The Bangui Wind Farm, located in the northern Philippines, hosts 20 wind turbines with a total capacity of 33 megawatts. Credit: Kara Santos/IPS

By Kara Santos
MANILA, May 29 2013 (IPS)

As the Philippines grapples with frequent power outages and a growing demand for energy, government agencies and private groups say the answer to the country’s power needs may lie in alternative sources.

Currently, three million households lack access to electricity in this country of 94 million people. Some provinces only have electricity for several hours each day, while countless households on the country’s more remote islands still rely on diesel-powered generators.

“While prices for fossil fuels and diesel will only escalate in the coming years, prices for renewable energy will be pegged at the same rate for the next 20 years.” -- Mario Marasigan
Energy rates in the country remain among the highest in Asia, placing a heavy burden on the 26 percent of the population that lives below the poverty line.

According to a 2011 survey by the Japanese External Trade Organisation (JETRO), electric rates in Manila were pegged at 0.23 dollars per kilowatt-hour (kWh), higher even than Tokyo and Singapore, which both stand at 0.20 dollars per kWh.

A growing demand for energy has accompanied the Philippines’ economic growth, which hit 6.6 percent in 2012, according to the World Bank. Supply can barely cope with the increasing demand, which is projected to grow by four percent annually from 2011 to 2015.

In light of this, the country’s Department of Energy (DOE) is ramping up renewable energy initiatives.

In a recent forum on enhancing energy security in Manila, director of the DOE’s renewable energy management bureau, Mario Marasigan, said the department has two solar-powered projects in the pipeline, as well as “three wind farms and several hydropower plants, in a bid to reduce dependence on fossil fuels.”

He says the Philippines currently uses between 38 and 39 percent renewable energy in its primary energy mix. DOE figures on gross power generation in the Philippines show that geothermal and hydropower plants each account for 14 percent of renewable power.

Other renewable sources such as wind, solar and biomass are still either underrepresented or nonexistent, and therefore offer the largest potential.

“The DOE has approved three new wind projects to proceed with commercial operations including Alternergy‘s 67.5-megwatt (MW) facility in Pililla (in the eastern province of Rizal), the Energy Development Corp.’s 87-MW wind farm in (the northern region of) IIocos Norte and Trans Asia’s wind farm in Guimaras (a western island province in the Visayas region),” said Marasigan.

So far, the Bangui Wind Farm located on the foreshore of Bangui Bay in Ilocos Norte is the only commercial wind farm in the Philippines. Managed by the North Wind Power Development Corporation, it hosts 20 wind turbines with a total rated capacity of 33 MW.

Solar power also remains largely untapped despite its huge potential. The Philippines is still lagging behind in terms of policy implementation and deployment for solar, said to be the most environment-friendly and promising energy source. To date, existing on-grid solar capacity is limited to the one-megawatt CEPALCO Solar Power Plant in Cagayan de Oro, located in the southern Philippines.

The country has set the target of tripling its renewable energy capacity by 2030 to at least 15,000 MW installed capacity.

This will also bring it closer to meeting global targets on carbon emission reduction, since “every kilowatt of electricity from renewable sources (represents a) saving on carbon dioxide emissions,” said Dr. Markus Poller, managing director of M.P.E. GmbH, a German consulting company specialised in wind and solar farm planning.

Coal clouds progress

Environmental groups like Greenpeace believe that bolder moves are in order if the country wishes to secure a sustainable energy future, adding that power generation is still dominated by coal (37 percent) and natural gas (30 percent).

According to Greenpeace Climate and Energy Campaigner Anna Abad, the government continues to embark on projects for coal-fired power plants, even while claiming renewable energy is a priority.

“Despite the passage of the Renewable Energy Law in 2008, the DOE has been approving coal-fired power plants left and right, further stalling the development and mainstreaming of renewable energy systems in the country,” Abad told IPS.

The 2008 law was intended to facilitate implementation of renewable energy projects. It encourages the establishment of various incentives and supportive schemes in order to stimulate investments in renewable energies.

DOE figures cited in the Greenpeace publication Green is Gold show that in addition to ten existing coal-fired power plants, there are 23 others in the pipeline, at least three of which are located in the middle of urban communities.

Abad fears that, once operational, these plants will “edge out any potential for renewable energy and…lock the country into use of dirty energy for the next three to four decades.”

Another challenge to achieving renewable energy potential is the high cost of providing energy to 7,107 scattered islands. The DOE must also overcome administrative hurdles, insufficient financial incentives and technical issues on grid integration, experts say.

“Variable energy sources like wind and solar energy represent new challenges for the Philippines in terms of forecasting, planning and operation of the power grid, grid stability and market development,” explained Poller, a grid integration expert.

He stressed that planning is crucial, since wind farms need to be built in places where the wind is strongest, often far from urban areas. Meanwhile, hydropower is most viable during the rainy season, and must be tapped accordingly.

Part of the uphill climb for the DOE includes winning support for renewable energy from a consumer base that equates alternative sources with higher prices.

Speaking to the press on the sidelines of the forum, Marasigan dismissed these fears as a “misconception”, adding that the switch to renewables would actually benefit the average consumer “in the long run.”

“While prices for fossil fuels and diesel will only escalate in the coming years,” he said, “prices for renewable energy will be pegged at the same rate for the next 20 years.”

Following a petition by the National Renewable Energy Board (NREB), the Philippines’ Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) approved an initial feed-in tariff (FiT), which sets a fixed price for each kWh of electricity from a defined source of renewable energy.

In July 2012, the ERC set FiT rates of 0.23 dollars per kWh of solar energy, 0.20 dollars per kWh for wind, 0.16 dollars per kWh for biomass, and 0.14 dollars per kWh for hydro resources.

Despite providing food for the country, fisher families are among the poorest in the Philippines. Credit: Kara Santos/IPS

By Kara Santos
MANILA, May 9 2013 (IPS)

Minda Moriles, 56, has worked at sea most of her life. A resident in a coastal community in the city of Las Pinas, part of the Philippines’ National Capital Region, her earnings are dictated by what she can catch off the shores of Manila Bay.

“Life is really difficult for us,” Moriles tells IPS, referring to her family of seven. “My husband heads out at three in the morning and comes back at three in the afternoon. But we try our best to feed our family and send some (of the children) to school.”

In between taking care of the children and seeing to all the household duties, Moriles says she often accompanies her husband out to sea, hoping that the catch will be better with two.

Together, they bring in a daily income of about 200 pesos (four dollars), less than half of the minimum wage. Much of this money goes towards purchasing gasoline for a borrowed boat, which guzzles about 1.22 dollars worth of fuel a day, leaving three dollars for the family’s daily expenses.

By comparison, a recent study by the Worker’s Party, a labour rights group, estimated that an average family of six needs a daily income of about 29 dollars to survive.

It is not uncommon for fisherfolk to have large families like Moriles’s. While official figures from the 2011 Family Health Survey (FHS) peg average family size at about 3.6 children for rural areas and 2.7 children for urban areas, the average fisherfolk family size is six, with some couples having as many as 12 to 14 children.

As well as being among the largest, fisher families are also some of the poorest in the country: the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) estimates a poverty incidence of 41.4 percent for the fishing sector, way above the national average of 26.5 percent.

Poverty is highest in southern rural areas like Caraga, Region VII (also known as Central Visayas) and the Bicol Region.

Moriles says impoverished fisherfolk are in desperate need of government assistance, especially in times of calamity, as well as rice subsidies to help feed their families.

A group of concerned fishers recently opened a dialogue with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to demand financial support to augment their income.

One of the many grievances brought to the government agency was the issue of overfishing, which Pablo Rosales, spokesperson of ‘Pangisda Philippines’, a member of the Save the Fisheries Now Network, says is exacerbating poverty among fisher communities.

“Ten out of the 13 major fishing grounds in the Philippines are heavily exploited,” Rosales told IPS on the sidelines of the dialogue, citing figures from the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR).

With over 43,000 inhabitants per square kilometre, Manila is the most densely populated city in the world. Over 25 million people live along its coast and many depend on the sea for survival. The presence of over 70 fishermen per square kilometre has turned the Manila Bay into the most heavily exploited fishing ground in the country.

While the daily catch is dependent on the weather and sea conditions, Rosales says each fisherman harvests an average of three to five kilos of fish on a good day, which sell in the market for 30 to 70 pesos per kilo.

“This amounts to earnings of 150 to 350 pesos (between three and eight dollars) a day,” he says.”

Fisherfolk make between 30 and 70 pesos per kilo of fish in the local market. Credit: Kara Santos/IPS

Species like ‘hasa-hasa’ (short bodied mackerel) and ‘galunggong’ (red-tail scad) are indispensable to the local diet, with Filipinos consuming a daily average of 98.6 grammes of fish. A simple meal consists of salted or fried fish, with rice and vegetables.

But while fish are a staple food here, the lives of fishermen are anything but predictable.

“We need to spend money to (get out to sea) but when we cast our nets…there is no certainty that we will be able to catch anything that day, especially in areas where natural resources are being depleted,” according to Rosales.

Disappearing habitats

Fishermen are now demanding that overfished areas be rehabilitated, since fewer fish mean lower incomes.
But according to Dennis Calvan, executive director of Fisheries Reform, a local non-governmental organisation, overfishing is just the tip of the iceberg.

“Fish habitats like coral reefs, mangroves and sea-grass (beds) are already in critical condition,” Calvan told IPS.

A briefer prepared by the Save the Fisheries Now Network states that over 70 percent of coral reefs are in a state of degradation; less than one-third of the country’s 450,000 hectares of mangroves remain; and an estimated half of all sea-grass beds have been lost or severely degraded during the past 50 years.

In their dialogue with the welfare department, Calvan and other fisher folk asked the government to develop a poverty alleviation programme specifically targeting the poorest of the poor, including a “roadmap to recovery” for the Philippines’ oceans.

According to Calvan, the roadmap should contain “plans on how to improve income from fishing, rehabilitate important fishery habitats, protect and improve the remaining coral reefs through the establishment of Marine Protected ares and reforest mangrove areas.”

The alliance of fisherfolk is already conducting coastal cleanups and mangrove reforestation in an effort to rehabilitate the natural resources they rely on for their livelihood.

The activist alliance ‘Pamalakaya’ has been pushing for mangrove reforestation along the Manila Bay from Cavite City to the Bataan province to preserve 26,000 hectares of foreshore area.

Fisher folk are also urging Congress to pass a bill to establish a separate Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources that will be equipped to respond to major issues plaguing the sector.

At present BFAR falls under the purview of the Department of Agriculture, with limited resources and personnel: according to recent statistics, BFAR’s budget for 2013 is 24 million dollars, which Rosales believes is inadequate “for a country of 7,107 islands with an area of 2.2 million square kilometres of territorial ocean waters.”

Until the government steps up its efforts, people like Moriles will continue to struggle.

“There are days when we go without meals just so that the children can go to school,”­ says Moriles, who sees education as a ticket out of poverty.

“We’re old already. When the time comes that there are no more fish in the sea, at least my children will be able to work somewhere else.”

The majestic Bulingan Falls in Basilan, one of the undiscovered tourist spots in Muslim Mindanao. Credit: Kara Santos/IPS

By Kara Santos
MANILA, Nov 21 2012 (IPS)

International travellers may soon get to enjoy the scenic spots and rich cultural heritage of Muslim Mindanao, the Philippines’ southernmost island group, without the threat of being caught in the crossfire of the region’s conflict.

A four-decade-long Muslim insurgency, which has killed and wounded an estimated 120,000 people and stifled the development of a large part of Mindanao, may be soon coming to an end.

The recent landmark peace agreement, formally signed on Oct. 15 between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), is expected to finally end strife in the predominantly Muslim provinces of Mindanao and open the impoverished region to tourism.

Since the Moro rebellion broke out in the 1970s – fuelled by a lack of national representation and decades of economic neglect of the majority Muslim region – some areas of Mindanao have been off-limits to visitors because of the “high threat from terrorism” and ongoing clashes between the military and insurgent groups.

But all that is expected to change in the coming years.

Nassreena Sampaco-Baddiri, regional secretary of the Department of Tourism in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), said the area, home to a population of over 3.2 million people, is blessed with white sand beaches, serene waterfalls and majestic lakes.

During a multi-sector forum on tourism, Baddiri presented her vision for “sustainable community-based tourism development (that) generates economic benefits.”

“The main barrier to development in the past several decades, the conflict situation, will be addressed,” Baddiri told IPS.

“Mindanao has more (tourist) spots than Boracay,” Alnasser Kasim, a member of the Muslim Consultative Council and the Young Moro Professionals Network (YPMN), told IPS, referring to the Philippines’ most popular island destination located 315 kilometres south of Manila.

Baddiri is optimistic that the signing of the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro in October will have “a huge impact on tourism development in Muslim Mindanao”.

The pact calls for the MILF, the country’s largest secessionist group, to abandon its pursuit of a separate Muslim state in favour of greater self-governance. It aims to create a new autonomous political entity called the Bangsamoro to replace the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) set up in 1989.

“This framework agreement… means that hands that once held rifles will be put to use tilling land, selling produce, manning work stations, and opening doorways of opportunity for other citizens,” President Benigno Aquino III said, on signing the agreement.

The National Statistical Coordination Board says that ARMM posted one of the highest poverty rates from 2003 to 2009.

According to the 2009 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) human development report for the Philippines, the five provinces of ARMM – Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Maguindanao, Tawi Tawi and Sulu – ranked at the very bottom of the UNDP’s Human Development Index.

Supporters of the peace agreement say that income from tourism can go a long way to lifting thousands out of poverty.

Travellers who have visited the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi say that many of the attractive destinations here have remained largely off the tourist radar.

“These provinces take pride in some of the most unspoiled…beaches, lush marine sanctuaries and dive sites, as well as enchanting waterfalls, which remain unexplored because of the perceived danger,” Bernard Supetran, a freelance travel writer and editor for EZ Maps, the leading mapmaker in the country, told IPS.

“These provinces are also cradles of colourful indigenous cultures and ways of life that have been preserved (during the last four decades),” he added.

Tourism stakeholders from the five provinces of ARMM met last September to discuss a tourism road map in the hopes that peace will spur investment in various industries such as transportation, hotels and restaurants.

“The multiplier effect of peace and tourism development will contribute to higher household incomes and empowered communities,” Baddiri told IPS.

In a region where 70 percent of workers earn only 2.40 dollars per day from agriculture and fishing, tourism could lift thousands out of poverty.

Local legislator Samira Gutoc-Tomawis from Marawi, Lanao del Sur, told IPS that tourism could help the region by providing extra income to small enterprises in the region.

Baddiri says that local communities have been identified as primary stakeholders in any development project that might take place.

“What is unique to the region are the rich traditional and indigenous performing, visual and culinary arts based on the Maranao, Maguindanao, Iranun, Yakan, Tausug, Sama cultures among others,” she said.

However, Benedict Bacani, executive director of the Institute for Autonomy and Governance (IAG), warns that the Framework will “not by itself bring in social and economic development and tourism in the region”.

“The Framework is just the first stage in a series of steps to stabilise security and build the environment conducive to investment and tourism, ” Bacani told IPS.

The government has set an official target of 10 million tourist arrivals by 2016. Local government and private sector stakeholders from the five provinces of Muslim Mindanao hope that many of those travellers will also visit the region, which now faces an uphill climb in shedding its image as a haven of violence.

“Since most of the news about Mindanao is related to violence, people perceive that to be true,” lamented YPMN’s Kasim, claiming that positive developments and initiatives were often ignored in favour of reports on bombings and a rising death toll.

But Tomawis remains optimistic that Mindanao “will have a place on the tourism map once it overcomes misconceptions”.

(END)

Ordinary netizens – from bloggers to Facebook users – could be persecuted under the Philippines’ new Cybercrime Prevention Act. Credit: Kara Santos/IPS

By Kara Santos
MANILA, Sep 29 2012 (IPS)

A newly enacted cybercrime law in the Philippines has raised fears that not only online media but also ordinary netizens could be persecuted for exercising their freedom of expression.

Media groups have expressed concern that the law poses a threat to press freedom and limits freedom of expression in the country. Bloggers and social media practitioners also point out that the new law allows the government to shut down websites without due process, and makes Internet users liable for simply clicking the ‘like’ button on Facebook or re-tweeting something on Twitter.

Republic Act (RA) No. 10175, also known as the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012, was signed into law by Philippine President Benigno Aquino III on Sept. 12. Actions now punishable as ‘cybercrimes’ include illegal access and interception of any part of a computer system without right, computer-related identity-theft, cybersex and child pornography, among others.

However, the law also broadens the coverage of libel as a content-related offense that can be committed by just about anybody using a computer.

Section 4 (4) of the Cybercrime Act deems as illegal any “unlawful and prohibited act of libel as defined in Article 355 of the Revised Penal Code, as amended, committed through a computer system or any other similar means which may be devised in the future”.

Libel is defined in Article 353 of the Revised Penal Code (RPC) as a “public imputation and malicious imputation of a crime, or of a vice or defect, real or imaginary, or any act, omission, condition, status, or circumstances tending to cause the dishonor, discredit, or contempt of a natural or juridical person, or to blacken the memory of one who is dead.”

Professor Luis Teodoro, who serves as deputy director of the Centre for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR), says the new law actually strengthens an 82-year-old libel law that has been described by the United Nations Human Rights Council as “draconian” and “excessive”.

“At a time when the global trend is to decriminalise libel, the new cybercrime law is very regressive and takes us several steps backward,” Teodoro told IPS.

“In the age of new media, where ordinary citizens take to Facebook and Twitter as a venue for free expression, here is this absolutely objectionable law that gives agencies so much power to limit free speech,” he said.

He added that certain provisions of the law empower government agencies to take down or prevent people from seeing Tweets that have been deemed libelous, or even monitor activity on cyberspace, including private Facebook accounts.

The National Union of Journalists in the Philippines (NUJP) said that the enactment of the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 betrayed Aquino’s commitment to transparency and freedom of expression.

In an interview with IPS, Secretary General of the NUJP, Rowena Paraan, called the law “sneaky”.

“Certain provisions in the law were not part of versions approved by the Senate and just suddenly appeared in the version that the president signed. These were not subject to consultations,” Paraan told IPS.

Many Filipinos are disturbed by the fact that the man allegedly responsible for this last-minute change, which lumps online libel with cybersex and child pornography, is notorious for plagiarising blogs, and recently elicited a spate of criticism from active netizens.

