nbernabe: In the Phillipines, we have many sources of water. But the true problem lies with where we get potable...
nbernabe: The depletion of our natural resources has an indirect effect to the rice crisis we have today. Mans abuse...
Pedestrian Observer GB: Thanks Alecks, would appreciate a heads up on the POEA-OWWA anomalies. JCC, Quixotic indeed...
naykika: One very effective measure our Auditor General does every time she suspected any Criminal Activities in the...
jcc: Very interesting point of view. That human is nothing but carbon and despite its mitochondrial DNA splendor is...

Latest Message 2 days, 1 hour ago

mc_90 : convincing the people with words wont work..politicians are very good at that..am not a politician..im a patriot..as they say..action speaks louder than words
mc_90 : i said good intentions supported with good deeds
jcc : good intentions is not good enough... u must convince the people that you have that intentions. its all perception..
mc_90 : the good thing is...we wont be like sison, alavarez etc...our good intentions for our beloved country will be supported with good deeds..and for me personally..it will be that way until I die...
mc_90 : jcc: in tagalog sabi nila "suntok sa buwan", yan ang exact term para sa gusto nating mangyari sa bansa natin...but that doesnt mean impossible..its doable..it will take time and a lot of patience hehe
jcc : mc_90, in the early 80's i remember expatriates JOMA SISON, HEHERSON ALVAREZ, RAUL MANGLAPUS and others waging war against Mr. Marcos' dictatorship abroad called as 'STEAK COMMANDOS". They were Fighting dictatorship over a dinner of wine and steak abroad. Now, we can be called "internet commando". heheheheheh!!!
mc_90 : done
jcc : mc_90, please send me your address to my other email account: jccwin@live.com cannot access my previous email.
mc_90 : jcc: you havent sent a copy of your book yet?
mc_90 : yup..and the only to succeed is to take everything as a big challenge...for a big and better future
jcc : we are pitting our ideas against the rough surface of others point of view..
mc_90 : and to make the most beautiful and shining diamond..you will have to rub it against a rough surface
jcc : but good conduct like a diamond will shine out even in the darkest room
jcc : from our perspective, they are the perverts. so u see we overpractice freedom of the press. communist countries do not have this kind of privilege.
mc_90 : exactly..that is why i dont argue with them..waste of time..n oone will win because no one will listen
jcc : we cannot win them all.. from their perspective, we are the perverts and not them..
mc_90 : but you know..visiting other blogs..it sometimes frustrates me reading others blogs about politics and about politicians..the way they praise and defend the politicians
mc_90 : definitely..im not going to live and die in a foreign land..i wanna do more for my country...
mc_90 : the way our people deals with a politician is making our politicians worst than ever
jcc : appreciate the basic that we are here temporarily. we should do good while we still have the chance and not squander our time accumulating wealth in exchange of our soul.
mc_90 : i agree...and the sad thing is..not every juan de la cruz recognize that fact..and thats really hurting..
jcc : i always believe that our redemption is in our being able to educate ourselve.s
jcc : they can always make a fool of themselves as long as they do not affect us.. but the irony, their foolishness impacted every Juan de La Cruz in the island.
mc_90 : we will become a better country...if not our generation will enjoy it..our children and their children will
jcc : yes, we have hit rocked bottom, there is no other way but up!!!
mc_90 : well..i always hate the politicians..i've always hated them..for a lot of reasons..hehe
mc_90 : theres only 2 ways to go...worst or better..im betting for the better
jcc : we overpractice democracy, even nuts like us are free to give our opinions..but kidding aside, i believe ordinary people have some spark of brilliance compared to our politicians.
mc_90 : that is a possibility...however, i am still hopefull..i always am
jcc : definitely, but the way things are going in the country, only a matter of time before we become a communist country or another dictatorship.
mc_90 : but still...there is no place like home
mc_90 : im in madrid..just moved here last sept of 2006..i like the social security system here...and the health benefits for the people..a lot fo good things here..the way govt is protecting the people
jcc : i am here in the U.S., not so great a country either, but at least better for the children,,
mc_90 : neither
jcc : gb or italy?

You must be a registered user to participate in this chat

No cure for costly medicines? Draft law affirms patent rights of drug firms

Posted by: Alecks P. Pabico | May 12, 2008 at 1:08 am
Filed under: i Report Features, Public Health, Congress Watch

PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is expected to sign into law this week the recently ratified cheaper medicines bill, which promises to bring down the prohibitive cost of drugs and medicines in the country.

