring to jobs in the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry – the Philippines is the  outsource  of getting the job done in virtual time and space – and the garments industry. In a little while, I'd like to show how that figure can easily become 2 million jobs a year. Last year, it was predicted that the BPO industry in the Philippines will bring in $25 Billion this year, 2016, from $18.4 Billion in 2014, according to ANN (Author Not Named, 03 De

MANILA: Salem, Massachusetts says, "You control climate change. Turn down. Switch off. Recycle. Walk. Change" ( nps.gov ). Nice, but not good enough. I heard "Reduce. Reuse. Recycle" in the mid-197s yet, or 40 plus years ago, but nothing's changed except the climate! But yes, you control climate change. Today, Friday, 22 April 2016, is Earth Day, and the theme is "Trees for the Earth." Not trees, I say, if you want to make a huge difference in the life of this warming world. There is something you can do right now that is literally earth-shaking, but allow me first to explain. It has nothing to do with carbon dioxide, which has been demonized by climate change experts. So it has nothing to do with trees or forests, which are carbon sinks. No carbon footprint. Here is a clue. Arcadia Biosciences says, "Agriculture  is the second largest industrial contributor to global greenhouse gases (GHGs). It’s ahead of the entire transportation sector

MANILA: According to you, John Paolo Bencito & Christine Herrera, "BPO Industry pioneer: Gloria, not Mar, did it" (08 March 2016,  Manila Standard Today,  manilastandardtoday.com ). Hmm, gentleman & lady, sorry to say but you have 2 errors there.  1st error, grammatical:  The word "pioneer" is used here as a noun, not a verb, so it should read, "BPO Industry pioneer: Gloria was it, not Mar."  2nd error, factual:  In fact, Mar Roxas was the pioneer, not GMA. In fact, your  own  report of 575 words, excluding title and authors, proves my contention!  A fish is caught by its own mouth. I will now quote the relevant portions of your report: Administration candidate Manuel Roxas II insisted on Saturday that he was the "Father of the IT-BPO sector," but an industry pioneer disputed the claim and said the credit should go to former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Speaking before a group of call center agents in Muntinlupa City,

MANILA: I'm more than interested in Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, trying to connect the world to itself. He calls it the Internet.org.  Connecting people , which used to be Nokia's slogan, is Zuckerberg's dream now, connecting all people via the Internet. (The image is from here:  fakenation.info .) Minimum Connection: Mobile. Optimum Location: Anywhere. Minimum Fee: Free. Mark Zuckerberg is crazy, and I love him because. I'm a blogger and a mentor to creative writers (and would-be), those who can connect, for free – if you just read me in this blog, you will pick up much on creative thinking. I'm an Internet denizen; surfing is a delightful and rewarding habit and I never visit any porn place or play games online (or offline). If more people can connect more easily, and more cheaply, more people can find me and see what I have to offer, thinking for themselves. In my extensive library of a blog,  A Magazine Called Love ( blogspot.com ) ,  any sur

MANILA:  Once:   Forewarned is forearmed.  A senior editor at IRRI, Leah Barona-Cruz, wrote last week a news-advisory: "Joint action from ASEAN, other rice-growing countries, key to managing looming food crisis" (14 April 2016,  Rice Today,  ricetoday.irri.org ). She said: (We) may be confronted with a global food crisis similar to the 2007-08 crisis as a result of the current El Niño episode. It is imperative that tight cooperation be secured (now) among the biggest rice-producing and -consuming nations to stem or manage the crisis should such emerge. Ms Leah quoted Director General of IRRI Matthew Morell as saying, "Regional cooperation is essential to manage a food crisis." So, IRRI is now calling for Asia to unite "for maximum impact" – Asean countries Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam; Asean+3 countries China, Japan and South Korea; and India. "Collectivel

MANILA: What's in a good name? My wife Ampy has just handed me one page of notes written with a sign pen about  Project Serendipity.  She has been listening to a radio interview by Ka Silver over DWIZ whose guest was Oscar Orbos, Executive Secretary of Cory Aquino when she was President, as well as former Governor of Pangasinan. He is from Bani; I am from Asingan. (The image above shows Orbos and Bishop Bastes of Sorsogon, from the news item I shall report more of later.) The Orbos radio interview was in Tagalog, and my wife translated for me (she is Tagala and I am Ilocano, and she knows I love the English language over and above Tagalog): Orbos talked extensively on citizen/people empowerment thru a unified and expanded social security program for all Filipinos, to include: Education Health Crop insurance protection Retirement plan (pension) Entrepreneurial/business Recreation (sports/travel etc) To finance all that is what Orbos calls the Serendipity Fun