Citing Senate journals and interviews, investigative journalist and blogger Raissa Robles claims that Senator Vicente Sotto III pushed for the insertion into the law at the eleventh hour; an ironic twist, given various allegations that he copied parts of blog articles in previous speeches without crediting the bloggers.

Robles goes on to list some of the flaws in the law, including the difficulty of identifying the origin of libelous material, and extending the offending parties to those who “share” or “like” a post on Facebook or comment on articles agreeing with alleged libelous material.

“Historically, in the Philippines, it is the rich and the powerful who use libel as a weapon to suppress criticisms about them,” she added.

“Before the Internet came along, it was easier for the rich and the powerful to control criticisms. All they needed to do was buy a stake in newspapers, TV and radio. Or sue them. Now they have realised that the Web is beyond their control,” she wrote in a blogpost.

According to NUJP’s Paraan, anyone who uses the internet to express their opinions is now liable for what they post. Online statements posted on blogs and social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, that can be interpreted as an attack on the reputation of an individual or an entity, may give rise to libel suits.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a statement Friday criticising the law, which, they say, “drastically increases punishments for criminal libel and gives authorities excessive and unchecked powers to shut down websites and monitor online information”.

“The cybercrime law needs to be repealed or replaced,” said Brad Adams, Asia director for HRW. “It violates Filipinos’ rights to free expression and it is wholly incompatible with the Philippine government’s obligations under international law.”

Various civil society groups have resorted to legal measures to stop government agencies from implementing provisions in the law.

“I’m quite happy that a lot of different groups have been questioning the threat to the rights of freedom of speech and due process and different provisions in the law,” Paraan told IPS, citing various civil society and blogger-led initiatives.

At the time of writing, at least five separate petitions have been filed with the Supreme Court, questioning the law’s constitutionality.

On Sept. 27 several bloggers and technology law experts hosted an online roundtable discussion on the Act using Google+ Hangouts. Netizens were able to view the live webcast via YouTube and send questions to speakers and lawyers through live chat and by using the #cybercrimelaw hashtag on Twitter.

(END)

By Kara Santos
MANILA, Aug 27 2012 (IPS)

This year’s floods, one of the worst in Philippine history, destroyed a staggering 57 million dollars worth of crops, pushing  this climate vulnerable country to implement disaster risk reduction measures.

“We used to schedule our harvest season around the wet and dry months. But now you can never tell,” says Teresita Duque, a rice farmer in the Nueva Ecija province of the Central Luzon region, the ‘rice granary’ of the Philippines.

“The sky suddenly darkens, and the rains just fall,” Duque, who uses native rice varieties and eco-fertiliser on her farm, told IPS in an interview in Manila.

Monsoon rains enhanced by Typhoon Haikui near China had already been drenching Luzon, the Philippines’ main island, for several days when, from Aug. 6-7, nearly two months worth of rain fell on Metro Manila and several provinces in Luzon.

At least 95 people perished in the ensuing floods and landslides, with nearly a million others forced to evacuate their homes.

As the Philippines tries to emerge from years of agricultural backwardness and attain food self-sufficiency, farmers, non-government organisations (NGOs) and government agencies are trying to map out strategies that can mitigate the effects of weather patterns gone wild.

Scientists at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), a non-profit agricultural research centre based in Los Banos, Laguna, believe that a flood resistant variety of rice, dubbed ‘submarino’ for its ability to withstand two weeks of submergence, could be one answer.

Last year, when typhoons Nessat and Nalgae devastated Central Luzon, farmers who had planted ‘submarino’ were able to harvest their crops even after their paddies had been submerged for nearly a week.

Glenn Gregorio, senior scientist and plant breeder at IRRI, told IPS that several ‘climate-change ready’ rice varieties, including drought-resistant varieties, are being developed at the institute.

“When you talk about floods in the country, you often see images of urban areas with cars floating and people stranded on their rooftops, but the farmers are really the worst affected,” Gregorio told IPS in a telephone interview.

The farmers’ group ‘Sarilaya’ agrees that while agriculture in the Philippines needs to adapt to climate change, it is best to stick to naturally resilient native varieties rather than go in for hybrids developed in laboratories.

Sarilaya workers say that hybrid varieties are dependent on expensive chemical-based fertilisers which, in the long run, ruin the soil and harm the health of farmers and communities.

“Extreme weather patterns are making the agricultural sector more vulnerable than ever before,” said Pangging Santos, advocacy officer at Sarilaya that works to empower farmers like Duque. “What used to be considered normal is no longer normal.”

“There are many different native varieties that still need to be tested, but the experience of our farmers shows that native varieties are more sustainable than hybrid varieties in the long run,” Santos told IPS.

Sarilaya runs a farming school and model eco-farms in Northern Luzon where farmers learn how to make their own organic fertiliser. Farmers are taught to make pesticides from locally available ingredients instead of buying costly chemical-based insecticides and sprays.

Duque said where she used to spend at least 223 dollars on farm inputs for one cropping, she now spends less than 16 dollars, mostly on organic fertiliser and pesticides.

“We need to change our mindsets about climate change strategies and look at long-term sustainability,” said Santos.

Sarilaya’s strategy of promoting organic farming is in line with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)’s vision of ‘climate-smart agriculture’.

Hideki Kanamaru of the Climate, Energy and Tenure Division of the FAO says climate-smart agriculture is about sustainably increasing productivity. It is also about adaptation and mitigation by reducing greenhouse gases from agricultural production without compromising on food security.

Kanamaru introduced FAO’s vision during a symposium held in February by the Philippines department of agriculture, which was attended by policy makers, scientists and practitioners from the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation nations and select organisations.

The essence of FAO’s climate-smart farming is careful use of natural resources such as land, water, soil and genetic material as well as good practices that include conservation agriculture, integrated pest management, agro-forestry and sustainable diets.

While the government is providing free rice seeds and crop insurance to farmers in Luzon – where crops have been severely damaged by floodwaters and heavy rains – the country’s climate change commission admits that it may be too late to meet this year’s rice harvest targets.

In 2010, the Philippines topped the list of rice importers when it bought up 2.5 million tonnes of rice. While determined efforts towards self-sufficiency have brought the figure down to 860,000 tonness in 2011, plans to drop imports further have gone awry.

The national climate change action plan says that sensitivity to weather fluctuations “will greatly affect the country’s production and have a domino effect on our target of self-sufficiency by 2013.”

The plan notes: “The Philippines, being archipelagic and because of its location, is one of the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change…ranking highest in the world in terms of vulnerability to tropical cyclone occurrence.”

When President Benigno S. Aquino III signed into law the People’s Survival Fund (PSF), on Aug. 17, by amending the Climate Change Act of 2009, it was not a moment too soon.

“As we have seen clearly over the past few weeks, there is a pressing need to financially support disaster prevention efforts of local government units,” said Senator Loren Legarda, the driving force behind the 2009 law, at the launch of the PSF.

Worth 23 million dollars annually, the PSF will finance adaptation programmes and projects based on the National Strategic Framework on Climate Change. The fund may be augmented by donations, endowments, grants and contributions.

“The signing of the law signifies the president’s commitment to better prepare the country for erratic weather patterns and climate change,” said Elpidio Peria, convenor of Aksyon Klima, a coalition of 40 civil society organisations working on climate change.

Aksyon Klima released this month an e-toolkit (www.aksyonklima.com) for mainstreaming disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation and helping local governments plan for extreme weather.

*With Art Fuentes

Jeepney drivers and operators are using Eway54's Ecodiesel made from used cooking oil. Credit: Kara Santos/IPS

By Kara Santos
MANILA, Jun 22 2012 (IPS)

For the past three months, a transport group in the Philippines has been making use of biodiesel processed from used cooking oil for their jeepneys.

Jeepneys, public transport vehicles originally made from U.S. military jeeps left over from World War II, are one of the most popular means of transport in the country.

Pasang Masda, a national association of jeepney drivers and operators, has partnered with EWay 54, a company dealing in the propagation and education of alternative fuels for the benefit of the environment.

Eway54 Ecodiesel is made from used cooking oil gathered from hundreds of fast food restaurants throughout Metro Manila.

According to Pasang Masda President, Roberto Martin, the biodiesel has proven good for health and the environment as well as their livelihood.

“The biodiesel from used cooking oil has been a big help to the drivers. We tried this for three months, and we haven’t encountered any problems with our vehicles yet,” Martin told IPS.

“Drivers save as much as two pesos per liter. The drivers who have short routes and consume up to 15-20 liters a day save as much as 40 pesos (0.94 dollars) per day while those plying longer routes can save roughly 80 pesos (1.89 dollars) a day. The extra money they save can help them buy more rice to feed their families,” said Martin.

Aside from helping drivers increase their savings due to lower fuel costs, Martin added that the group has documents showing positive developments in the biodiesel cleaning the vehicles’ engines.

“Before we started using the biodiesel, many jeeps used to fail smoke emissions test, but with biodiesel, the engines run smoothly and smoke belching is no longer a problem,” said Martin.

Studies from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) analysing Metro Manila’s air quality reveal that 65 percent of the total air pollution in the capital comes from motor vehicles.

Drivers of public utility vehicles like jeepneys can be slapped with penalties and fines for violating Republic Act 8749 or the Clean Air Act.

“The fine for smoke belching can range from 23-71 dollars depending on the number of offenses. Our drivers have been able to avoid these heavy fines by using the biodiesel,” added Martin.

According to EWay 54’s plant supervisor Glenn Cabrera, this is because biodiesel is much cleaner than regular fuel.

“The emissions that come from biodiesel-powered engines are very clean. Biodiesel removes the carbon deposits from the engine and reduces smoke-belching from vehicles, so it’s more environmentally-friendly,” Cabrera told IPS during a visit to EWay’s manufacturing plant.

The biodiesel from used cooking oil is also cheaper compared to biodiesel sold in gasoline stations. EWay 54 sells the biodiesel in bulk to Pasang Masda at 38.50 pesos per liter, which is three to four pesos cheaper than the current market value. The transport group redistributes the biodiesel among its members in their different stations around the Metro.

EWay’s Ecodiesel manufacturing plant. Credit: Kara Santos/IPS

EWay 54 claims that the use of alternative fuels like biodiesel can contribute to clean air, is more environmentally and scientifically safe, and is a cheaper and cleaner alternative to fossil fuels.

According to Ricky Cuenca, managing director of Eway54, the demand for biodiesel is very high.

“Demand has been extremely high because Pasang Masda will take any volume we produce, but we are only producing one to two percent of their total requirement,” Cuenca told IPS.

Pasang Masda has over 17,000 jeepneys in its membership, and EWay currently delivers biodiesel to six of the transport group’s 176 stations.

Aside from the transport group, EWay 54 is also working with four private companies that are using biodiesel for their transport, logistics and warehouse operations.

However, Cuenca says that getting enough supply of raw materials is a major challenge due to the high demand for used cooking oil. EWay 54 sources the bulk of its used cooking oil from fast food restaurants, but they are constantly on the lookout for other possible sources.

“It has been very difficult, knowing that used cooking oil is a commodity that is being used as an additive for animal feeds and also in the illegal trade of refiltering used oil to be resold in the markets,” said Cuenca.

A new bill prohibits the practice of using recycled cooking oil, except for industrial purposes, due to potential health hazards.

“We started out making 50 gallons a day but now, we are up to 3,000 -4,000 gallons a week,” said Cuenca.

Collection of used cooking oil also remains a logistical challenge. Every day, the company collects as many as 150-200 tins of used cooking oil from their suppliers. The manufacturing plant has the ability to process a minimum of 1,000 liters a day, depending on the availability of the raw materials.

The process includes pre-filtration to remove the food particles and other solid materials from the oil. Then the conversion process, which can take five hours, transforms the used cooking oil to biodiesel by removing the glycerin. The oil undergoes three stages of washing to remove excess glycerin, then the oil is heated to a certain temperature so the excess water evaporates. The oil is cooled down and re-filtered before the final product is ready to be sold to clients.

According to Henry Palacios, EWay’s director for Business Development, there is a movement towards using renewable energy in the country because of the environmental benefits.

Aside from giving off cleaner emissions, biodiesel is nontoxic and comes from renewable biological materials such as vegetable oils or animal fats, making it more sustainable than fossil resources used to make diesel fuel. EWay is currently exploring other possible clients.

“Other companies that could benefit from biodiesel include private companies that need fuel for forklifts or transport trucks, condominiums or establishments that use generators, and even boats and shipping companies,” Palacios told IPS.

According to Cuenca, at 20 percent blend, the biodiesel can lower CO2 and sulfur emissions by 15 and 30 percent respectively. Pollutants can be further lessened the higher the percentage blend of the biodiesel.

Cuenca stressed that having clients in the public transport groups that consumes four billion litres of diesel every year in the Philippines has made a large impact.

EWay claims that since they started their journey in April 2011, they have “mitigated over 1.7 million pounds of carbon dioxide. That’s 765 tons of pollutants in the air we breathe, roughly equal to the work of 35,000 mature trees, every year.”

Cuenca added that they need to step up their efforts to educate restaurants, oil suppliers, new users and the public in general.  According to Cuenca, any vehicle with a diesel engine can immediately use the biodiesel without having to convert anything in their engines.

“Many people ask us if there are any modifications or changes they need to do with their engines, we say no. The only thing we need to change is our mindset and perceptions of renewable fuel,” said Cuenca.

(END)

Aetas celebrate around a campfire during the youth festival. Credit: Kara Santos/IPS

By Kara Santos
TARLAC, Philippines , Jun 7 2012 (IPS)

Barefoot and clad in traditional clothes, over a hundred indigenous Aetas gathered around a bonfire in a community nestled in the mountains of Capas town, in the Philippines’ Tarlac province. They had come together to celebrate their traditions and to instill in youth a sense of pride in their cultural identity.

The festival, dubbed Pamimilamu (the Aeta word for solidarity), was held on May 30-31 in Alunan, an isolated community located one and a half hours away from the Capas town centre. To reach the village, community workers had to travel in a four-wheel drive vehicle across rugged roads and paths that wind through hills still covered with ash from Mount Pinatubo’s massive eruption more than two decades ago.

Many youth delegates had to walk for four to six hours from their own remote villages in the mountains to attend the event.

Despite the long and difficult journey to the site of the event, the Aetas were in a festive mood. Everyone, young and old, broke into a joyful dance as soon as the rhythmic traditional music was played. The music was like a light switch, setting everyone in motion in an instant.

The Aetas are indigenous people who live in scattered, isolated mountainous parts of the Philippines. Unlike most Filipinos who have brown complexions and straight hair, the Aetas have dark skin and curly hair. Nomadic by nature, they once built temporary shelters made of sticks and leaves in the mountains. But when Mount Pinatubo erupted in June 1991, many were forced to move to the lowlands or resettle in outlying communities.

Much has changed in the Aeta lifestyle since that disaster. Closer contact with lowlanders has given birth to a new generation of Aetas who view their traditional culture and lifestyle from the eyes of lowland residents.

“When the Aeta elders and leaders pass away, there’s a danger that our culture and traditions will die along with us. We need to impart our heritage to the younger generations,” tribal council leader Bayani Sumaoang explained.

According to Jane Austria-Young of Kabalikat sa Kaunlaran ng mga Ayta, Inc. (KAKAI), an organisation working to empower the Aeta community, the festival was a way to strengthen cultural pride among the youth.

“We saw that there’s really a need for youth to get more involved in the issues that indigenous people are facing. While the overall theme is solidarity, we also want to reinforce the responsibility of the youth in their fight for their ancestral domain,” Young told IPS.

Like Sumaoang, Young also believes that deeply ingrained Aeta traditions are slowly fading away. Before Mount Pinatubo erupted, gatherings would be regularly held with traditional music and dancing.

“The elders complain that the youth no longer follow certain customs like bowing before a dance is performed or showing respect to their elders. The Aeta language is also fading away. It’s getting mixed with Tagalog and Kapampangan languages, which the younger generations are now using,” said Young.

Integration with lowlanders has altered the behavior of some of the younger generations. According to members of the community, Aetas are often looked down on for being from the mountains or uneducated.

Irene Gutierrez, a resident of the Alunan village, claims some Aeta students feel this discrimination in schools in the lowlands, which has caused some of them to hide their heritage.

“When teachers ask who among the students are Aetas, they don’t want to raise their hands or admit that they come from our community. It’s as if they are ashamed of who they are,” Gutierrez told IPS.

Some now even feel inferior because of the color of their skin, and buy cosmetic products and treatments, which they feel will make them blend in more with lowlanders.

“Some of the youth who are studying in college have their hair rebonded to make it straight. There’s one family whose child studies in the lowlands. The family didn’t have much money but when they did get some, the daughter asked her parents if she could have it as a gift, so that she could have her hair straightened,” Young recalled.

When visiting the houses of some Aeta members of the community, Young would notice “anti-frizz” shampoos and whitening creams among their household goods.

“That’s what they see shown on television and commercials. It’s all whitening creams and hair straightening shampoos.”

Young says that this phenomenon is not just a reflection of the Aetas, but of indigenous people in the whole country. To address this KAKAI has brought in volunteers from an Indigenous Peoples college in Mindanao who are helping to strengthen the role of culture in the lives of the youth.

“Even if they engage in mainstream society, we want them to know their identity and be proud of their culture,” said Young.

The festival aimed to reinforce the strong cultural heritage and identity of the Aetas and give the youth a chance to bond with their own community.

Elders demonstrated traditional skills such as weaving baskets from strips of dried leaves, and shared stories and prayers around the campfire. Short drama presentations depicted how they lived as nomadic tribes in the olden days. They also enacted old courting rituals and performed indigenous dances celebrating hunting and war.

The youth delegates also took part in friendly matches of traditional folk games. A target shooting match with a traditional bow and arrow celebrated their practice of hunting and gathering, a “rice planting” relay where participants had to race to place thin sticks in a row of bottles paid tribute to the hard work of tilling the land, while a mock horse race with hobby horses made of large leaf fronds reinforced solidarity among the youth participants.

Youth delegates from a Dumagat community, a group of Aetas residing in the coastal area of Quezon province in southern Luzon, were invited to take part in the festivities and share their experiences because of their strong background in community organising.

The Dumagat delegation shared inspirational songs crafted by youth to strengthen their role in fighting for their rights, particularly their plight to claim their ancestral domain, and opposing the building of a dam that would affect their traditional livelihood.
Marvin Astoveza of the Dumagat Youth delegation said that youth were naturally creative and could talk about issues through various arts and music.