[photo by Alecks P. Pabico] Long awaited by the public, the approval of the “Universally Accessible Cheaper and Quality Medicines Act of 2008″ was bogged down by intense lobbying and debates in the bicameral conference committee over the “generics-only” provision and a proposed price-regulation board. In the end, public-health advocates, legal experts, even legislators say the final version of the bill was severely watered down, while others acknowledge that it sets down policies they can live with.

But as the PCIJ reports, drug companies may challenge the law every step of the way. And with the battle now shifting to the drafting of its implementing rules and regulations, particularly vulnerable provisions are the Intellectual Property Code amendments that, critics say, legislators had apparently failed to scrutinize more closely.

Public-health advocates like lawyer Elpidio Peria feel that the IP Code amendments, though less contentious and controversial, were the more important provisions that unfortunately took a backseat, obscured by the “simplistic debates” on price regulation and the Generics Act amendments.

An associate of the Third World Network that had supported the Senate version of the bill, Peria says the bicam debates “only proved the esoteric nature of intellectual property, which makes it dangerous to be left to lawyers and policymakers.”

Likely to face challenges from pharmaceutical companies in court, he says, were the draft law’s “watered-down version on the matter of international exhaustion of patent rights, weak early working or Bolar provision, and government-use provisions with TRIPS-plus features [high levels of intellectual property protection not found in the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement] in it.” Another problematic amendment is a new section regarding the grant of a “special” compulsory license.

His advise to fellow advocates: “The IP Code amendments will now have to be scrutinized closely so that its imperfections might be augmented by the IRR.”

Read on at pcij.org.

affordable medicines, bicameral conference committee, doha declaration, generics act, intellectual property code, patents, pharmaceutical industry, philippines, third world network, trips agreement

Deceit, reprisal stalk referendum in Burma

Posted by: Tita Valderama | May 11, 2008 at 2:49 pm
Filed under: Cross Border, In the News

MANDALAY, Myanmar — It was first scheduled for May 10 — a referendum on the military-sponsored constitution that was hailed as a democratic step to a possible change of government leaders in 2010. Most groups opposed to the military junta have encouraged vigorous public participation in the electoral exercise.

While they are expecting for the best scenario of having a resounding “no” vote, these pro-democracy and ethnic groups are preparing for the worst scenario that the military regime will come up with a “forced yes” vote.

Last Tuesday, the government announced that it was resetting to May 24 the referendum in at least 40 townships in Yangon that were seriously ravaged by tropical cyclone Nagris over the weekend.

Strangely, the draft constitution seeks, among other things, to change the country’s name from the “Federal Union of Myanmar” to the “Democratic Union of Myanmar.”

Every electoral exercise in the Philippines have always been presaged by popular cynicism, by widespread suspicion that the results would be marred by cheating and fraud. The story finds parallels here. Anti-regime groups here and elsewhere strongly doubt the credibility of the upcoming balloting, with the military employing various measures to deceive, intimidate and bribe the electorate to cast a “yes’” vote.

“If the referendum is held free and fair, the regime will lose,” said Zin Linn, information officer of the National League for Democracy, Myanmar’s biggest political party that won in the 1990 general elections that the junta refused to recognize.

aung san suu kyi, burma, constitution, military junta, nagris, referendum

COA’s underused documents

Posted by: Alecks P. Pabico | May 8, 2008 at 11:04 pm
Filed under: Governance, Paper Chase

This post was written by Aura Marie P. Dagcutan and Hannah L. Nepomuceno, senior mass communication students who are earning their summer internship credits with the PCIJ.

FOR ordinary Filipino taxpayers who wonder where and how the government spends their hard-earned money, the Commission on Audit (COA) reports are either a reality check or a cryptic message.

Every year, the constitutionally-mandated state auditing firm comes out with audit reports of all government agencies, including government-owned or -controlled corporations. The reports, which are available from the COA Central Office and also downloadable from its website, inform the public of the “cumulative allotments, obligations incurred, total disbursements, unobligated and unexpected balances of allotments distributed by province or city, and total amounts spent by each department, bureau, and office” in the government.

However, their availability appears not to be reason enough to encourage people to browse, read, and much less understand the documents that could serve as a clue, or a veritable road map, in uncovering the seemingly endless string of corruption cases that pervades almost every government office in this country.

