Archive - Focus

MIGRANT workers will be coming home by the thousands this month, some of them jobless because of the global recession, but most of them will have to wait long to get relief from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), if they get any at all. A study conducted by the independent policy advocacy group Center

POZNAN, Poland (Bandillo ng Palawan) – Ten ice sculptures of human figures greeted delegates to the United Nations-sponsored climate change conference here this week, a dramatic display of the aid group Oxfam’s appeal for a human rights focus in the negotiations. While the UN celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

 POZNAN, Poland (Bandillo ng Palawan) – A patch of swaying sunflowers painted with smiley faces in pastel shades swayed unceasingly on the floor, providing an amusing contrast to the display of eco-friendly transport and grey machinery at the clean technology pavilion. Tiny solar cells power the dancing sunflowers, part of a wide range of exhibits

POZNAN, Poland (Bandillo ng Palawan)—Political leaders cannot use the global financial crisis as an excuse to postpone pro-climate policy, as experts say the turmoil actually provides opportunities for creating climate-friendly solutions that promote economic growth. Nearly 75 percent of some 1,000 climate change experts from the public and private sectors agreed that equitable economic development

ALABEL, Sarangani — President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is apparently trying to woo the provincial press, holding her first Christmas party ever with provincial reporters and their families from this province, as well as those in General Santos City and other neighboring areas. She raffled off a refrigerator, colored television, video player, cellular phones and MP4

GOVERNMENTS around the world, including the Philippines, are depriving children of basic literacy and numeracy skills because they have failed to address “deep and persistent” inequalities in education. The warning was issued by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization as it launched on Nov. 25 its 2009 global monitoring report on Education for

By BOOMA CRUZ EXPERTS predict a whitewash or coverup in the investigation on former agriculture undersecretary Jocelyn “Joc Joc” Bolante, with the Arroyo administration apparently shielding him from media scrutiny and the Ombudsman sitting on recommendations that he be charged in court. Lawyer Raul Pangalangan, former dean of the University of the Philippines College of

GOVERNMENT is pushing through with plans to parcel out the controversial gold rush site in Diwalwal, Compostela Valley province to various foreign mining companies, despite the tangle of unresolved legal issues that are threatening to fuel a potentially explosive situation. On Oct. 14, government accepted letters of intent from mining firms to develop the Upper

By YASMIN D. ARQUIZA THE legal battle over the ban on aerial spraying of poisonous pesticides in Davao City, which has reached the Supreme Court, is not the first case in which farmers square off against big agribusinesses over the issue of public health. But it is the first time that farmers have the city

By YASMIN D. ARQUIZA DAVAO CITY—Once a week, the drone of airplanes shatters the early morning calm in Calinan, a cluster of small farmlands in the hilly terrain around Mount Apo. It is the signal for farmers to rush indoors or take cover and stop feeding livestock, for women to pull down clothes hanging out

By DIOSA LABISTE ILOILO CITY—Noel Bejo and his wife decided to start a piggery in their hometown of Banate 48 km from here when they returned from Libya where both of them had worked as nurses. Thinking it would be their goldmine, Bejo signed up for a contract growing scheme with the Quedan and Rural

By YVONNE T. CHUA and LUZ RIMBAN TWO months before the May 2004 elections, the Quedan and Rural Credit Guarantee Corp. (Quedancor) obtained a P5-billion syndicated loan from Equitable PCIBank and Land Bank of the Philippines but only needed at most a fifth of the money it borrowed. It also presented “bloated figures” of its

By YVONNE T. CHUA and LUZ RIMBAN THE Quedan and Rural Credit Guarantee Corp. (Quedancor) does not only give out loans to the poor. It also “lends” money to “needy” politicians, congressmen included. Insiders say Quedancor is the one government corporation politicians know they can run to when they want cash—for political reasons or otherwise.

Quedan and Rural Credit Guarantee Corp. (Quedancor) called “the poor man’s financing institution,” the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) credit guarantee arm was giving out loans in the form of piglets and feeds, with a buy-back scheme that assured borrowers some income.

By ELLEN TORDESILLAS IT WAS NO accident that it was the Special Action Force of the Philippine National Police that penetrated the Batasan Pambansa and stuffed the ballot boxes with fake election returns to make it look like Gloria Arroyo won the 2004 elections. Established in 1983 initially to help combat insurgency and later to

By ELLEN TORDESILLAS WHEN Gloria Macapagal Arroyo delivers her eighth State of the Nation Address at the Batasang Pambansa session hall today, she will be standing close to where, three years ago, police commandos say they replaced genuine election returns (ERs) with fake ones in ballot boxes that were being readied for a recount of

By YVONNE T. CHUA WITH seven years to go, the Philippines is in danger of not meeting all the targets that have been set for countries to provide “Education for All” by 2015. “Education for All by 2015 – Will we make it?”, a midterm review of progress across the six EFA goals released recently

By YVONNE CHUA and LUZ RIMBAN THE delivery of textbooks from the Department of Education in Manila to far-flung areas is usually a boring and mundane obligation. But come July, select communities in remote areas will be welcoming the arrival of textbooks with celebrations resembling town fiestas, complete with dances and décor.

By YVONNE CHUA and LUZ RIMBAN WHEN public high school sophomores get the new Social Studies textbook next week, they will be holding in their hands what could be a source of a diplomatic irritant:The book mentions Taiwan as a “country” separate from the People’s Republic of China, in violation of the one-China policy the

MALACANANG is at loggerheads with Congress on how best to establish the country’s new archipelagic baseline to conform to international law, but without giving up its claim over resource-rich Spratly islands and other disputed territories that fall within its extended continental shelf. Four baseline options reflecting these conflicting views are still being debated with no

By JESSICA HERMOSA and JOHANNA SISANTE   THERE IS perhaps no lawmaker as enthusiastic about biofuels as Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri. Zubiri was still congressman for the third district of Bukidnon when he became principal author of the House bill that eventually became Republic Act 9367 or the Biofuels Act. He campaigned hard to get

By JESSICA HERMOSA and JOHANNA SISANTE   WHILE ORDINARY Filipinos face the threat of food shortages caused by dwindling agricultural land, sugar barons in Congress are preoccupied turning their vast haciendas and other lands into plantations to produce and process biofuels. One of those engaged in this move is presidential brother-in-law Ignacio “Iggy” Arroyo who

A MONTH before the May 13, 2009 deadline, the Philippine government intends to submit a claim before the United Nations over its extended continental shelf, which scientists and legal experts say include the resource-rich Kalayaan Island Group (KIG) and other disputed territories. If the UN upholds this claim, the Philippines would have the exclusive right

NEGLECT by President Gloria Arroyo and squabbles over turf and money have derailed government efforts to establish the country's new archipelagic baseline, and may jeopardize the Philippines' claim over resource-rich Spratlys that fall within its extended continental shelf.