“The songs and music we shared were composed by young people, and we go around in churches and around the city singing these tunes so that lowlanders will be more aware of the issues we are facing,” said Astoveza.

By the end of the festival, the youth were sharing their reflections on the event and signifying their commitment to fight for their ancestral lands. The festival’s organisers hope that through such events, the Aetas and other indigenous peoples will be able to preserve their identity and culture, even as they become more and more integrated into a Philippine society that is fast modernising.

Alona Manalo, a 21-year-old youth delegate said that the event was able to capture the youth’s interest and foster meaningful involvement.

“I’m very happy that we got a chance to get together with other young people and talk about these issues. The youth really has a role in preserving our indigenous culture,” said Manalo.

(END)

A recent social media campaign encourages tourists in the Philippines to leave "nothing but footprints" on the country's beaches. Credit: Patrick Tumalad/CC-BY-2.0

By Kara Santos
MANILA, May 18 2012 (IPS)

Seashells and corals are competing with styrofoam packs, food wrappers, cigarette butts, and plastic bottles for space on some of the Philippines’ most scenic beaches. Graffiti mars tourist spots like lighthouses and caves, proclaiming the names of recent visitors.

While many of the country’s popular holiday destination sites are postcard-perfect from afar, up close the scars of irresponsible travelers shine through.

Tourism is booming in the Philippines, lifting the hopes of millions of the country’s impoverished citizens for a better life. But the influx of travelers is also bringing with it some undesirable consequences – ones that may just end up spoiling the very things that make the country’s sites worth traveling to.

“Even if we put garbage bins labeled bio-degradable and non-biodegradable trash here in our resort, there are hard-headed people who just throw their junk food wrappers and litter anywhere,” Lina Rizon, a caretaker of a private resort in Guimaras island in the Visayas region told IPS.

Littering is just one of the problems starting to plague the once pristine tourist locations. In recent months, photographs showing people abusing or mishandling wildlife and marine life have also gone viral on social networking sites.

Some of these incidents include a case of a girl standing atop a whale shark (Rhincodon typus); a fisherman posing with a dolphin pierced by a fishing hook; and a group of divers posing while holding a sea turtle underwater.

The public outcry over these photos, published online by infuriated netizens, often results in local government units or regional offices of the Department of Tourism taking quick action. However, tour operators, tourists, as well as locals who have been caught engaged in such practices have claimed they were not aware that they were doing anything wrong.

“One time, we caught a visitor trying to smuggle a plastic bag full of live starfish she had gathered from the water out of the resort. We said she would have to pay a fine of 500 pesos (11.72 dollars) per starfish, so she returned them to the water,” added Rizon.

Harnessing social media

To address this problem, two individuals named Yoshke Dimen and Vins Carlos launched a social media campaign called ‘The Footprints Project’ to promote responsible travel.

The activists initially started the website PhilippineBeaches.org to share their love for travel and the beach. The Facebook fan page has grown into one of the country’s largest unbranded travel communities with over 865,000 members.

Such awareness-building comes at a critical time, since management of the world’s oceans and seas is one of the seven critical issues that will be tackled in the upcoming Earth Summit, called Rio+20, to be held this Jun. 20-22 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

“It is not enough to travel. We need to travel aware of our responsibilities to the environment,” said social media strategist and campaign co-founder Dimen during the launch last week.

The campaign targets travel bloggers, travel agents and beachgoers to help spread the word effectively.

“While we encourage people to travel and explore the many beautiful beach destinations in the country, we also want to make every Filipino a responsible traveler and an active steward of nature,” Dimen told IPS.

The goal of the campaign is to raise awareness on ways to minimise human impact on the environment and provide practical and specific guidelines to help travelers become more informed, more involved, and more in touch with the natural world.

The Project encourages netizens to Tweet with the hasthag #LeaveNothingButFootprints and #ResponsibleTravel whenever they share beach travel-related links.

Partnering with non-profit organisations like Save Philippine Seas (SPS) and Earth Island Institute Philippines, the Footprints Project envisions “a healthy, sustainable and successful tourism environment enjoyed, promoted, and guarded by people who are environmentally conscious, friendly, and responsible.”

The Project has identified tips for responsible travel, which have been shared on social media sites.

“Fish don’t use utensils. Avoid bringing disposable items to the beach. Bring your own tumblers and food containers,” proclaims one campaign poster shared over Twitter.

“Respect Wildlife: If you really want a souvenir, purchase products that are not made using threatened or endangered plants or animals,” goes another reminder posted on Facebook.

Anna Oposa, co-founder of SPS, which harnesses social media for environmental conservation and responsible tourism, stresses the need for young people to get involved.

“The most alarming environmental issue is apathy. It’s not enough for people to just complain about the problem, we have to do something concrete. What we want is to empower people to save our seas through their own actions,” Oposa told IPS.

The Philippines is the “world’s epicenter” of marine biodiversity, which means that conservation, protection, and restoration of its seas is not only of local significance, but international significance as well, according to SPS.

The group recently released a free mobile application for Android on Google Play, which will also be launched on iTunes in a few weeks to help people do their part.

“Aside from having a database of dive sites and dive shops, through the app, users can find volunteer opportunities and get in touch with different non-governmental organisations and conservation groups and report marine environment abuses and illegal practices they come across,” said Oposa.

(END)

Since it first hit the airwaves more than 50 years ago, the University of the Philippines (UP)’s campus radio has evolved into a community broadcaster, serving as the voice of the people.

DZUP radio’s tower reaches communities outside the Philippines university campus. Credit: Kara Santos/IPS

DZUP 1602 Khz, the UP’s radio station, does not just air the voice of students and the academic community but also allows grassroots groups and the marginalised to use it as a platform for social change.

Josefina Santos, DZUP’s station manager, says the radio station started in 1957 as an “an experiment” of the UP’s college of engineering and the college of arts and sciences.

The station played a crucial role during the leftist unrest in the country and allowed students to voice their concerns during the years before the 1972 declaration of martial law by then president Ferdinand Marcos, cracking down on protests and agitations.

“Sometime in the late 60s until the 70s, before martial law, it really became the voice of the university and a dissenting voice of the people who really were for social change,” says Santos.

“When martial law was declared, one of the first stations that the military went after was DZUP. They destroyed all the equipment and UP went off the air,” says Santos.

In the 1980s, under the management of the UP’s college of mass communication DZUP was revived using an old transmitter borrowed from the Philippine Broadcasting Bureau.

Radio programmes focused on health, people’s rights and various other issues, provided an alternative perspective to mainstream media. There, however, were technical problems operating on a “very low-powered” transmitter.

“We didn’t have the financial support of the government at that time. It was so difficult. Sometimes just a clap of thunder would cut us off air,” recalls Santos.

“Every now and then, we had to borrow some parts from other stations just to operate DZUP… but still it became the voice of students and teachers at that time and we were able to generate support,” she adds.

When the UP was recognised as a public service university, DZUP was able to get the much needed financial support, and in 2010 it finally got a new transmitter capable of handling regular programming.

Now, broadcast communication students produce, write, and host the shows, while faculty members serve as executive producers and programme hosts.

Other departments also co-produce and air their own shows over the radio station. ‘Psych O’Clock Habit’ is a show anchored by professors from the department of psychology, while ‘That’s Entrep-tainment’ is run by the UP institute for small scale industries.

Similarly, ‘Itanaong kay Engineer’ (Ask the Engineer) is co-produced by the college of engineering; and ‘Abogado ng Bayan’ (Lawyer of the People) by the law college. Other programmes deal with health matters, economics, student concerns, sports and music.

The more powerful signals and wider reach beyond the campus opened up avenues for grassroots communities to come in.

DZUP is the only radio station with public service programmes that give a voice to ordinary people such as drivers, vendors and village leaders about concerns affecting the community.

The station works with a partner, Kodao Productions, a multimedia outfit that produces radio programmes and video documentaries on social issues in the country. Kodao Productions also provides training to community broadcasters.

“We conduct training for regional and sectoral organisations interested in putting up their own community radio stations or producing radio programmes to be aired in radio stations nationwide,” says Kodao’s director Raymund Villanueva.

Kodao is a member of the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters, an alliance of about 5,000 community radio stations worldwide.

Kodao’s main public service radio programme, ‘Sali na, Bayan’ (Join us, Nation), broadcast over DZUP, Monday to Friday, from 2 to 3 pm is reserved for the marginalised sectors of society.

Villanueva says the universal challenge for community radio is financial difficulties due to its non-profit nature. Finding funds to pay for equipment, conduct training and maintain operations is a major hurdle.

Unlike other Asian countries like Indonesia and Nepal where “community radio stations define the news,” Villanueva says that the lack of legislation supporting community radio in the Philippines has been a hindrance.

“The government makes it very difficult for marginalised sectors to apply for permits to set up their own community radio stations.

“No one from the big stations generally cares for or consistently asks the marginalised sectors about what they think is happening in the country,” says Villanueva.

DZUP’s Santos agrees. “In ordinary radio stations, the masa (masses) will go there to ask for help. Here, the masa goes there to give their opinions, to give updates on what is happening in their community.”

While challenges remain for community radio, both Santos and Villanueva are optimistic that DZUP can provide a good platform for airing grassroots issues to a wider listenership.

The renovated facilities, new tower and transmitter now enable DZUP to broadcast on five kilowatts of power, expanding its reach throughout Metro Manila and nearby provinces.

The advent of the Internet has also allowed the station to expand its reach to include Filipino workers in various parts of the globe. Programmes, streamed online, are available through the Diliman Interactive Learning Centre under the UP.

“A portion of our current listeners in the United States is overseas Filipinos. We have overseas Filipino worker groups reporting from Hong Kong, Rome, Libya… They are able to listen to DZUP through live streaming,” says Villanueva.

DZUP is also turning to social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter and archiving episode for online reception.

*This story was produced with the support of UNESCO.

By Kara Santos
MANILA, Mar 8 2012 (IPS)

As the world commemorates International Women’s Day today, women around the globe are speaking out on various issues that affect them. In light of recent natural disasters and calamities in the Philippines, women are increasingly citing climate change as one of their most pressing concerns.

A female farmer in Northern Philippines struggles to gather sufficient yields as a result of climate change. Credit: Kara Santos/IPS

According to the Philippine Commission on Women (PCW)’s executive director Emmeline Versoza, the traditional role played by women makes them one of the most vulnerable populations to climate change.

“During disasters, women attend to the needs of the family and prioritise the safety of family members, especially their children, which makes them more vulnerable,” Versoza told IPS.

The Philippines is one of the most disaster-prone nations in the world, with an average of 20 typhoons hitting the country every year. The United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction reported that in 2011, a total of 33 natural disasters ravaged various parts of the country, resulting in huge losses of life and massive damages to agricultural produce, infrastructure, and properties.

Tropical cyclones, storm surges, heavy rain, floods and landslides are expected to worsen as a result of climate change, putting people, particularly the urban and rural poor at risk, according to Versoza.

Pangging Santos, Advocacy Officer of Sarilaya, a community-based organisation working on women’s issues and the environment, told IPS that female farmers are feeling the impact of climate change most acutely.

“Extreme weather events have really been on the rise, which has affected the farming sector. When yields are low, it’s usually the women farmers who have to find a way to make ends meet,” Santos told IPS.

Irregular rainfall, unexpected droughts and an unusually high incidence of insect infestations have all impacted the agriculture sector, which contributes to a large chunk of the Philippine economy.

Sarilaya works with rural women in Nueva Ecija, an agricultural province in the North dubbed the ‘rice granary’ of the country. Following several killer typhoons that battered the country, thousands of hectares of rice-farming land and corn plantations were destroyed, affecting local women’s livelihood.

“As the men of the farming households sought occupations in the city, it was the women left to tend the fields. As early as six in the morning, they are exposed to extreme heat and harsh weather conditions. Many of the women we’ve worked with are suffering from urinary tract infections and other health problems that often go untreated,” explained Santos.

Meanwhile in urban centres, flashfloods brought by intense rains over the past few years regularly displace thousands of people into cramped evacuation centers, where women and girls face further risks.

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has documented cases of child birth in unsafe conditions in evacuation sites during extreme disasters.

At the height of the killer typhoon Ketsana in 2009, Maritess Gural gave birth to her sixth child inside a basketball court, which had been converted into a makeshift evacuation centre. Hours before going into labor, she had been wading in murky floodwaters to save what she could of her family’s belongings.

“Fear was the farthest thing from my mind. I told my husband I couldn’t leave until I had salvaged our belongings,” recounts Gural in the documentary “A Woman’s Story” produced by UNFPA.

According to UNFPA added that the risk of sexual violence is also high in emergency situations when “protection mechanisms are absent.”

“There have been reported cases during natural disaster of gender-based violence because of the open living conditions in evacuation centers. Women’s special needs – such as safety, privacy, separate toilets and gender-sensitive hygiene kits should be taken into consideration by local government during disaster-planning,” said Versoza.

In light of the global impact of climate change, PCW highlighted the importance of governance and accountability in their month-long celebration of National Women’s Month. The theme “Women Weathering Climate Change” highlighted that disaster risk reduction is everyone’s responsibility and underscored women’s role as agents of change.

“We want women and local governments to be more informed and prepared for any disaster – because climate change is here. We will be visited by many more typhoons in the years to come and we have to be prepared,” said Versoza.

Government agencies and women’s community groups gathered in a tree-planting activity to help reforest Marikina watershed, the source of most of the flood waters that inundated Metro Manila during the height of tropical storm Ketsana.

“Women are very active at the village level and they are the ones mobilising the community to help rehabilitate the watershed and take care of the nursery,” said Versoza.

Groups like Sarilaya are also working with women famers to mitigate climate change.

“We’re training women to practice organic farming. We’ve set up a sustainable farm school and established the use of organic (and) traditional rice and vegetable seed banks,” said Santos.

Meanwhile, other local governments are stepping up efforts to address climate change.

Late last year, the province of Albay, which is located right in the path of tropical cyclones coming into the country from the Pacific Ocean, set up the country’s first Climate Change Academy.

The academy provides training to local government units to study actual preparations, evacuation, and mitigation measures for disasters and evaluate climate risk hazards and adaptive capabilities.

Excerpt:

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues have generally been ignored in the Philippines, or worse, negatively portrayed to spice up mainstream media programmes.

News of raids on gays, killings or violence involving them gets splashed all over the tabloids and primetime news when “nothing else is happening”, reinforcing negative stereotypes.

What made a dent in that situation was the entry of ‘Rainbow Radio Philippines’, Manila’s first and only LGBT radio show that was aired every Saturday afternoon from November 2009 to April 2010.

Conceptualised and run by the Rainbow Rights Project (R-Rights), a group of lesbian and gay lawyers and legal activists, and supported by the Global Fund for Women, the weekly programme gathered Filipino LGBT, their families and supporters to share and discuss issues, news and events.

While the programme was originally broadcasted live over FM and AM radio the episodes continue to be available on the R- Rights website.

“The programme arose out of the need to educate the public,” said Maica Lagman, a volunteer who served as the host. “Not everyone had access to TV or print, so we thought that it would be very strategic to broadcast over radio.”

This year, R-Rights is exploring free social networking sites like YouTube and Facebook to podcast and videocast LGBT issues. The plan is to use some of the audio content from the radio programme and update it with popular music to make short audio or video clips.

There also are plans to continue airing the radio programme through a local campus radio station. “If not, our contingency plan is to broadcast it over the web as podcasts,” said Lagman.

“We want to come up with an international episode in English, talking about the Philippines,” Angie Umbac, president of R-Rights and coordinator for campaigns and external relations, told IPS.

Umbac said the plan for an international episode was in response to demands from the international LGBT community that cannot follow the Filipino language.

Rainbow Radio used a mix of English and Filipino, the national language, in order to reach the masses. A typical episode ran for about 60 minutes and tackled one main theme per issue – human rights, gay pride, or LGBTs in the media.

The feel of the programme was upbeat and cheerful and guest speakers included prominent LGBT personalities in different fields – academics, media, musicians, lawyers and psychologists.

Says Lagman: “When we produced the show, we always made it a point to represent the LGBTs… because in commercial or mainstream media, they aren’t really given space.”

Founding president of R-Rights and policy advocacy coordinator Atty. Germaine Leonin told IPS that the programme was “meant to cover the whole range of LGBTs, the age groups and also the class.”

The programme which touched an array of controversial topics such as same-sex marriage and adoption, suicide, hate crimes and discrimination “had to be simplified and ‘laymanised’ so that listeners would understand that LGBT concerns are actually the same concerns of ‘straight’ society.”

One episode on ‘coming out’ had LGBT guest speakers sharing the difficulties and reasons that prompted them to come out of the closet. For a Christmas episode, the programme focused on how alternative families or families with LGBTs celebrated Yuletide.

“We featured LGBT families … kids who are raised by LGBT couples who are really wanted and loved. I think the main message was there’s more than one kind of family,” said Lagman.

Leonin said that the usual approach to tackling LGBT issues is through schools, education, information campaigns, and forums and symposia. R-Rights wanted to reach the common people and turned to community radio.

“It was a novel approach to advocacy,” Leonin told IPS.

Because of the nature of the medium, the team “had to make it fun” by incorporating music by lesbian and gay artistes, announcements of activities by different LGBT groups, and highlighting celebrations like Gay Pride Marches instead of just focusing on pure advocacy.

Before the boom of Internet and social networking sites in recent years, radio enjoyed a fairly high penetration rate in the country compared to other forms of traditional media.

“In some of the poorer countries, especially in Asia, radio is still one of the best modes of reaching out to the people,” said Leonin.

Bianca Miglioretto, a community radio trainer and consultant who works with the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters says community radio has a great potential to enable LGBT people to shape their own programmes.

Such programmes can be “based on the issues and rights debates they want to discuss in public and the advocacy they feel most appropriate in the context of the communities they live in,” Miglioretto told IPS.

The colourful radio programme helped raise awareness and empower the local LGBT community by providing them basic legal knowledge of their rights. Lawyers answered questions regarding LGBT rights, while psychologists provided advice on how to deal with various related issues.

“We were unashamed to tackle the difficult issues,” Umbac said.

During its run, the radio programme received numerous calls, emails and messages even from listeners abroad who were able to listen to the episodes online.

“There are still requests from people who want to help with the radio programme,” says Umbac. “What we can do is probably make advocacy podcasts.”

*This story was produced with the support of UNESCO.