In 2007, the Philippines ranked 131st out of 163 countries in the Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, an annual survey that measures the degree to which corruption is perceived to exist among a country’s public officials and politicians. For two consecutive years, the country has also been deemed Asia’s most corrupt economy, according to the surveys done by the Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy.

At a symposium held the other day to mark COA’s 109th anniversary, its newly nominated chairman, Reynaldo Villar, thus declared: “We should create an environment totally free of corruption in our ranks, and in the government.”

audit reports, commission on audit, corruption, filipinos, philippines

Burma in tatters

Posted by: Alecks P. Pabico | May 6, 2008 at 10:25 pm
Filed under: PCIJ Image Galleries, Cross Border, In the News

THE PCIJ’s Tita Valderama was among five journalists from Southeast Asia who were able to enter Myanmar (still Burma to pro-democracy groups) from Bangkok on tourist visas for five days last week from May 1 to 5. They happened to be in Yangon (Rangoon) a day before, and two days after, the “killer” cyclone wrought so much damage and disaster.

By Monday night, the death toll was reported to have climbed to at least 10,000, even as the former capital is now littered with fallen trees and electric posts. Several houses and hospitals lost roofs while thousands, or maybe millions, of poor people in about 30 coastal villages have been rendered homeless.

Below are images Tita surreptitiously took using her digital camera, an act that was not without its dangers given that the military government does not allow foreign journalists to enter the country.

Read her first-person account of the tragedy.

See also op-ed piece of Roby Alampay, SEAPA executive director.

burma, cyclone, myanmar

Climate change to worsen already low food production in Asia — experts

Posted by: Pamela Ordoveza | May 6, 2008 at 2:05 pm
Filed under: Cross Border, Environment Watch, Governance, In the News

EXTREME changes in the weather pose yet another threat to farmers in the wake of the impending rice crisis. This was the warning raised by experts in a recently held conference by the East Asia Rice Working Group (EARWG).

Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) climate data chief Lourdes Tibig explained that climate change — global warming in particular — increases the risk of crop damage. This, she said, is one of the major causes of low productivity in agriculture.

Climate change directly results in the higher incidence of flood, drought, and rising temperature, which can later on cause pest infestation. Changes in the weather, Tibig also said, affect water availability and soil fertility, which are both essential in rice production.

According to Dr. Anni Mitin of the Southeast Asian Council for Food Security and Fair Trade (Seacon), decline in crop yield creates a domino effect, which, in the long run, brings more and more people at risk of hunger and food insecurity.

View Dr. Mitin’s presentation on the various adaptation strategies of Asian countries to climate change.

Mitin explained that low harvests reduce the marginal growth domestic product from the agriculture sector, which then causes fluctuations in world market prices and changes in trade systems.

asia, climate change, global warming, philippines, rice

Saving the earth through music

Posted by: Dwight Sarga | May 5, 2008 at 7:06 pm
Filed under: Environment Watch, PCIJ Podcasts

NOTHING beats music in getting a message across.

The 2008 Earth Day Jam, held last April 25 in Tomas Morato, Quezon City, had bands and artists coming together to promote “greenness” through music.

The yearly Earth Day Jam celebration, singer-songwriter Noel Cabangon said, remains an ideal venue for artists to showcase their talents, and at the same time remind people about taking better care of the environment.

“The free party is a venue for artists to share their concern for the environment,” he added.

During the show, the performers sang songs, changing the lyrics to convey the message “Help Save Mother Earth,” and giving environmental tips in between. Artists Barbie Almalbis, Imago, Moonstar 88, Sino Sikat?, Up Dharma Down, Reggae Mistress, and Rivermaya joined the free concert.

Nongovernmental organizations like Greenpeace and Haribon Foundation also set up “envi-tents” or booths where they showcased their projects.

Listen here.
Size: 00:06:00
Length: 5.48 MB

This podcast is a project of PCIJ interns Lyrize Agoncillo, Aura Dagcutan, Michael Foz, Pamela Ordoveza, Dwight Sarga, and Ivory delos Trinos.

earth day, musicians, noel cabangon, philippines

Toilet tales

Posted by: Alecks P. Pabico | May 2, 2008 at 11:06 pm
Filed under: i Report Features, Health Issues, Governance

IT’S the other seat of power that no one really pays much attention to, but it is the source of many of our woes. We’re talking about no other than the toilet, of course, which happens to be the focus of the latest piece in i Report’s MDGs series. Yet while it’s a topic that literally stinks, this time around there is a whiff of good news. At the very least, it’s now turning out that the Philippines will be able to meet the MDG target on water and sanitation.