A headshot to focus on AIDS awareness. Credit: Niccolo Cosme/Project Headshot.

By Kara Santos and - -
MANILA, Dec 2 2011 (IPS)

A unique campaign in the Philippines is using stylised online photos to raise awareness on HIV/AIDS. Fashion and conceptual photographer Niccolo Cosme first initiated Project Headshot Clinic in 2007 as a way of merging profile photos online and advertising.

A headshot to focus on AIDS awareness. Credit: Niccolo Cosme/Project Headshot.

Project Headshot has partnered with various groups and sponsors to create a unique look that is used for message branding for campaigns and advertisements. After a friend in the industry came out in the open and declared himself HIV positive, Cosme took up HIV/AIDS awareness as a personal advocacy.

According to a Global AIDS Report recently released by the UNAIDS, the Philippines is one of seven nations which reported a surge in new HIV infections amid decreases in most countries worldwide. As of March 2011, six new cases of HIV were reported each day in the country, an exponential leap from the ‘low and slow’ character of the epidemic before 2007.

Department of Health figures show that in September alone, there were 253 new HIV cases confirmed and reported to the HIV and AIDS Registry, which was 65 percent higher compared to the same period in 2010.

A majority of the cases are transmitted through unprotected sex, with males within the age range 20-29 the most vulnerable. Some other cases detected have been cause by needle-sharing among injecting drug users, through mother-to-child transmission and through blood transfusion.

While Project Headshot has tied up with corporate clients in the past, they focus their campaign on the youth to raise awareness on the state of HIV/AIDS also with the support of UNAIDS, the joint United Nations programme on HIV/AIDS.

After the mass shooting activity, the photos are uploaded online for participants to use on their profile pages and social networking sites to commemorate World AIDS Day. Project Headshot makes use of a unifying symbolic design such as red paint on participant’s faces, a floating red ribbon or red frame to distinguish each year’s campaign.

This year, participants wore a whistle around their neck provided by project co-presenter The Red Whistle, a campaign that aims to “sound the alarm” on the HIV/AIDS situation though online social media effort and visual arts.

When Project Headshot Clinic for HIV/AIDS first started in 2008, participants included key trendsetters, popular celebrities, musicians, and members of the fashion industry, who were part of photographer Cosme’s network. All the photos were uploaded the same time, and everyone who participated grabbed the shots and made it their profile photo, creating immediate buzz and curiosity among those not aware of the campaign.

“You know how when you open your Facebook account and you get a notification that says ‘this many friends have changed their profile photos’ – and you see all the photos are the same. The impact is viral,” said Cosme.

In the succeeding years, Project Headshot Clinic eventually opened up slots to the public, for netizens to join the roster of pre-selected celebrities and advocates.

Previous year’s themes included “Aware” (2008) to raise awareness on the issue, “Move” (2009) to get people to do something concrete, and “Act” (2010) a call to action to get voluntary HIV screening. Currently in its fourth year, the Project’s theme for the year is “Commit.”

The highly exclusive campaign asked participants online to submit their “commitments” to help achieve UNAIDS vision: “Zero new HIV infections. Zero discrimination. Zero AIDS-related deaths.” Aside from selecting participants based on their answers, organisers assessed the number of friends potential participants had on Facebook to ensure that the campaign would have a wide reach.

Unlike traditional campaigns in print media, radio, or TV, the campaign directly embraces the youth’s inherent love for the Internet and social networking sites in an innovative way. Taking the campaign online has resulted in increased youth awareness and involvement.

“Social media tools hold huge potential to help the raise of awareness and mobilise the social action needed to turn the tide on the HIV epidemic. UNAIDS has therefore taken the best of the AIDS response – the vibrancy, the dedication, and the passion – online,” states UNAIDS on their website.

But aside from addressing establishing a strong online presence, the programme also helps raise awareness in HIV/AIDS among youth. Before the shoot takes place, peer educators from project partner Take The Test, a non-profit group which raises awareness on HIV/AIDS, gave participants a briefing on HIV in the country and explained facts on HIV prevention.

Despite years of public information campaigns on HIV/AIDS, many myths still surround it. During the pre- shoot activity, one of the participants asked if HIV could be transmitted through ‘French kissing’, which was quickly dispelled by peer educators and other participants.

According to Take the Test’s peer educators, the increase in the number of cases in the country is mostly due to the lack of awareness on the risks of HIV infection due to unprotected sex and the fear and stigma that surround HIV and people living with HIV and AIDS which often hinders people from getting tested.

The project encouraged participants to avail of the free voluntary rapid testing and counseling provided during the shooting dates. Taking the test was confidential and provided results within 30 minutes.

This would not have been possible if participants had not been lured in by the idea of getting their photo taken by a professional photographer for free and being part of a high profile awareness campaign for a good cause.

Many net-savvy participants who get involved in Project Headshot also ended up blogging about the whole experience, tweeting facts about HIV/AIDS, or sharing links on Facebook about where people can avail of free voluntary testing or preventive practices to curb the spread of HIV.

Excerpt:

By Kara Santos, Art Fuentes, and - -
MANILA, Oct 27 2011 (IPS)

For the first time since giving birth in prison 13 years ago, Sarah, an inmate in the Philippines’ largest detention centre for female convicts, saw her daughter via Skype video chat in her prison cell.

Sarah (not her real name) was convicted over a decade ago for selling illegal drugs at a time when she did not know she was pregnant.

Three weeks after giving birth in Quezon City Jail, she sent her daughter to live with her relatives in Iloilo – a province on an island roughly 480 kilometres away from Manila. Her only communication with her family was through snail mail, which reached her about once every three months.

But two weeks ago, with the launch of a virtual visitation programme in the prison, Sarah finally got to see her youngest daughter and speak to her two eldest children for the first time in over a decade.

“I am happy that my prayers have been answered and they are all growing up to be good kids,” Sarah told IPS, unable to hold back her tears at finally being able to see and talk to her children.

The “e-dalaw” (Filipino for visit) or electronic prison visit programme, allows prisoners to communicate with their families and loved ones via Skype video chat. Before the e-visit programme was implemented on Oct. 13, Sarah, like many inmates languishing in Manila’s overcrowded prisons, had endured years without any visits.

“It is a step towards making prisons more humane,” social welfare officer Cherry Huet told IPS, as she watched inmates talk to their families and loved ones on the computer via Skype.

Huet, who works at the Correctional Insititute for Women (CIW), spent the past weeks interviewing inmates at the institute to find out who among them would benefit most from the new service.

According to the Bureau of Corrections, up to 40 percent of inmates never get visited by their families. This is especially true for inmates who hail from provinces far from the capital Manila, where the jail is located.

The transport fare and cost of lodging coupled with other expenses make it prohibitively expensive for families to visit their convicted loved ones even once a year.

For instance, Sarah’s family would need to take a 20-hour trip via inter-island ferry and find a place where they could stay for at least two nights in order to visit her.

For Filipinos born into very close-knit families, being able to keep in touch with relatives, even through virtual means, is very important.

Since Internet access has been steadily penetrating all parts of the country, the e-visit service can be utilised even by family members living in very remote areas. Internet cafes have popped up in remote provinces, providing people with access to affordable virtual technologies such as free video calls and online chat.

Prison authorities say the new electronic prison visit system will ease inmates’ loneliness and help them better reintegrate with society once they are released.

However, the e-visits have to be brief, as thousands of inmates share the few Internet-enabled computers in the jails and prisons.

Quezon City Jail, where the programme was piloted, is only equipped with five computers with webcams and Internet connections, for more than 3,000 inmates locked up in the 3,000 square metre lot.

The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) donated the computers, while the Quezon City Jail administration has pledged to shoulder the 20-dollar monthly WiFi connection fee.

Officials of the Quezon City Jail believe this programme will not only allay homesickness and depression among the detainees but also curb the smuggling of weapons and other contraband into the jails by lessening the number of physical visitors allowed.

Many of the inmates in the Quezon City Jail have been convicted for poverty-related crimes such as robbery, theft and shoplifting.

According to Jail Superintendent Joseph Vela, the jail has an overcrowding rate of 400 percent. The virtual visits are an effort to make life behind bars a bit more bearable and help in the reform of inmates.

“We need to be more responsible to those we put behind bars. Though we aim to punish by depriving a criminal of his liberty, we do not inend to strip him of his humanity,” said Marlon Bosantog, a representative for the OSG.

Jail staff monitor every call for security reasons, particularly to ensure that nothing illegal is discussed during the online chat sessions.

Officials say that ageing or sick inmates will be given priority access to e-visits.

When the e-dalaw project was first launched, chosen inmates were allowed to talk to their families for up to half an hour. But prison authorities say that as more inmates avail themselves of the service, the duration of each prisoner’s electronic visit will need to be shortened.

However, for prisoners who have counted the years to see the faces and hear the voices of their loved ones, waiting in line for a precious few minutes on Skype is a minor inconvenience.

Excerpt:

By Kara Santos
MANILA, Aug 1 2011 (IPS)

Environmental groups hope that a mothballed nuclear power plant on Bataan peninsula will become a major tourist attraction and earn green dollars for the country.

An exploratory eco-tour for journalists, nature lovers and adventure sports enthusiasts has already been launched to the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP), 100 km west of the national capital, with support from Greenpeace and local non-government organisations (NGOs).

The plant, which was completed but never fuelled, is considered the Philippines’s biggest white elephant.

“Greenpeace supports the decision to finally turn the BNPP into something more practical: a monument to remind people of the inherent dangers of nuclear power,” said Francis de la Cruz, campaigner for Greenpeace in Southeast Asia.

“There really is no point in trying to revive it as a power plant, which will only cost the Filipino people more – not just in terms of rehabilitation and operation, but also in terms of health, environment impacts, disaster preparedness, and sustainable development,” de la Cruz said.

Greenpeace initiated the tour after the Department of Tourism (DOT) announced intention to transform the plant into a tourist attraction.

DOT director Ronald Tiotuico announced that the plant would be included in a tour package as a “reminder of how nuclear energy throughout the world menacingly threatens the quality of life of the people if handled incorrectly.”

The tour package will also include historical sites and beach resorts in the Bataan area.

Part of the tour took visitors close to a massive reactor where uranium was supposed to be installed.

Ding Fuellos, a social development management practitioner who joined the tour, said everyone was excited to enter the facility since it was normally off-limits to visitors.

“It was the first time I saw a uranium capsule and a nuclear reactor. Now that is something that I can tell to my kids, and grandchildren. It is one for the books,” said Fuellos.

But apart from curiosity the tour is an opportunity to display a feat of engineering and scientific prowess. Fuellos added that the tours could be an alternative tourist destination with social significance.

“Following the Fukushima tragedy, I think it would be a good tourist attraction for all Filipinos, especially high school and engineering students, local government personnel and officials, and advocacy groups concerned with policy and development management,” Fuellos told IPS.

According to de la Cruz there are only a few guides around the plant, so special arrangements need to be made. Day tours catering to large groups are facilitated by the National Power Corporation and include a 20-minute presentation on nuclear power and a 45-minute guided tour. “We are meeting with tour organisers who have expressed an interest in following through with the eco- tours in Bataan including the BNPP,” de la Cruz told IPS. “We are hopeful that groups that have the expertise and the experience, can take this on.” The 2.3 billion dollar nuclear power plant, completed in 1984, never went into operation due to its proximity to subterranean fault lines and insufficient safety analyses. According to Greenpeace, to this day Filipino taxpayers continue to pay almost a million dollars annually for its upkeep.

Several points of tourist interest in the region are being developed. The area is close to a marine turtle conservation centre, and a week-long turtle festival is usually held there in November by conservationists.

The area also has several beaches, a World War II memorial, farms and nature trails.

The BNPP will not be the first mothballed nuclear plant to be turned into a tourist attraction. A nuclear power plant in Kalkar, Germany, was turned into a theme park in 1995. The plant, which was never operated after completion in 1986, receives some 600,000 tourists a year.

Excerpt:

By Kara Santos
BATANGAS, May 30 2011 (IPS)

“Every time we go in the water, someone discovers something that’s never been seen before,” says Dr. Terrence Gosliner, leader of the ongoing 2011 Philippine Biodiversity Expedition.

New species are found on every dive in the expedition in the Philippines. Credit: California Academy of Sciences

“Many people believe that the Great Barrier Reef in Australia has the richest coral reefs, but that’s not true,” says Gosliner. “It’s actually the countries in the Coral Triangle (Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste) that have the richest coral reefs in the world.

“For every group of animal that we are studying here, we’ve found new species already in the first three weeks of the expedition,” Gosliner tells IPS as his team prepares to explore the marine resources of the Verde Island Passage, a 1.14 million-hectare area of water shared by various coastal and island provinces.

Past research by scientists suggest that the area is “centre of the centre” of marine shorefish biodiversity. Scientific researchers say that it is home to more documented species than any other marine habitat on earth.

Gosliner estimates that they have already discovered around a hundred new species in all the areas of scientific study in the expedition. But despite being one of the “hottest of the hotspots” Gosliner says that the biodiversity in the Philippines remains relatively unknown. Scientists believe that many new species remain to be discovered in the country.

He adds that coral reefs are highly threatened in most places due to unsustainable harvesting, pollution, rising sea temperature and ocean acidification.

Even as scientists continue their expedition to discover new species, news reports surfaced that an entire reef complex twice the size of Manila was decimated off the coast of Cotabato, in the south of the country.

According to a news report in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, officials confirmed that poachers harvested more than 21,000 pieces of black coral and killed 161 endangered turtles and other marine life.

The 2011 Philippine Biodiversity Expedition is the first expedition to make a comprehensive survey of both terrestrial and marine diversity. Until June, 2011, academy botanists, entomologists and marine biologists will be exploring shallow-water reefs, the deep sea, and terrestrial and freshwater areas of the Philippines for new life and documenting the biodiversity of the island nation.

The expedition aims to come up with an assessment of the Philippines’ biodiversity to help future conservation decisions and policies. The academy is working with government, local schools and conservation groups.

Dr. Wilfredo Licuanan, professor at the De la Salle University, one of the expedition’s local academic partners, points out the importance of studying the biodiversity because many species are already threatened even before they are properly documented.

“This site is very near urban areas that do not manage their solid waste,” he tells IPS on a small island near the dive site where candy wrappers, old rubber slippers and other debris litter the shoreline. In their underwater explorations, Licuanan says it’s not uncommon to find plastic bags and old diapers wrapped around corals and dry cell batteries dissolving on the ocean floor.

Verde Island is also one of the busiest sea lanes, where commercial and industrial ships and passenger ferries from southern islands regularly pass to reach capital Manila.

“The impact of people is very noticeable on the beach and water. Imagine if an oil spill were to happen in the area,” adds Licuanan. At present, no infrastructure is in place to contain a major oil or chemical spill and the nearby Batangas Bay is quickly becoming a major refining and petrol chemical centre in the country.

Unlike other countries where marine protected areas (MPAs) are uninhabited, here, rows of diving resorts and communities stretch across the shoreline. Lavish private resthouses and resorts can also be found on small pocket-sized islands.

Because of the threats, environmental groups like Conservation International (CI)-Philippines have been working with local governments and communities to promote the conservation of marine resources of Verde Island Passage.

“We have been able to establish new marine protected areas in coastal communities and provide training and support to locals who make up Bantay Dagat (Sea Watch) to help enforce laws in the MPAs,” says Romeo Trono, executive director of CI. According to Trono, there’s been a marked improvement of 80 to 90 percent from the 1980s, when the area was known as a major hub for illegal fishing activities, yet the area faces new threats because of tourism.

Now, one of CI’s main concerns is to work with other dive resorts and locals in the area in terms of managing their waste.

“It’s a challenge to educate people on the importance of biodiversity in promoting healthy ecosystems,” he says. “We want to show people how protecting the area can lead to improvement in the quality and quantity of resources in the future.”

But aside from discovering new species, Gosliner says that what makes the expedition unique is that the team is also conducting educational outreach activities, while on location, for students, teachers and local government leaders to show the relevance of biodiversity in their lives and the need to protect it.

“Hopefully, we want the results of what we do to help people living in mountain and coastal communities to have a more sustainable livelihood in the future,” he tells IPS. “That there’s a way of utilising the marine, agricultural and natural resources and the richness of the biodiversity of the Philippines to promote greater economic development and sustainability for local communities.”

Excerpt:

By Kara Santos
MANILA, May 9 2011 (IPS)

In a small women’s clinic in the congested community of San Andres Bukid in the Philippine capital, a mother of 11 is availing herself of family planning services for the first time in her life.

After a counselling session with a health worker, she decides to get her first dose of Depo Provera, a hormonal contraceptive given via injection. Never before has she used anything to prevent pregnancy.

“My husband does not want to use a condom because he doesn’t feel good when we have sex,” Aida Bensi tells IPS.

The Bensis are typical in Manila, where couples have an average of five to eight children, says Lina Bacalando, a community health worker for the non-profit group Likhaan Centre for Women’s Health. The city of over 1.5 million is said to have one of the highest population densities of any major city in the world.

By Kara Santos
MANILA, May 9 2011 (IPS)

In a small women’s clinic in the congested community of San Andres Bukid in the Philippine capital, a mother of 11 is availing herself of family planning services for the first time in her life.

Birth control is making a comeback at clinics in Manila after a 2000 city ordinance discouraged the distribution of contraceptives. Credit: Kara Santos/IPS

“My husband does not want to use a condom because he doesn’t feel good when we have sex,” Aida Bensi tells IPS.

The Bensis are typical in Manila, where couples have an average of five to eight children, says Lina Bacalando, a community health worker for the non-profit group Likhaan Centre for Women’s Health. The city of over 1.5 million is said to have one of the highest population densities of any major city in the world.

And family size is large in Manila because of a city ordinance passed in 2000, which promoted only natural family planning and discouraged all other methods.

That ordinance was the brainchild of a former Manila mayor who also happened to be devoutly Catholic. In addition to preventing women from accessing modern contraceptives from public health facilities, it also had a chilling effect on health service providers who faced reprisals for giving women information about modern methods of family planning.

The current Manila mayor, Alfredo Lim, has not revoked the city ordinance but has allowed non-government organisations (NGOs) like Likhaan and private groups to hold family planning seminars and distribute free contraceptives. However, health centres rely on donations for their supplies.

Liza is another client who now takes advantage of the free family planning services offered by the clinic. She lives in a cramped community of shanties stacked one on top of another, a short walk from the clinic through narrow alleys.

Liza is 38 years old and has 13 children. She takes in laundry to make ends meet; her husband, an alcoholic, is jobless.

As she washes clothes, she jokes that seven of her children have not yet been baptised because baptisms are “too expensive.” At least 80 percent of the Philippine population is Catholic and the church only sanctions natural family planning methods.

She admits that it’s hard to take care of a big family and says it would be even more difficult if she added to her already very large brood.

Bacalando says that before the family planning services were offered in the community, women were giving birth almost every year.

“There’s been a big improvement here in the community since we offered free family planning methods like pills, injectables, IUDs and condoms,” says Bacalando. “Now, we see women in their 30s whose youngest is four or six years old.”

The large family size in communities like San Andres illustrates the Catholic Church’s influence on couples. “They often come to us with misconceptions about modern family planning methods because of what they are told in church—that condoms ‘have holes’ and can cause HIV/AIDS, that pills cause cancer and that IUDs will rot inside their bodies,” adds midwife Imelda Tano, who also works with Likhaan.

Tano says they hold outreach programmes in some of the most densely populated urban poor communities to offer family planning services. “We address the misconceptions and give them the choice of what method will be most effective for them.”

A debate now raging in the Philippines, Asia’s only predominantly Catholic country, is pitting the Catholic hierarchy against family planning advocates. The Church has been adamantly opposed to modern forms of family planning, and public officials have been reluctant to anger the bishops.

Near the entrance to Quiapo Church, for example, bulletin boards are covered with posters of a fetus in various stages of development. “Abortion kills life,” the poster says, also claiming that the pill, IUDs and Depo Provera injections amount to abortion.

In another part of the church, a large sign quotes the late Mother Teresa saying, “How can there be too many children? That is like saying there are too many flowers.”

“Whenever bishops speak out against reproductive health, I want to ask them ‘Have you ever been to the community?’ Come with me and I’ll bring you to the health centre and you can talk to the women there with 10 or 12 kids who want to stop having kids,” says Bacalando.

She says modern methods of contraception help address the grave cases of maternal health that are a harsh reality everywhere. “Even children are getting pregnant. We have a case where a fifth grader, just 12 years old, gave birth. There’s another woman in the community who has 17 children,” she tells IPS.

Apart from maternal health, there is also the problem of poverty. In San Andres, families live a hand-to-mouth existence. Bacalando says many impoverished families here only eat once a day. Mothers often don’t eat, because they would rather give their food to their children.

“Meals are usually coffee in the morning, rice or bagoong (fermented shrimp paste) and salt for lunch, and if there are any leftovers, then they can have dinner. If there are no leftovers, then there’s no dinner,” says Bacalando.

Women even resort to giving their newborn babies coffee or rice water to drink because they can’t afford to buy milk or food. Others who work during the day or in toxic conditions such as garbage dumps cannot breastfeed.

“Priests get angry with women who use modern family planning methods, but at the end of the day they’re not the ones who have to feed the children,” says Bacalando.

Excerpt:

By Kara Santos
MANILA, Apr 14 2011 (IPS)

In a country where an estimated 4,500 women die every year due to complications during childbirth, the enactment of a reproductive health (RH) policy is said to be a measure that could save lives.

Catholics attend mass outside the Quiapo Church in Manila. 80% of the Philippines is Catholic, and the Church sanctions only natural family planning. Credit: Kara Santos/IPS

In a press conference dubbed ‘To Sin or not to Sin: The Views of Other Churches on RH’, representatives from different faith-based organisations expressed their support for the passage of the highly debated House Bill 4244 or the ‘Responsible Parenthood, Reproductive Health and Population Development Act of 2011’ and its Senate counterpart.

“We support the RH Bill because it is pro-life, it is pro-development and it is pro-poor,” said Bishop Efraim Tendero, of the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches (PCEC).

PCEC is the largest network of evangelical Christians in the Philippines and is composed of 25,000 evangelical churches, 66 denominations, and 150 community and mission organisations.

Addressing concerns of the Catholic Church that the bill would promote a “culture of death” by allowing artificial contraceptive methods, Tendero had this to say: “Life begins at fertilisation. Therefore if there is no fertilisation, there is no life yet. The use of artificial contraception is not taking away life because life has not yet started.”

Eduardo V. Manalo, executive minister of Iglesia ni Cristo to the Committee of Population and Family Relations, said that many of society’s worsening ills could be traced to families “growing so large that an increasing number of parents cannot provide the most basic human needs to their families.”

“The Bible states that a parent who does not provide for the needs of his own household is worse than an unbeliever. (I Tim 5:8),” Manalo said. “Since modern methods of contraception – by preventing married couples from having unwanted pregnancies – assist in supporting this Christian principle, we support their use,” according to the statement.

Iglesia ni Cristo is the largest entirely indigenous Christian religious organisation in the Philippines, and the largest independent church in Asia.

Bishop Rodrigo Tano of the Interfaith Partnership for the Promotion of Responsible Parenthood (Interfaith) claimed that if the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) professed to value the dignity of every human person, they should have more respect for human rights.

“To allow the deaths of mothers and babies because of a lack of a national policy is almost criminal,” said Tano, citing figures of maternal and infant deaths in the country.

According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), maternal deaths in the Philippines are one of the highest in the region. An estimated 11 women die every day in the country due to complications during pregnancy – most of these deaths are preventable. The problem is said to be particularly severe within the Muslim communities in Mindanao, where as many 320 mothers died per 100,000 live births according to the UN.

The Philippines has one of Asia’s fasted-growing populations, which is nearing the 100 million mark.

Interfaith is a gathering of various faith-based organisations, whose members include Iglesia ni Cristo, evangelical protestant churches, Roman Catholic individuals, and Muslim groups in Mindanao.

Tano also said that he was disturbed by the use of ambiguous terms, the lack of clarity in medical terms, and claims of the CBCP that there is no relation between population size and poverty.

“We should go by evidence and not by ecclesiastical declarations,” said Tano. “Evidence shows that families are unable to maintain their income, expenditures and savings as their size increases. The incidence of child labour also rises as family size increases.”

“When talking about issues of morality, let us look at the context of the Philippines and the context of the world,” suggested Rommel Linatoc, of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP). The NCCP is a fellowship of 10 Protestant and non-Roman Catholic denominations, and 10 service-oriented organisations in the Philippines. It represents close to 12 million adherents.

Linatoc expressed his support for the bill saying that it would affirm a better quality of life for families and ensure better health for women.

Ernesto Pernia, of the University of the Philippines School of Economics and a representative of Catholics for Reproductive Health (CRH), agreed that there is a morality issue that needed to be addressed.

“Our bishops in CBCP can not say that practicing RH is sinful in the Philippines, but it is not in Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Spain, Ireland and Italy because Catholics there practice family planning as a matter of course,” Pernia said. “The Catholic Church does not stand in the way of the government promoting or implementing a population policy.”

CRH is an alliance of Filipino Catholics advocating for the passage of the reproductive health bill and fighting for Filipinos’ right to reproductive health services.

Pernia pointed out that the Philippines is the only Catholic country that has not addressed its population issue. He added that the having a reproductive health policy would promote human development and a “life of dignity” rather than a “life of misery”, which is what many people who cannot properly care for their children are currently facing.

Ramon San Pascual of the Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development Foundation, Inc. (PLCPD), said that churches support the passage of the RH bill as they know their members would benefit from it.

“We do not understand why some leaders of the Catholic Church are so stubborn that they refuse to see the issue in the perspective of their parishioners who in fact clamour for RH education and services,” said San Pascual.

Around 80 percent of the Philippines population is Catholic – and the Catholic Church sanctions only natural family planning methods.

Meanwhile, Pernia says that there were many priests, nuns and theologians who supported the bill as individuals but were still afraid to come out openly in support of it.

Following reports of the recent resumption of dialogue between the government and the Catholic hierarchy on RH, Elizabeth Angsioco, national chairperson of the Democratic Socialist Women of the Philippines (DSWP) said that other religions and women’s groups in the country deserve to be heard.

“The President should be reminded that the country is not 100 percent Catholic. It is only right that he listens to other religious leaders,” Angsioco said.

Excerpt:

By Kara Santos
MANILA, Apr 1 2011 (IPS)

Amidst political turmoil in Libya, thousands of migrant workers from the Philippines face a dilemma – either they risk their lives working in the conflict- ridden country, or they return home and face job insecurity.

Former OFW Exequel Masucal displays his green card from Libya. Credit: Kara Santos/IPS

“Normally, on Fridays, shops and offices are not open,” Masucal told IPS. “When the conflict started, it was like Friday everyday. You wouldn’t see any people on the streets. If three or four people gathered, they would be immediately dispersed.”

“During that time, we were really scared to go out. We couldn’t leave the house,” added Lilia, Exequel’s wife. “Schools were all closed because they had been turned into evacuation centres.”

Masucal started working as a computer technician 15 years ago for a Libyan employer. In 2005, he set up his own office equipment business. He and his family enjoyed a comfortable life in Tripoli – but in a flash, they lost their home, business, personal property, bank accounts and earnings when they fled the country.

“We left everything. Almost all Filipinos who left Libya weren’t able to bring anything – just their clothes. If you had a big bag, you’d eventually have to leave it at the border,” Masucal told IPS, adding that mobile phones and laptops were sometimes confiscated for “security purposes”.

As part of the voluntary repatriation programme, the Masucal family was able to ride the government-chartered ferry MV Ionian Queen from eastern Libya to the Greek Island of Crete, and from there they boarded a special flight dispatched by Philippine Airlines (PAL) that arrived here Mar. 10.

Since they arrived, they have been staying in Rizal, 20 kilometres east of the capital Manila, with Masucal’s parents.

“Other OFWs who returned home whom I’ve talked to are really depressed. They have no jobs yet and weren’t able to bring much money in their rush to leave. Some are actually ready to go back and risk the war just to earn again,” Masucal said.

Despite calls from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) for Filipinos to return home due to the violent and uncertain climate in Libya, many preferred to put their lives in danger rather than risk unemployment.

“Filipinos are the only nurses left there, especially in the Tripoli Medical Centre,” Masucal says. “The European nurses and other nationalities all pulled out during the first week of the crisis.”

The DFA made a “last call” for OFWs to leave the country towards the end of March. Their latest figures show that approximately 1,600 of the more than 2,000 nurses in Libya have opted to stay behind. Around 800 nurses and their dependents are in Tripoli alone. Meanwhile, over 100 professors have also opted to remain in the country.

Prior to the crisis, the Overseas Workers Welfare Office (OWWA) estimated that there were approximately 26,000 Filipino migrant workers living and working in Libya. The majority worked in construction, oil and gas, hospitality and in medical and other service sectors, according to the Department of Labour and Employment.

According to the DFA: “Most Filipino workers were promised an increase in their salary if they stayed, while others were told they would lose entitlement to gratuity pay equivalent to one full month’s salary if they do not finish their contracts.”

Amnesty International (AI) has expressed concern about the safety of thousands of migrant workers who continue to remain in the country. At the outset of the conflict, AI called for guarantees of safety for civilians in Libya – especially those trying to cross the Tunisian border, including Filipino migrant workers.

“The decision of thousands of OFWs, some of whom decided to stay in Libya due to high financial pay, highlights the desperation of some Filipinos to seek greener pastures abroad despite the risks,” Aurora Parong, Director of AI Philippines, told IPS.

In an AI report dated Mar. 25, 2011, tales of horror were reported in Benghazi, including a rocket smashing a bedroom leaving a mother of six and her 11- year-old daughter with multiple shrapnel injuries all over their bodies.

AI called on the Philippine government to take steps to ensure that all OFWs who want to stay in Libya are treated humanely in accordance with international law.

“If necessary, the DFA must facilitate communication of OFWs with their families if they choose to stay in Libya. In the event that an OFW is detained and arrested, the government should take measures to identify the place of detention and provide the necessary assistance and ensure the safety and well-being of all Filipino migrant workers in Libya,” said Parong.

Masucal’s brother, who works in a military hospital, is one of those who chose to stay behind. “He says their location is relatively safe,” says Masucal, who has been able to keep in touch with him by mobile phone.

With the unstable banking and financial situation there, some Filipino workers are said to be more concerned about the difficulty in remitting money to their families back home, rather than the dangers of air strikes, and have asked the government to help them with their remittances.

Masucal says he will see how it is working in the Philippines. He has already applied for work in the field of computer office equipment. If it doesn’t work out, he says he has no choice but to find work abroad again.

Parong claims this only highlights the need for more aggressive job creation in the country. “Now, more than ever we see the great need for the Aquino government to generate more jobs within the country that will ensure decent wages and income. The plight of the three Filipinos executed in China recently also highlights this need for decent jobs within the country.”

Excerpt:

By Kara Santos
MANILA, Mar 28 2011 (IPS)

Time is running short for three Filipino workers in China. Ramon Credo, Elizabeth Batain and Sally Villanueva – who were convicted of smuggling heroin in 2008 – are set to be executed by lethal injection Mar. 30.

A woman holds up pictures of the three OFWs on death row in China during a protest action in Manila. Credit: Kara Santos/IPS

As the date nears, the global alliance of overseas workers and their families – Migrante International – said it would continue to appeal to the Chinese government to commute the death sentences on humanitarian grounds and stop the execution of the three Filipinos.

According to Amnesty International (AI) a significant proportion of the executions or death sentences recorded in 2010 were for drug-related offences – at times in direct contradiction of international human rights law. AI stressed that a total of 31 countries have abolished the death penalty in law or in practice during the last 10 years but China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the U.S. and Yemen remain amongst the most frequent executioners.

According to Migrante International Chairperson Garry Martinez, like many other Filipinos, the three facing death row are either victims of international drug syndicates, or victims of poverty and hopelessness.

“Most, if not all, drug mules are either overseas Filipino workers [OFWs] in distress or victims of illegal recruitment or human trafficking. Even [Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency] chief Dionisio Santiago confirmed this when he said that those desperate for money are the ones victimised by international drug syndicates,” Martinez told IPS.

Martinez claims that the Philippine government did not do enough to help the three and remained resigned to the fact that China has a strict policy in carrying out the death penalty for drug smuggling.

“We respect the laws of the land our countrymen work in, but what we want is for our government to give legal assistance to overseas workers in times of need,” Martinez said on the sidelines of a protest rally for the three sentenced to death. “In our experience, we have seen so many fellow countrymen executed and given life sentences without ever even seeing a lawyer.”

During the rally, a dozen supporters carried banners and held up pictures of the three Filipinos while chanting: “Save the lives of OFWs on death row.” A large makeshift hourglass filled with sand signified how time was running out for the three, and supporters lit candles in hopes that their lives would still be spared.

According to Martinez, there are currently 125 Filipinos on death row around the world. In China alone, there are 208 Filipinos with drug-related cases – 72 of these face death sentences, but could still face reprieve within two years.

The government does not provide legal assistance to OFWs in foreign countries, Grace, a former overseas worker who declined to give her last name, told IPS. “Migrant workers are the ones who are saving the economy from crisis through their remittances, but when they need help, the government does not offer them any assistance.”

One tenth of the country’s population works abroad, from where, according to central bank data, they send home more than 18 billion dollars to their families.

“As soon as my pending case is settled, I plan to go back and find work in Taiwan because there are really no opportunities or fair wages here in our country. Even if it hurts to leave my family, I have to force myself to work abroad just so that I can give them a better life,” Grace told IPS.

In a press statement, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said that the Philippine government provided all possible legal assistance to the three convicted drug mules, but said it has to respect the ruling of the Supreme People’s Court of China. “Their legal rights were respected and observed, and their welfare protected from the time of their arrests and throughout the judicial process, and even up to this very day,” according to the DFA.

The department stressed its appeal to Filipinos not to allow themselves to be victimised by international drug syndicates and to be extremely cautious when dealing with strangers in airports and other areas of transit. “We wish to stress that vigilance is the first major step in combating the modus operandi of international drug traffickers.”

While some overseas workers are victimised by drug syndicates, poverty is seen as the main reason why others resort to desperate measures like drug trafficking to make ends meet.

One in four Filipinos live on less than one dollar a day. According to news reports, drug mules or couriers are paid anywhere between 500 and 5,000 dollars to swallow tubes containing drugs, carry them hidden in their luggage or dissolved and soaked into paper or books.

“If only our Philippine authorities have been more watchful over the plight of Filipinos here and abroad and have provided them much-needed assistance, they would not be forced to engage with drug syndicates,” says Martinez. “Instead of dousing their hopes, give them protection.”

As Grace puts it: “Migrant workers send billions of remittances home every year. If only the government would use it for developing industries here, then people will not be forced to leave the country in search for better jobs.”

Migrante, including chapters in the Middle East, plan to hold daily actions including vigils and rallies for all Filipinos on death row. “Unlike the government, we are not losing hope,” says Martinez. “While there is still time, let us press the government to use it to exhaust any and all means to save the lives of Villanueva, Batain and Credo.”

Excerpt:

By Kara Santos
MANILA, Feb 14 2011 (IPS)

In a remote island community where fishing is the main source of living, one would expect children to be surfing the waves and not surfing the net.

On the beach, the rest of the world comes in closer. Credit: eKindling/Lubang Tourism

Thanks to a partnership between non-profit group Education Kindling (eKindling), the Department of Education (DepEd) and employees of the National Computer Center (NCC), 100 laptops were given to aid the education of the island kids. Ninety-five laptops were given to two pilot classes of fourth grade students, four to teachers and one to technical staff.

“To position children for success in the 21st century, we need to rethink, reinvent and innovate education in the Philippines,” says Ryan Letada, Executive Director of eKindling. “The big picture is to transform children into life-long learners that are the problem solvers and leaders of tomorrow’s digital and connected world.”

Roughly the size of a small textbook, the distinct green and white laptops are identified with an icon symbolizing a child made up of the figures X and O. Each laptop comes with built-in wireless access and a computer screen that is readable even under direct sunlight.

Developed by the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) Foundation, the laptops are designed to be low cost, durable, and energy-efficient for children in developing countries to use. The ‘XO’ laptop (previously known as the 100 dollar laptop) has gotten an upgrade in terms of hardware and software.

The XO-1.5 model, which is currently priced at 229 dollars, has a faster processor and more ram (1ghz and 1gb RAM). It also has a dual booting system using the free and open source software – the Sugar desktop environment and Linux GNOME. Each computer comes preloaded with programmes (called activities) relevant for students.