Unfortunately, experts are still saying we shouldn’t be too comfortable in our (toilet) seats. As it is, meeting the target still means there are millions of households across the country without that humble throne of sanitation. And there’s also the importance of developing the habit of washing one’s hands properly after visiting the washroom. A water and sanitation expert from the World Bank also wonders aloud whether we are aware where all that sludge eventually ends up.

Wondering as well? Read on at pcij.org.

mdgs, millennium development goals, philippines, sanitary toilets, sanitation, water, world bank

Philippines, other democracies failing to solve journalists’ murders

Posted by: Alecks P. Pabico | May 1, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Filed under: Cross Border, Journalist Killings, Media Issues

TWO days ahead of World Press Freedom Day commemoration on May 3, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released its first Impunity Index that lists democracies from Colombia to India and Russia to the Philippines among the worst countries in the world at prosecuting journalists’ killers.

The Philippines was ranked sixth in a list of 13 countries (see complete list below) with an Impunity Index rating of 0.289 unsolved journalist murders per one million inhabitants, worse than countries like Afghanistan, Nepal, and Pakistan that are constantly wracked by internal strife and violence.

CPJ IMPUNITY INDEX
COUNTRY	INDEX RATING	RANK
Iraq	2.821	1
Sierra Leone	1.636	2
Somalia	0.610	3
Colombia	0.439	4
Sri Lanka	0.408	5
Philippines	0.289	6
Afghanistan	0.279	7
Nepal	0.185	8
Russia	0.098	9
Mexico	0.068	10
Bangladesh	0.056	11
Pakistan	0.051	12
India	0.005	13

Source: CPJ, 2008

Compiled for the first time this year, the CPJ Impunity Index calculates the number of unsolved journalist murders as a percentage of the population in each country. CPJ examined every nation worldwide for the period January 1, 1998, through December 31, 2007. Only those nations with five or more unsolved cases are included in this index. Cases are considered unsolved when no convictions have been obtained. (see detailed explanation of the methodology below)

Topping the Impunity Index are countries mired in conflict with the worst records for impunity — Iraq, Sierra Leone and Somalia. But CPJ pointed out that the majority of the 13 countries on the index are established, peacetime democracies such as Mexico that have functioning law enforcement institutions. Such a situation, it said, reflects the alarming failures by those elected governments to protect journalists and hold those responsible for the murders accountable.

“Every time a journalist is murdered and the killer is allowed to walk free it sends a terrible signal to the press and to others who would harm journalists,” said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. “The governments on this list simply must do more to demonstrate a real commitment to a free press. Lip service won’t help save journalists’ lives. We are calling for action: thorough investigations and vigorous prosecutions in all journalist homicides.”

Read Joel Simon and Sheila Coronel’s op-ed piece, Impunity in the Philippines, published to coincide with the CPJ’s launch of the Impunity Index.

committee to protect journalists, impunity, impunity index, philippines, press freedom, world press freedom day

U.S. military presence strongest in Mindanao

Posted by: Karol Ilagan | April 29, 2008 at 11:30 pm
Filed under: i Report Features, Governance

THE Focus on the Global South recently released a map showing what it calls “the true scale and extent of U.S. military presence” in the country today.

The map, according to the Bangkok-based research institute, illustrates the different ways and forms by which the United States has established its military basing in the Philippines, pointing to:

the locations of the increasing number of military exercises the U.S. has been holding year-round throughout the country from Batanes to Tawi-Tawi since 2001;

the growing number of ports that an increasing number of U.S. warships have been visiting;

the underreported presence of a unit of U.S. Special Operations Forces that has been stationed continuously and indefinitely in various camps throughout Mindanao since 2002, with its headquarters inside the Western Mindanao Command in Zamboanga City.

Click here for a larger view of the image.

The U.S. and Philippine governments have been downplaying American military presence in the country, but the Focus for the Global South has been belying such claims. Its recent report, At the Door of All the East: The Philippines in United States Military Strategy, points out that the U.S. is “transforming its presence in the Philippines in a way that seeks to heighten its capacity for intervention within the country and in the region.”

camp navarro, citizens peace watch, focus on the global south, joint special operations task force, mindanao, philippines, us base, us special forces