Tessa Yuvienco, eKindling’s Education Director envisions educators and students in the country using these laptops to enhance learning in subjects like English, Maths, Science and Makabayan (Social studies).

“We want to change the mindsets of teachers to teach lessons with real life applications,” Yuvienco tells IPS. “Teachers often rely on word problems found in textbooks but have a hard time connecting math concepts like fractions or percentages to real life.”

Instead of asking students to memorize and recite multiplication tables, using the financial tool “Finance” proves the practicality of learning Math for business.

“During the launch of the project, we asked students to plan a budget for a party using Finance. They itemized their budget, subtracted their expenses and multiplied the number of items they needed using the programme,” says Yuvienco.

To demonstrate a lesson on alternative sources of energy for a Science class, eKindling showed teachers how to use the simple web browser “Browse” to connect to the Internet and show actual photos of what was being discussed to students.

With limited teaching and research materials available in remote schools, eKindling says that the laptops offer a gateway to the world. Since their deployment, the laptops have allowed the children to chat, share information online, compose their own music, edit texts, write stories and enjoy collaborative games.

The activity “Speak” which features a robotic face that voices out any text that is typed has proven popular with the kids and useful for English lessons.

“Teachers can make use of this to show students how to formulate questions correctly,” says Yuvuienco. Demonstrating how it works, the robot replies ‘The earth is the planet we live on’ in response to the typed question ‘Where is earth?’

Another activity “Record” which allows users to take video, still photos, and record voice narration to create multimedia projects has turned students into budding filmmakers and enhanced their story telling skills.

Juan Sanchez, former head of the National Computer Centre who is now Mayor of Lubang Island, says that access to technology can give them isolated places like Lubang an edge.

“By giving children their very own connected XO laptop, we are giving them a window to the outside world, access to vast amounts of information, a way to connect with each other, and a springboard into their future,” Sanchez told media. “It’s not just a laptop project – it’s an education project.”

With the lack of textbooks a perennial problem in public schools across the country, another important feature of the laptop is that it gives children access to thousands of digital e-books.

Yuvienco recently went back to the island to check the progress of students and find out what their needs are so their partners can develop more programmes to fit their needs.

“Our work goes beyond parachuting technologies into classrooms. We’ve gotten feedback from teachers that the students have renewed interest in classes and assignments,” Yuvienco tells IPS.

In the next three years, eKindling plans to deploy 400 more laptops to meet the needs of incoming fourth grade students as the pilot class will get to keep their laptops until the sixth grade.

The One Laptop per Child (OLPC) is a project under U.S. non-profit organisation One Laptop per Child Association Inc. set up by internet pioneer Nicholas Negroponte. The project in the Philippines is one of many pilot projects taking place in Asia and around the world as far as the Americas, Africa and the Middle East. Uruguay was the first country in the world where every primary school child received a free laptop in 2009.

Excerpt:

By Kara Santos
MANILA, Jan 25 2011 (IPS)

It’s definitely not your typical job advertisement. “Wanted: Mothers; must be mature, strong and stable, self-confident, humorous and know how to cook; must have a positive and cheerful attitude towards life; must be willing to work as a full-time mother for the long term.”

Snapshot of a mother with her family. Credit: Kara Santos

“The motherhood profession is really what we value the most,” Maria Sara de los Santos, a social worker with SOS Manila, told IPS.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) estimates that there are over 1.8 million orphaned children in the Philippines aged 0-17 years.

Mothers are selected not by their diploma or certified experience but by their willingness to devote their lives to children.

Each mother lives with an average of ten children whom they raise as their own within a village of eight to 14 houses. In order to maintain family ties, biological siblings are kept within the same house.

The mother’s responsibilities include building close relationships with every child, providing security, love and stability, and guiding the children’s development while running the household independently.

After an initial screening and interview, potential mothers live with the children for a trial period to see if they will be a good fit.

“We really put a lot of weight on the children’s feedback. Some children tell us that they would like a woman to be their mother, while others tell us not to choose an applicant because she was mean to them in their first few days together,” says de los Santos.

Children that come to SOS often have traumatic backgrounds. Many were abandoned by their biological parents due to extreme poverty, while others were abused.

After serving as an ‘aunt’ where they help different families, successful applicants take a three-month long ‘Mother’s training’ course, where they learn lessons on personality development, elements of childcare, and household management, among others.

In exchange, mothers are provided with free board and lodging, a household allowance, and a monthly salary of Php10,000.00 (roughly 227 dollars).

According to 52-year old ‘Mama Wilma’, it’s a job where benefits are emotional rather than financial. Wilma currently takes care of nine children, aged 5-17. “I’ve always loved children and even considered becoming a nun, but my folks wanted me to take up accounting to help in the family business,” she tells IPS.

When she was only two, Wilma’s father died, forcing her mother to place her and her three siblings under the care of various relatives. She became an SOS mother by chance after she was hired as a bookkeeper and assistant at SOS Manila.

While she did her job well, she was not fulfilled with working in an office. “It’s like I was searching for something missing in my life,” she says. The village director at the time asked if she wanted to try being a mother instead and she agreed to try it out.

“The first two months were really challenging. I had a hard time budgeting for food. You know how growing boys can eat,” she laughs. “But you have to look at where they came from. They had faced so much deprivation before.”

Another challenge she faced was when the children would get sick all at the same time. “Just when my youngest was discharged from the hospital after getting dengue, three others fell sick. Those were sleepless nights,” she recalls.

Fifty-one year old ‘Mama Alma’ told IPS that one of the major challenges of being a mother is dealing with teenagers.

“By the time they turn 12, they can be really hard to handle,” she says. “They don’t really want to listen to you unlike the younger kids.”

A mother of 13, including two sets of twins, Alma wakes up every morning at 4.30 to do household chores and doesn’t sleep at night until everyone is back in bed. Formerly a seamstress before the factory she worked in closed down, she decided to give “being a mother” a shot when a friend who worked in SOS Villages recommended her.

“I never thought I would be doing this full-time,” says Alma. “But with God’s grace, I’ve lasted 13 years.

“It can be hard being a mother but it’s a great joy to see the children succeed in life,” says Alma, as she points to diplomas and pictures of her children decorating the walls of their house.

“I’m content that my children are able to graduate from school and can stand on their own,” agrees Wilma. In her 22 years of service, she has been a mother to over 30 children and a grandmother of 20.

“She has a been a true mother to each one of us even if we are not her own blood,” shares one of Wilma’s daughters Marygrace Racimo in the SOS book tribute ‘Celebrating Selfless Love.’ Racimo, who came to SOS at the age of seven when her biological mother died of tuberculosis, was able to graduate with a Pharmacy degree. “She gave us importance, support, advice and above all, love.”

Since the programme started in the country, over 1,223 kids have become fully integrated into society, with 807 children still living in the eight SOS Children’s Villages around the country. Former orphans have graduated as doctors, teachers, architects, entrepreneurs and even one as a pilot. Some have chosen to become SOS mothers themselves to continue caring for orphaned children.

For potential mothers, this is what Alma has to say: “You have to keep your mind open that this isn’t just any job. Your heart has to be in the right place, and you have to be ready to make a full-time commitment to ensure that the children have a brighter future.”

Excerpt:

By Kara Santos
MANILA, Jan 15 2011 (IPS)

As the impact of climate change worsens around the globe, a disaster-resilient village is poised to be a solution for urban poor battling the constant floods and typhoons that hit the Philippines.

Beating climate change through design gathers momentum. Credit: Kara Santos

The concept won the global architectural design competition dubbed Design Against the Elements (DAtE), which aims to build the first green, liveable, affordable and disaster-resilient village in the country.

A panel of international and local jurors picked the winning architectural design from among 119 entries submitted by professionals and students from 30 countries.

“We were very impressed with the different ideas from all over the world,” architect Eleena Jamil of Malaysia, who served as one of the jurors, told IPS.

Jamil, who designed a school made of bamboo that won the Millennium School Design Competition for disaster-resilient schools organised in 2008, said that the winner was chosen because of its sustainability and practicality.

“The ideas in the winning design are very easy to implement but it considers a holistic approach. It considers the way people interact within the community and how they could grow their own food,” she said.

Criteria for the judging of entries factored in disaster-resiliency, innovative construction technology, socio-economic sustainability, cost-effectiveness and adaptability to other sites. Since the village will actually be a resettlement site for marginalised families, the design also needed to be practical to build.

Another design that allows houses to float by Dao Thanh Hai of Vietnam won in the student category of the competition. The design envisions a two- layered house, the core made of bamboo and wood set on floats and enclosed inside a wind and storm-proof frame made of ecobags, ecobeams and concrete frames. This ensures that the house inside floats up as floods rise while preventing the structure from being swept away.

“There were some very exciting ideas in the student category especially the idea of a floating house and the use of sandbags. It’s actually a house that you can repeat everywhere, so that’s very good,” Jamil told IPS.

According to DAtE, approximately 44 percent of the country’s population lives in informal squatter settlements which offer no shelter from possible climate disasters. In Quezon City alone, the largest city in Metro Manila, as many as 26,974 families live in what are considered danger zones, according to the Urban Poor Affairs Office.

Houses of informal settlers hang precariously along the backs of creeks and waterways, near or under power transmission lines, along sidewalks and on dumpsites, making them the hardest hit when disaster strikes.

“Sustainable housing and environmentally safe villages should not only be the privilege of the well-to-do, but should be accessible also to the poor who are physically the most vulnerable to disasters,” said Quezon City Mayor Herbert Bautista.

The local government has promised to build the pilot village to be called the House of San Miguel, after corporate sponsor San Miguel Corporation – which co-funded the competition – to accommodate roughly 500 families. “We hope to build this as soon as possible. We will be prioritising the poor who are most vulnerable to climate change,” the mayor told media on the sidelines of the opening ceremonies.

Bautista stressed the importance of preparing for disasters especially with the ill effects of climate change being seen around the world.

This week, the strongest La Niña weather system in 50 years brought devastating rains and flash floods and is battering Australia and mountain towns near Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Meanwhile, a drought in Argentina is putting agricultural production at risk.

Illac Diaz, the founder and executive director of non-profit group My Shelter Foundation, which spearheaded the competition, says that the goal of the contest was to plan homes and communities that could survive for weeks in the severely restricted conditions of a post-disaster situation.

“Rather than spend millions on expendable handouts after disaster strikes, we wanted to work on something concrete ahead of time,” said Diaz during the opening ceremonies ahead of the announcement of winners.

“We don’t want to just keep on implementing whatever design that has been used before,” Diaz told IPS. “Now through this contest, we have designs that hopefully will change the concept of low-income housing.”

The Philippines ranks as one of the ten most afflicted countries in the world in terms of lives and property lost due to climate change. In September 2009, Typhoon Ketsana dumped an average rainfall of an entire month in only six hours and cost 240 million dollars in damages.

On average, the country is battered by 20 typhoons every year, and stronger typhoons as well as droughts are on the rise. As part of the Pacific typhoon belt, more than 7,000 islands that make up the country are susceptible to sea level rise and storm surges with extreme changes in temperature.

Green building trends seen in the exhibited designs include roof and pocket areas for urban farming, use of solar panels, maximising natural light sources, rainwater filtration systems, and gray water recycling.

All the entries will be compiled in an encyclopaedia of architectural and planning solutions to address climate change and will be made available to designers and researchers worldwide.

“The future of the Philippines will be climate-challenged and we need change to happen now,” says Diaz.

Excerpt:

By Kara Santos
MANILA, Jan 6 2011 (IPS)

Support for reproductive health legislation, popularly known as the RH Bill here, has snowballed on social websites and among peer networks, yet passage and funding of the bill remain uncertain. Catholic bishops have long used the threat of excommunication in the raging debates over use of modern contraceptive methods – such as pills, IUDs and condoms – in the Southeast-Asian nation of over 92 million, 85 percent of whom are Catholic.

Challenging the Church over reproductive rights. Credit: Kara Santos

The event dubbed, “If Supporting the RH Bill Means Excommunication, Excommunicate Me!” was hosted by secular group Filipino Freethinkers and was advertised as a night of “dinner, entertainment and dissent.”

There are six RH bills pending at the House, all allowing the use of artificial methods of family planning, like condoms and pills – the Church allows couples to use only the natural family planning method.

It is estimated that 4,000 babies swell the country’s population every day.

The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has threatened excommunication for politicians who support the RH Bill, which provides for universal access to methods and information on birth control and maternal care. Catholic groups have claimed that some artificial contraceptives actually induce abortion and that the RH Bill promotes a “culture of death and immorality” by promoting abortion and promiscuity among youth.

In a recent incident at the Manila Cathedral, members of Pro-Life Philippines – led by Eric Manalang, their president and one of the RH Bill’s most outspoken opponents – barred a group of students, urban poor mothers and young professionals from attending a prayer service tackling the RH Bill.

“Satan, get away from us! You should have asked your mother to abort you,” were just a few of the statements hurled by Pro-Life members in a video captured by the Filipino Freethinkers, which was screened during the party.

“Manalang called even the devout Roman Catholics among us Satan,” said Red Tani, president of the Filipino Freethinkers in a statement. “He branded the Catholics among us oxymorons, as if it were a contradiction to be pro-RH and remain Catholic. If the church hierarchy thinks supporting the RH Bill means heresy, then by all means – excommunicate us!” Tani said.

Said to be the first of its kind, the excommunication party featured live music, solidarity messages by pro-RH personalities, improvisational poetry and theatrical performances on reproductive health issues and abortion and adult games. Guests also signed a symbolic “excommunication document,” a copy of which would be sent to each participant’s parish and the CBCP, to show their support for the cause.

“I think it’s wonderful that freedom of expression means something – that people are finally speaking their mind and expressing what they feel in a very creative manner,” performance artist and activist Carlos Celdran told IPS.

In September, Celdran was jailed for “offending the feelings of the faithful” after he protested against the Catholic Church’s opposition to the RH Bill during an ecumenical service at the Manila Cathedral.

Of the harassment of students at the Manila Cathedral, Celdran had this to say: “Whatever was done was done in a very peaceful way. It was an absolute epitome of freedom of expression and you should not give it up and take it for granted.”

A message board near the entrance of the venue became a graffiti wall for people to weigh in on their thoughts about excommunication and RH debate. “Keep your dogmatism to yourself,” one person wrote directing their statement to the Catholic Church. “Stay out of my vagina, my vagina my rules!” wrote another.

In his Christmas message, CBCP president Bishop Nereo Odchimar equated the RH Bill to terrorism and said that: “With the approval of RH Bill, a woman’s womb can be a ferocious threat to those who are yet to be born,” he said in an official statement.

Sylvia Estrada-Claudio, professor and director of the University of the Philippines Centre for Women’s Studies (CWS) told IPS that the high turnout at the event was emblematic of the public’s reaction to how the church had been playing the “excommunication card” wrongly in the country.

“It amazes me that so many people who are Catholic, and who don’t even want to stop calling themselves Catholic, came here for an excommunication,” said Claudio. “Perhaps there’s something about how Catholic spirituality is breaking away from traditional standards of uncritical acceptance to a spirituality that is more personal.”

Despite the hasty organisation of the event, tickets for the excommunication party were sold out and statement shirts were in high demand – reinforcing public support for the passage of the RH Bill.

The latest surveys from public opinion polling body Social Weather Stations (SWS) show that 71 percent of Filipinos favour the passage of the RH Bill, while 76 percent want family planning education in public schools.

In a press statement Elizabeth Angsioco, National Chair of the Democratic Socialist Women of the Philippines (DSWP), which was part of the group blocked during the mass, said that lives were being lost while the debates over the RH Bill raged on.

“We believe the bill’s passage is imminent. This is long overdue,” said Angsioco. “Poor women continue to die of preventable pregnancy and childbirth complications. These unnecessary deaths and almost-deaths must end.”

Figures from the United Nations Development Fund For Women (UNIFEM) show that at least eleven women die every day in the country due to childbirth-related complications.

Excerpt:

By Kara Santos
MANILA, Jan 3 2011 (IPS)

Millions use Facebook to keep in touch with their friends, post photos of reunions and parties and share links to interesting articles and videos. But for 24-year old Maria (not her real name), the popular social networking site became a source of public shame when a former boyfriend posted nude photos and videos of her in an account he had created under her name.

As if that weren’t enough to humiliate her, the spurned boyfriend also mailed a copy of the video to the girl’s Muslim parents.

In a separate incident, the ordeal of a 17-year old nursing student who was gang-raped by at least four schoolmates was captured on a camera phone and made its way into cyberspace.

While modern innovations have made lives easier for millions of women worldwide, they have also led to a rise in cases of electronic violence against women or ‘eVAW’, according to a recent forum organised by women’s rights groups.

“Violence against women is mutating because of technology,” says Cheekay Cinco of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC). “The Internet has opened up private lives into new avenues of potential violence.”

Cinco says that anyone who maintains a blog or has a Facebook or Twitter account is in danger of becoming a potential victim.

“If there are malicious people who want to stalk you, there is so much information they can get online. People have access to your friends, your email address and mobile phone number just by ‘friending’ you on Facebook,” she says.

The two cases made the news following a highly publicized sex scandal between Filipina actress Katrina Halili and cosmetic surgeon Hayden Kho. The actress claimed that video footage of their intimate acts together was taken and uploaded without her consent. The video, which went viral in 2008 was hawked openly on street DVDs and was one of the most downloaded videos on the Internet.

In December, after months of court hearings and investigations, a local court threw out the case on the basis that the prosecution failed to give proof that it was indeed Kho who had uploaded the said sex video to the Internet.

Cases of cyber harassment and stalking, online pornography, unauthorised recording, and reproduction and distribution of images and video are becoming more rampant in the country partly due to the popularity of camera phones and social networking sites.

“What’s alarming is that we’re seeing more cases of women being blackmailed with intimate photos,” says Cinco. “They take these photos with the full trust that the other person will use it privately but it is being used to keep young girls in relationships that they don’t want to be in any more.”

The Philippines currently has the sixth largest population of Facebook users in the world – with over 19 million users as of December 2010. The country is also said to have the highest social media engagement in the Asia-Pacific region according to Internet marketing research firm ComScore.com. Mobile phone penetration is also high, with roughly 80 percent of the 92 million- strong Filipino population owning mobile phones, according to the National Telecommunications Commission.

“Since our office was established in 2003 to deal with Cybercrime cases till the present – there really has been an increasing trend,” agrees Chief Inspector Efren Fernandez of the Cybercrime Unit of the Philippine National Police’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group.

Though cases remain highly underreported, Fernandez said more people are coming forward to report cases. “The awareness of the people is increasing. They already know they have become victims of Cybercrime,” he tells IPS on the sidelines of the forum.

According to a report by security software firm Symantec, as many as 87 percent of Filipino Internet users surveyed are falling victims to online criminal activities and malicious attacks every year – including online harassment and sexual predation.

But groups like the Foundation for Media Alternatives (FMA), one of the forum organisers, believe that technology can be a double-edged sword. The non- profit group is spearheading a global campaign for women to take control of technology.

Through their Feminist Technology Exchange (FTX) programme, they provide a venue for women to better understand new technology and its potential and impact on their rights and lives.

“Those who have more control over technology – control meaning they understand it, they know how it works, they know how to change it from a deep technical level – have more power over those just using it,” says Cinco, who serves as an FTX trainer.

The first FTX session focused on teaching women working on women’s and children’s rights issues how to secure online communications since perpetrators have used these sites to track movements and harvest information from women. Another session provided women an opportunity to create digital stories to raise awareness on violence against women.

“Technology can victimise you but it can also be the solution to your victimisation. If you understand how to use it, the potential to be victimised is lessened,” says Cinco.

The FTX is part of the Take Back the Tech campaign, being implemented in 12 countries globally by the Association of Progressive Communications Women’s Networking Support Program (APC WNSP), which calls for women and girls to take control of technology to end violence against women.

Excerpt:

By Kara Santos
CAVITE, Philippines, Dec 6 2010 (IPS)

Most people would not think twice about throwing out old plastic bags, empty soda cans, scrap metal and used shampoo bottles. But for the students of Cavite Institute in the Philippines, trash like these have become their ticket out of poverty.

The cost of the trash collected by students will be deducted from the class scholar's tuition fees. Credit: Kara Santos/IPS

Called WISHCRAFT, which stands for ‘We Integrate Scholarship with the Collection of Recyclables and Frequently Generated Trash’, the programme has enabled students from low-income families to enroll in the school and obtain scholarships and tuition fee discounts.

Arvee Rose Abayabay, a fourth-year high school student, is one of those benefiting from the school’s programme. Her mother just left for Kuwait to work as a sewer while her father serves in the local council.

“It’s a good programme for the students because it helps us a lot, especially in paying our tuition fees,” says Abayabay, who plans to pursue a degree in nursing or food technology in university. “The programme helps both students and the parents transform garbage into money for education while helping the environment.”

Elin Mondejar, who conceptualised the WISHCRAFT Programme at the Cavite Institute, tells IPS how it works.

“All students who bring in recyclables automatically get a credit equivalent discount on their school fees. The discount may be used by the student or donated to another student in need,” says Mondejar.

Students, parents, teachers or individuals who endorse student applicants bring in recyclable items like cartons, paper, plastic, newspapers and glass bottles to a materials recovery facility right beside the school, where the items are then weighed and recorded.

The school partnered with an intermediary, who delivers the recyclables to junk shops and gives the payment collected from these to the school’s accounting unit, which then does the corresponding deductions according to the record of recyclables submitted per student.

On average, tuition and other educational and project fees at the Cavite Institute total 30,000 pesos (680 U.S. dollars) a year or more for students, who are from the pre- school to high school level. School officials say that 40 to 50 percent of the students now avail of the discounts, with some paying 25 percent less in tuition fees due to the credits they earn from bringing in recyclable refuse.

The equivalent cost of each recyclable item depends on the type, number and quality of the goods. For instance, copper wire is traded at 150 pesos (3.4 dollars) a kilogramme while white paper fetches six pesos (13 cents) a kg.

School principal Corrine Realica adds that students and teachers segregate and clean items before they bring them in, as clean items bring in more money than dirty and unsorted ones.

“While most rely on their own household trash, some have branched out to their relatives and neighbors and set up collection centres to go towards their tuition fund,” Realica tells IPS. “Even teachers who aren’t sending children to school have adopted scholars because they don’t want their trash at home to go to waste.”

Special education students who are unable to afford school fees have also been supported by corporate sponsorships through WISHCRAFT. Two such students have full scholarships under the multinational consumer goods firm Unilever, which donates proceeds from its recyclable garbage towards the students’ tuition.

Realica says the bulk trash donated by the company makes quite a difference because the tuition for special education students costs as much as 50,000 pesos a year (1,140 dollars), an amount way above what low-income families make in a country where 44 percent or over 40 million Filipinos live on less than two dollars a day.

A joint study by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the non-government Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) says that the number of children aged 6-16 who are not attending school rose from 1.8 million in 2002 to 2.2 million in 2007, partly due to the high cost of education.

The WISHCRAFT programme, which was pilot-tested in 2002 and launched in 2004, is now considered a best practice for innovation, resourcefulness, cost-effectiveness, replicability and partnerships. There have been various spin-offs of this programme around the country.

A farm school uses the same trash-to-cash concept to raise money for teachers’ salaries. In a public school where tuition fees are free, recyclables brought in by students are logged and are convertible to school supplies. An out- of-school group set up a theatre group where the entrance fees are recyclables instead of cash.

“There is really money in garbage, and the possibilities are endless,” says Mondejar. “It makes students see garbage in a different light.”

Mondejar says that the Cavite Institute programme benefits students who want better quality education, but cannot afford the tuition fees. The school limits its class size to 25 to 30 students, compared to public schools in the area that can have up to 70 pupils in one classroom.

From 48 scholars in schoolyear 2002-2003, the number of students having full or partial scholarships or tuition-fee discounts now averages 500 annually.

The programme makes two social priorities meet and thrive on each other – keeping youngsters in school and helping clean the environment. “To date over 300 tonnes of recyclables which could have been disposed of in rivers, canals and highways have been converted to a more worthy cause – education,” Mondejar points out.

Excerpt:

By Kara Santos
MANILA, Nov 14 2010 (IPS)

Disaster time is social networking time for a growing number of humanitarian agencies, weather agencies, volunteers and individuals in the Philippines, one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world.

Indeed, experts have credited social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter for helping keep the death toll below 20 during Supertyphoon Megi, which hit this archipelagic country with wind speeds of up to 269 kilometres per hour in October.

The national weather agency, the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services (PAGASA), launched its official Twitter account in mid-October, just before Megi was to hit land.

The real-time updates, which were “retweeted” by followers and reported by mainstream radio and television stations, ensured that the public knew when and where the typhoon was expected to hit hardest. Thousands were able to move to safer places or took precautionary measures before the typhoon struck.

Barely a month after being set up, PAGASA’s Twitter account now has over 28,000 followers who receive the standard 140-character “Tweets” on weather advisories and storm updates.

“Social networking sites are so popular these days. A lot the youth and the different sectors are already using this medium, so we decided we might as well tap it,” says Venus Valdemoro, officer-in-charge of PAGASA’s Public Information Unit.

This vigilance in preparing for the destruction that the Philippines experiences each year – an average of 20 typhoons strike come each year – stems from painful lessons learned from the fury of Typhoon Ketsana in 2009. Although the country is used to dealing with typhoons during the second half of the year, erratic weather patterns have been taking a greater toll on lives and property in recent years.

Combine this vulnerability with Filipinos’ penchant for using new technology – the country is often called the text- message capital of the world – and the use of new media for social needs becomes quite natural.

According to U.S.-based information technology research firm Gartner, the Philippines, a country of 94 million people with an Internet penetration rate of 29.7 percent, leads Asia in the adoption of social media websites.

It currently ranks sixth in the world on the use of two of the most popular networking websites, Facebook and Twitter. The Philippines has more than 18 million Facebook users as of November 2010 and a Twitter penetration rate of 14.8 percent, according to digital marketing intelligence group comScore.

Disaster and aid agencies are jumping on the social media bandwagon. The Philippine Red Cross (PRC), for instance, has been using Facebook and Twitter to relay news of its activities to the public.

The PRC’s account on Twitter gained some 3,000 followers within days of its launch during the peak of Typhoon Ketsana. Its number of followers has since swelled to 42,364 and continues to grow.

“The wide scope social networking sites cover makes it the most effective means to communicate with the general public,” PRC secretary general Gwendolyn Pang tells IPS.

The number of PRC’s Facebook fans increased during Ketsana and thousands of volunteers were mobilised through the social networking website for rescue and relief operations, Pang adds. The organisation now has over one hundred thousand supporters on Facebook.

“Basically, through this technology, everybody is just one post away, making it the most cost-efficient way for us to make our announcements public,” says Pang.

Ruben Canlas Jr, an information technology and management consultant, says the use of social media has eliminated the “middleman” in communication, giving the public information straight from the source. “In the past, we had no choice but to rely on radio and TV for weather and emergency updates, which are not efficient ways for disseminating urgent information,” says Canlas.

Competing broadcasting stations also create a “technological bottleneck”, Canlas explains, when they interview a spokesperson and thus prevent other radio and television stations from accessing that source for a period of time.

“Now, PAGASA itself can broadcast the information through a tweet and media can simply report using the tweet,” he adds.

While only the weather agency’s Twitter account is official, PAGASA officials say they have been flooded with requests to maintain accounts on Facebook and Friendster as well.

The Philippines is ranked the most disaster-prone country in the world, according to a recent study by Brussels-based Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters. The World Bank lists it among the countries most affected by climate change, and most in danger of facing frequent and intense storms.

On average, the country is battered by 20 typhoons a year. Megi was just the tenth typhoon to hit the Philippines in 2010.

In September and October 2009, typhoons Ketsana and Parma struck the northern Philippine island of Luzon within a week of each other, triggering the worst flooding in four decades, and killing more than 1,000 people in the country and in other East Asian countries it hit afterwards.

Excerpt:

By Kara Santos
MANILA, Sep 24 2010 (IPS)

Filipinos are used to having their country soaked by rain six months of the year, but these days worry is on many faces whenever raindrops start falling.

Survivors of Typhoon Ketsana remember the loved ones they lost on the 1st year anniversary of the disaster. Credit: Kara Santos/IPS

On Sep. 26, 2009, Typhoon Ketsana hit the Philippines, and it later unleashed its fury in neighbouring South-east Asian countries. In a matter of hours, portions of Metro Manila and towns the south and north of it inundated in floodwaters so deep they swallowed even two- storey dwellings.

Known locally as Ondoy, the typhoon dumped the heaviest rainfall in history experienced in Metro Manila, transforming streets into raging rivers. In some rural areas, the floodwaters reached a record level of more than six metres high.

Nora Abella recalls that her husband Raymond and their five children had to flee their home in the middle of the night.

Massive floods caused by the typhoon’s heavy rains had put them in danger of drowning as they slept in their house in Santa Cruz, the capital town of Laguna province, some 87 kilometres from Manila.

“I woke up to see my five children putting on their jackets and getting ready to move out of the house,” she recalls. “While my husband and I were fast asleep, the children were restless and awake, checking the water just outside our house.”

Ketsana would continue on its path of destruction in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand, killing hundreds more and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless.

Back in the Philippines, the Abellas had to stay in an evacuation centre with hundreds of other people for three months. On the heels of Ketsana had been Typhoon Pama (known as Pepeng in the Philippines), which while less destructive added more havoc to already devastated communities. The day after Christmas, the Abellas returned home, only to find their house still littered with debris. Since the water pump was damaged, they did not have a source of clean water.

But communities across Luzon that had been devastated by the floods had picked themselves up almost as soon as the waters receded, thanks to many volunteers who extended help, from donations of food, clothing, and cash, to group clean-ups of streets and even households.

Humanitarian groups like Oxfam and World Vision stepped in for long-term initiatives aimed not only at helping communities recover, but to also make them more prepared for disaster.

“There’s wisdom in stocking supplies ahead of time so we are not caught off-guard when disasters like Ketsana hit again,” Boris Joaquin, head of donor engagement of World Vision, a global relief organisation, says.

Locally, World Vision sets aside a portion of the donations it gets towards a calamity fund and actively raises funds to provide humanitarian assistance for disaster preparedness, instead of giving just one-time donations.

Oxfam, meanwhile, supported household-water treatment, and built emergency communal latrines and washing areas, plus elevated walkways over the floodwaters, according to one post-disaster assessment report.

“We began working with the residents when they were in the evacuation centre and transitional sites, and continued to support them after they returned home or in the relocation sites,” says Oxfam Country Programme Manager Snehal Soneji.

Oxfam also made it a point to address the problem of having constant clean water, which it considers vital to a community’s recovery.

“Often, very little attention is given to the areas of water, sanitation, and hygiene despite the challenges they pose to the people’s lifeline,” Soneji says, noting the rising number of dengue cases in the Philippines.

Nora Abella thus is now a member of the local water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) committee, which coordinates with the local community to help organise the maintenance of the communal and household toilets, monitor the use of water pumps, and assist in distribution of basic items. These committees ensure that the work continues long after the disaster strikes.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction Council (NDRRC), for its part, says it is now more prepared to deal with disasters, holding massive information drives in the aftermath of typhoons Ketsana and Pama.

NDRRC Executive Director retired Army Gen. Benito Ramos says that new equipment to provide advance warnings, food and non-food items including medicine and relief goods, have been pre-positioned in key areas in the country.

“We should brace for the worst, especially during the month of October when strong typhoons usually hit the country,” Ramos said in a press conference here recently. “If there is a typhoon, let’s hope it’s not it’s as strong as Ondoy.”

Oxfam’s Soneji, though, believes stronger measures need to be in place to ensure that vulnerable communities are prepared.

“Extreme weather events such as stronger typhoons, increased amounts of rainfall and severe droughts will be the norm unless runaway growth of global carbon emissions is stopped,” he says. “The fury that Typhoon Ondoy unleashed last year is (just) a sign of things to come.”

He calls for a national defense against climate change. “More than roads and bridges with the names of her congressman posted on it, Nora and her family need government leaders who have the vision for resilient communities, beyond the next electoral exercise,” Soneji added.

Excerpt:

By Kara Santos
MANILA, Aug 28 2010 (IPS)

In the wake of the bungled hostage-rescue operation that left eight Hong Kong tourists and the gunman dead, the Philippine media are finding themselves a target of anger by many who say that sensationalism and no-holds-barred coverage added to the bloody end to a crisis they call an international embarrassment.

The media’s blow-by-blow reportage of the 11-hour standoff on Aug. 2, included detailed descriptions that critics say revealed police movements and plans to dismissed policeman Rolando Mendoza, who had taken the hostages to try to get his job back.

In media organisations’ race for news, technology made reporting faster and closer to audiences – and more risky. It did not seem to dawn on many, until later, that live footage of Mendoza’s brother, also a policeman, being taken into custody had been seen by the hostage-taker from inside the bus, and may well have helped drive him to start shooting the hostages.

“Media may not be entirely to blame, but nevertheless, some of that blood is on their hands,” one enraged Filipino posted on Facebook.

“Have some common sense! Isn’t it utter stupidity to announce live on air what the police are doing,” another posted in the vernacular Filipino language on a news channel’s Twitter account.

By the time the hostage crisis ended on that rainy night, near the Quirino Grandstand not far from scenic Manila Bay, eight of the 15 hostages left inside the bus were dead after being shot by the M-16-armed Mendoza. He was shot dead by Manila police during their assault on the bus.

A chorus of anger, disbelief, embarrassment and diatribes followed, much of it toward the Special Weapons Action Team (SWAT) of the Manila police, which was shown struggling to get into the bus and retreating from bullets.

As anger rose from Hong Kong – the standoff was covered live by international news networks – so did Filipinos demand accountability by the police and the two-month-old government of President Benigno Aquino III. “We hope we could have done better,” Aquino said. Earlier, the President himself dug into how media coverage of the arrest of Mendoza’s brother itself “further agitated” the hostage taker.

Journalists and media organisations have since given a mix of post-mortems.

Major broadcast station ABS-CBN acknowledged having aired a report detailed the position of the police during the assault, but said it practised self-restraint. “We refused to air the hostage taker’s threats live about a 3 p.m. deadline to avoid fuelling public fear. After the assault began, we tried to limit our shots to avoid showing police movements,” ABS-CBN News said in a statement. It said that it would have complied with a news blackout – had one been called by the government.

Rival station GMA-7 said it would come up with revised guidelines for coverage.

But others argue that news organisations, especially TV and radio that covered the crisis for 12 hours straight, should have exercised more prudence.

Journalist teacher Luz Rimban, who used to work for television, calls for introspection into when live coverage is really needed.

Live coverage is a must in situations such as the disaster that Typhoon Ketsana caused in record floods in 2009, when media had to report the extent of damage and identify where help was needed. But “a hostage-taking incident is a different thing altogether. After all this time, after all such similar incidents in the past, we in the media should realise there’s really no public service value in going live on a hostage-taking,” Rimban said in an interview.

Most guidelines in covering crisis situations were forgotten during the Aug. 23 hostage drama, points out Red Batario, Asia-Pacific coordinator of the International News Safety Institute, which provides safety training for journalists worldwide.

“Everybody was so caught up in drama. They were trying to outdo each other to get the better shot and break the story first,” Batario said in an interview. “They should have considered that by airing live they could have endangered lives, including their own.”

But then again, left to their own devices, media will cover what is out there, says Vergel Santos, a senior editor and board member of the Centre for Media Freedom and Responsibility. “In the absence of any preventive police measures, the media naturally proceeded to position themselves as close to the action as they could: it’s a professional frame of mind,” Santos said. “The media are expected to operate on habit once on the ground: get the full story at all costs.”

Some top officials at the scene were “scarcely heard from or seen taking command, effectively inviting the media to feed freely on the spectacle”, he added.

Rimban points to problems with gatekeeping information after field reports reached editors’ desks. “The people inside the newsroom who had the power to decide simply didn’t make the right decisions. They were overcome by competition, the need to do what the other station was doing, just so they wouldn’t be outscooped,” she said.

But in the aftermath of the crisis – China, Hong Kong and other countries have issued travel advisories to the Philippines – it is a sympathetic statement from journalists in Hong Kong, where the anger is at its highest level, that urges temperance in blaming the media for the botched rescue attempt. “It is unrealistic to ask the media not to broadcast live in a matter of huge public interest not only to the Filipinos themselves, but also to people in Hong Kong and elsewhere,” the Hong Kong Journalists’ Association said.

It called instead for proper media arrangements in accordance with internationally accepted standards for such situations.

*The Asia Media Forum (http://www.theasiamediaforum.org) is a space for journalists to share insights on issues related to the media and their profession, as well as stories and opinions on democracy, development and human rights in Asia. It is coordinated by IPS Asia-Pacific.

Excerpt:

By Kara Santos
MANILA, Aug 12 2010 (IPS)

Adventure motorcycle tours, and driving and racing events organised by tobacco firms. Canopies bearing cigarette brands in popular restaurants. Tobacco brands appearing beside the signages of convenience stores, whether along the Philippine capital’s urban alleys or provincial roads.

There may no cigarette brand overtly advertised here, but this adventure tour was called the ‘Marlboro Road Trip'. Credit: Kara Santos/IPS

Because the Philippines’ tobacco regulation act of 2003 tightened restrictions on direct advertising of tobacco products, their manufacturers are getting very innovative, anti-tobacco campaigners say.

They have taken to holding small pockets of events that are “hardly noticeable but get better results,” says Roberto del Rosario of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Alliance Philippines (FCAP), a non-governmental coalition of tobacco control advocates.

For instance, the law bans tobacco firms from sponsoring “any sport, concert, cultural art or event” that involves the advertisement or promotion of cigarettes or uses names, logos, trademarks, symbols, designs or colours associated with a tobacco product.

But thus far, events like a three-day motorcycle tour in May – called ‘Marlboro Road Trip’ – have been held successfully. In that event, dozens of motorcycle aficionados clad in red and black jackets, jerseys, sunglasses and backpacks, gunned their engines for a more than 370 kilometre tour that took them from Manila to Naga city to the south.

The makers of Marlboro cigarettes in the Philippines – Philip Morris Philippines Manufacturing Inc (PMPMI) – provided the fuel, gear and accommodations during the trip. “Everything was free. We just had to register, then there was a test drive qualifier and we could choose who among our club could go on the trip,” a 27-year-old biker, a smoker, recounted to IPS.

In the event venue stood tents in Marlboro’s signature red and white colours, while banners bore the slogan ‘Road to Flavour’. Chris Nelson, PMPMI managing director, called the bike riders “modern cowboys,” referring to the iconic image of cowboys riding off into the sunset associated with the Marlboro brand.

Anti-smoking campaigners say all of these were no doubt advertising, but PMPMI says it made sure there was no direct advertising and that all communication about its tobacco products were only for event participants and adults.

“To the best of our knowledge, no communication relating to our brands was visible to the general public, including minors, during the entire conduct of the Marlboro Road Trip,” PMPMI spokesman Elmer Mesina said in an e-mail reply to questions sent by IPS.

But “using the colour bright red and knowing that the activity is being sponsored by Marlboro, for instance, are in itself advertising,” says Josefina Buenaseda, FCAP legal counsel.

Mesina says that his company is “firmly opposed to youth smoking” and “does not market to minors.” He adds: “Our communications and activities are intended for adult smokers only, with the aim of encouraging adults who choose to smoke to choose our brands instead of those of our competitors.”

Buenaseda says that while sponsorships are banned, promotional activities for those above 18 years old are regulated under the law. But tobacco firms have used these to advertise its products to the public, she adds.

FCAP says cigarettes are pushed heavily through ‘below the line’ or non-traditional advertising like public relations, events, promotions, merchandising, signages, the use of women promoters, and digital advertising.

Subtle product placements abound – in restaurants, bakeries, billiard halls, junk shops, gasoline stations and mass transit terminals. Canopies bearing cigarette brands are a common sight in open-air restaurants. Coasters, napkin holders and lamps with cigarette logos are used in restaurants and bars frequented by young people.

Young Filipinos in fact make good clientele in this country of 94 million people. A total of 22.7 percent of Filipinos aged 13-15 were smoking as of 2009, up from 15.9 percent in 2008. After Indonesia, the Philippines has the second highest number of smokers – about 30 million – in South-east Asia.

At the same time, smoking-related diseases cause 240 deaths daily in the country, says the WHO 2009 Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic. FCAP says that 80,000 Filipinos die every year due to tobacco-related diseases.

Anti-tobacco groups want a complete and tighter ban on all forms of promotion of tobacco in the country.

According to the 2009 Philippines’ Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS), pro-cigarette ads are seen by seven out of every 10 Filipinos mostly in stores (53.7 percent), and on posters, leaflets or calendars (31.7 percent). The most popular form of cigarette promotion are clothes or items with brand names and logos on them, the survey adds. Loopholes in the law as well as low taxes and cheap prices of tobacco products add to the Philippines’ appeal as a market for tobacco products.

A provision allowing advertising, including leaflets and posters, inside point-of-sale retail establishments, has led to the excess of tobacco signages put up in convenience stores, called ‘sari-sari stores’ locally.

Buenaseda says the tobacco industry has twisted the interpretation of the law. “They have chosen to extend this to neon lights, big tarpaulins, billboards and the like in point-of-sale establishments, which do not come within the classification of ‘leaflets and posters’,” she says.

Cigarettes here are among the cheapest in the world at less than a dollar a pack. Excise taxes comprise only 28 percent of the retail price, compared to 69 percent in Singapore.

Likewise, cigarettes are sold in five or 10-stick packs, or per piece. “The packaging now is also more attractive and by mere flavour alone, they are targeting the youth,” says Del Rosario, referring to menthol, chocolate and candy- flavoured cigarettes.

But some like Nino Chico, 19, think tobacco advertising does not really make a difference. “There’s no effect for those already hooked,” he tells IPS. “Even without ads, if children see their relatives or classmates smoking, they’ll want to try it,” says Chico, who started smoking at 15 because “all his uncles and older cousins smoked”.

A government committee oversees the implementation of the law on tobacco advertising. It has as member the FCAP, but also the departments of trade and industry, agriculture, the National Tobacco Administration and the tobacco industry.

“It’s like assigning the fox to watch over the sheep,” says Del Rosario. “When it comes to making votes, they want to protect their interests.”

*This feature was produced by IPS Asia-Pacific as part the Tobacco Control Media Fellowship, which is being implemented by Probe Media Foundation Inc. and the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Alliance Philippines (FCAP).

Excerpt:

By Kara Santos
MANILA, Jul 20 2010 (IPS)

Television news images of a phony policeman on a motorcycle escorting a sedan travelling against the flow of traffic – submitted by a passing motorist – is a sign of the changing face of journalism and public involvement in the Philippines.

University students volunteered as poll watchers to ensure a clean, honest and transparent election. Credit: Kara Santos/IPS

“I sent in the video because I can’t take stomach the fact that people still violate traffic rules even when our new president obeys these,” says the contributor of the video that was picked up by the mainstream media.

Newly elected President Benigno Aquino III refused to use sirens or travel against the flow of traffic – a habit of past presidents that finds disfavour with many commuters – on the way to his Jun. 30 inauguration to “set a good example to the people”.

Using a variety of easily accessible social networking tools, media consumers are turning into news producers, to report – and influence – socio-political changes in the country.

Citizen-generated news links, photos, and videos often spread quickly and widely via social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, contributing to the vibrant citizen media scene in the country and in Asia.

Karlo Mikhail Mongaya, a contributor to Global Voices Online, an international community of bloggers and citizen journalists, believes blogs, micro-blogs and social networking tools have empowered traditionally boxed-in audiences.

“Citizen media projects have been vital in election monitoring here and in other countries, as well as other breaking news like disaster response and rescue operations, among others,” says Mongaya.

The May 10 presidential election saw a spike in the number of citizens who took on the role of monitors and information producers, from the campaign period through to the inauguration.

News organisations here have welcomed the phenomenon, and there are no signs of fear that they would lose their standing as the source of valuable information.

One major news network, GMA News and Public Affairs, invites readers to submit photographs and videos through its website, and launched a micro-site, ‘YouScoop’, to encourage breaking news by “non-professional news gatherers” who are first on the scene of newsworthy events. In the run up to the presidential vote, the network called for contributions on election-relation topics. Stephen Quinn, associate professor of journalism at Deakin University in Australia, points out the value of citizen journalism in times of breaking news and widespread coverage like the elections, where the mainstream media are unable to be everywhere at the same time.

“Most journalists are outnumbered in terms of the number of people out there who have some device that can record video or take pictures,” Quinn told IPS at the sidelines of a media forum here in June. “They (news organisations) need to work with the audience rather than dismiss them as being insignificant.”

While Internet penetration rates in the country remain low at nearly 21 percent, citizen journalism is boosted by the number of people with mobile phones and by the extent to which those who are online use the technology.

The 2008 National Telecommunications Commission estimates that there are some 60 million phone subscribers in the Philippines, and more than 600 million text messages sent daily. Text messages are used for purposes as varied as sending money, voting on television shows and election monitoring.

The Philippines ranked eighth among the world in number of Facebook users, with more than 8.3 of them in December 2009.

Media groups, particularly the Philippines’ two biggest television networks, have embraced citizen journalism through the use of mobile phones to deliver the news.

The nation’s other broadcasting giant, ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs, also launched a highly successful citizen journalist programme, ‘Bayan Mo, iPatrol Mo’ (Your Country, Your Watch), during the election period, inviting viewers to report the news in the country’s first automated elections.

According to site statistics, over 80,000 people registered to be ‘vote patrollers’ to send in reports on various aspects of the elections, including the disorderly conduct of voting and technical malfunctions in the counting machines. Video footage and photographs contributed by viewers continue to be used in the network’s daily newscast.

Citizen journalism thrives in countries where Internet penetration rates and new communication tools are increasing quickly, says Mongaya.

For example, “the ‘Mumbai Votes’ project in India compares the promises of politicians during elections and their actual performance during their term,” says Mongaya, who took part in the Citizen Media Summit held in Chile in May.

The ‘Adopt a Politician’ campaign in Brazil has citizens blogging about the work of politicians to hold them accountable for their actions, he adds.

Asia is particularly ripe for the growth of citizen journalism, with more than 42 percent of the world’s 1.73 billion Internet users hailing from the region.

“We have a big role to play in giving voices to relevant issues that are largely neglected by mainstream media,” says Mongaya. “Citizen media are important not just for raising voices but for pushing for social change.”

*The Asia Media Forum (http://www.theasiamediaforum.org) is a space for journalists to share insights on issues related to the media and their profession. It is coordinated by IPS Asia-Pacific.

Excerpt:

By Kara Santos
MANILA, Jun 16 2010 (IPS)

What do the protests in Burma, bombings in Jakarta, the recent earthquake in Haiti and the massive devastation left by typhoon Ketsana in the Philippines have in common?

Mobile phones are increasingly becoming an important newsgathering tool in Asia. Credit: Kara Santos/IPS

In the Philippines, graphic images taken with mobile phones of the extent of destruction wrought by the September 2009 disaster on hundreds of thousands of affected residents conveyed to the world the depth of the ensuing tragedy.

In Burma, the use of mobile phones to relay crucial information to the public as well as to the outside world has proved “very handy,” Mon Mon Myat, a stringer for Agence France Presse in Burma (officially called Myanmar), where media are under strict censorship, told IPS.

“It’s very safe to shoot using a mobile phone because people think you’re just taking photos and not video. It’s less risky for us,” said the Burmese journalist, adding that they could easily hide or dispose of the phone if needed.

Media experts say that mobile phones are increasingly becoming an important newsgathering tool in Asia. Mobile news coverage is said to be used by major broadcast networks like Al Jazeera. This phenomenon has given rise to ‘mobile journalism’, otherwise known as ‘mojo’.

The concept of mobile journalism refers to the use of information and communication technologies, including mobile phones, to post stories, images and videos on the web within seconds of their composition.

This type of newsgathering is especially relevant for breaking news events and countries with strictly controlled media.

According to the book ‘Mojo – Mobile Journalism in the Asian Region’ authored by Dr Stephen Quinn, a journalism professor at Deakin University in Australia, as of mid-2009, more than 4.2 billion mobile phones were being used around the world, with 43 percent of mobile phone usage from the Asian region.

The International Telecommunications Union says that the mobile phone is the fastest-growing communication device in history, with the percentage of users in the developed world jumping from 18 percent in 1997 to 97 percent in 2007.

Because mobile phones are so common in developing countries, it is easy for mobile journalists to blend in a crowd. In the Philippines, for instance, mobile phones are commonly used to capture images and footage of disaster and conflict situations.

“Photographers are at the front line. They need to be in a place where the news is happening, and sometimes using mobile phones is the best way to capture an image, especially if access is limited,” photojournalist and founding member of the Philippine Center for Photojournalism Jimmy Domingo told IPS.

Photographers and video journalists who have to transmit files to their newsrooms fast find that innovations in mobile cameras make their job easier. Gadgets like the Flip video camcorders allow users to take video and transfer files easily to a computer or post video to the web. The Flip Mino, a compact model weighing less than 150 grams can shoot high-definition videos.

Apple Inc.’s popular iPhone also has new reporting applications that can transform it into a radio reporting device or multimedia, broadcast and podcast tool.

Poddio, designed for radio broadcasters, allows users to record, edit, and send complete radio news packages via the iPhone faster than sending via a laptop.

Given all these technological advances, research firm Datamonitor predicts that mobile phone usage in the Asia-Pacific region will jump from 389 million in 2007 to 890 million by 2012.

Speaking at a recent media forum in Manila, Dr Quinn said these advances would make news delivery even faster. “With the technological capabilities of modern gadgets, ‘mojos’ or ‘mobile journalists’ can easily put together a story in the field, edit and transmit it to the web, moments after an event takes place,” he said.

Unlike one person carrying a mobile phone, a typical video crew requires equipment like a camera, tripod, laptop and cables to work. “Tools need to be easy to use so they don’t get in the way of telling a story,” said Quinn.

Still and all, experts agree that going back to the basics remains fundamental.

“It’s not possible to do new media until you do old media properly,” said Quinn, adding that a solid grounding on journalism, research and writing skills, and knowledge of ethics is vital for journalists.

Photojournalist Domingo agrees that photographers should first know how to use standard cameras for coverage and use mobile phones only when the situation calls for it.

“If an event happened in a place where only mobile phones are available, the more important thing is to be able to bring the photograph out into the news and tell the story,” he said.

Excerpt:

By Kara Santos
MANILA, May 10 2010 (IPS)

Every day some 4,500 Filipinos leave their homeland in search of the proverbial green pastures. But some of them end up facing death instead.

Migrant rights groups hold a protest against the strong labour export policy of the Philippine government. Credit: Kara Santos/IPS

Joselito Zapanta, 30, who works as a tile setter in Riyadh, claims he fought back when he was beaten by his Sudanese landlord. Early this year, the father of two was sentenced to death for the alleged accidental killing of his employer.

These are just two of the cases of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) on death row that have been documented by Migrante International, the largest alliance of Filipino migrant organisations, which claims that the plight of OFWs has gotten worse.

“Some cases have recently been commuted to life imprisonment, but there are roughly about 60 Filipinos on death row,” Garry Martinez, chairperson of Migrante International, told IPS.

At least 26 of these come from the Middle East for crimes like homicide and murder in self-defense. Death row cases in China are also on the rise, mainly for drug-related offences, according to Migrante.

Local news reports cite the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) as saying some Filipinos are also facing death sentences in Malaysia, Kuwait, Brunei and the United States.

Roughly one-third or 58 countries around the world still hand out death sentences, according to the New York-based Amnesty International (AI), while 139 countries, including the Philippines, have abolished the death penalty in law or practice.

According to the Commission on Population, an estimated 10 percent of the country’s 92 million population works abroad, making the Philippines one of the biggest senders of workers for overseas employment. Between January and November 2009 alone, some 1.28 million Filipinos were deployed abroad, said the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, which monitors the overseas employment of Filipinos.

“Many leave the Philippines for other countries to work as migrant workers due to the lack of jobs, poor working conditions and wages and salaries which are inadequate for decent living in the country. But many of them end up isolated, abused, trapped and, worse, some are killed,” Dr Aurora Parong, director of AI-Philippines, told IPS.

Migrante estimates that there are close to 5,000 overseas Filipinos languishing in foreign jails. Cases of mysterious deaths of Filipinos in foreign countries are also common. The non-governmental organisation receives five to six new cases daily.

Based on cases it has handled, Migrante said that OFWs have been turned away from Philippines embassies when they sought help, were not given legal counsel, and that they were forced, usually by the host country’s police, to make false confessions. Language and cultural barriers are also a major challenge.

“We received a letter written on toilet paper from several (Filipinos) on death row detailing how they were tortured for five days until they confessed to a crime they did not commit,” shared Martinez. The victims, who were working in Saudi Arabia, were able to mail the letter to their families through the help of Filipino nurses based in the same country.

When sought for comment, the Office for the Undersecretary of Migrant and Workers Affairs (OUMWA) under the DFA could not give any updates on the cases of the OFWs facing the death penalty.

“I have no knowledge on these cases because the different (consular) desks assigned to the countries concerned are handling that,” Bert Manayao, case officer of OUMWA, told IPS.

When asked what services they provided to OFWs in distress, Manayao said that they gave “legal assistance” but would not elaborate further. He added that it was difficult to deal with the cases of Filipinos who “pretended to be innocent” and that many OFWs were easily fooled into becoming drug mules.

According to its website, the OUMWA is mandated to deliver “timely assistance to Filipino nationals” and protect “the dignity, rights and freedom of Filipino citizens abroad.”

The Philippine government, though, has been able to save several OFWs on death row in the past, by appealing to host countries’ governments, writing a ‘tanazul’ (letter of forgiveness) and offering blood money, a compensation paid by an offender to the family of the victim, said Migrante.

But this practice is unacceptable to some of the OFWs.

“For those in jail who are innocent, asking for forgiveness is like admitting that they committed a crime. What they want is for the Philippine government to defend them and fight for their innocence,” said Migrante’s Martinez.

Fifteen years after the hanging of Filipina domestic helper Flor Contemplacion in Singapore sparked public outrage, Migrante laments that not much progress has been achieved to improve the plight of OFWs.

Despite the threats confronting Filipinos abroad, the labour export policy in the country remains strong, which Migrante attributes to the billions the government rakes in from mandatory contributions and fees required of departing OFWs as well as from their remittances, which hit 17.348 billion U.S. dollars in 2009, up from 16.426 billion dollars in 2008, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (Central Bank of the Philippines.)

Now that the May 10 presidential elections are over, Migrante hopes that the next administration will do something concrete to address the hapless conditions of migrants, adding that six OFWs have been beheaded under outgoing President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s watch.

“What we want to see is the (government’s) willingness to reverse the labour export policy and ensure jobs locally so that these kinds of human rights violations no longer occur,” said Martinez.

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