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Philippine Daily Inquirer's   " Costly traffic " Metro Manila’s traffic mess is one problem that is proving too difficult to untangle. A confluence of events since many administrations ago has led to this nightmare in the capital. Last week, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) estimated that the worsening traffic congestion in Metro Manila now costs at least P3.5 billion in lost opportunities a day — a jump from the estimated P2.4 billion a day in 2012. The future does not seem to present much promise either. According to the Jica study, Metro Manila’s population in 2015 was nearly 13 million while Bulacan, Rizal, Laguna and Cavite combined had almost 11 million. That puts Mega Manila’s population in 2015 at 24 million.   [link] Mindanao Times  " Missing the point " The stir that the Boracay controversy has created has resulted in concerned agencies scampering for solutions to the garbage problem. In the Davao Region for instanc...

Philippine Star  "Untangling traffic" Emergency powers are being sought for President Duterte to speedily address the crisis that is the traffic mess in Metro Manila. Almost every day there is a reminder  of that emergency: traffic jams along most thoroughfares except Sundays and holidays, commuter trains so packed because of limited capacity and the Metro Rail  Transit breaking down, sometimes several times in one day.  These days the traffic jams have been aggravated by rutted roads as asphalt pavement again disintegrates during the rainy season. Yesterday a rutted stretch a mere  two meters long on the northbound lane of Quiapo Bridge tied up traffic from the Manila City Hall as vehicles were forced to slow down.  This problem is again becoming increasingly common throughout Metro Manila. Even as Congress deliberates on emergency powers for the President to deal with the  traffic mess, perhaps the firm hand of the Duterte administration can demand...

Philippine Star  "State of the nation" Rodrigo Duterte has inherited an economy that is the second fastest growing in the region after China. A framework for peace in Mindanao is in place. Business confidence has been high for the past six years, buoyed by policies that were anchored on good governance.  Last Saturday night, President Duterte signed a landmark order, implementing freedom of information throughout the executive branch. He is expected to push his congressional allies to pass an FOI law to promote transparency in the other branches of government.  The challenges faced by the nation remain daunting. The income gap is a chasm and economic growth has not trickled down, with about 40 percent of Filipinos classified as poor. The lack of decent employment continues to fuel the migrant worker phenomenon, opening Filipinos to exploitation and human trafficking overseas.   [full text] Sun.Star Cebu  "Reviving “hablon”" HABLON sa Cebu” is a community’s ...

From the magazine of the Jesuits in the United States Duterte’s Tough Talk July 4-11, 2016 Issue,  David T. Buckley Can the church work with the Philippines’ new president? Cursing Pope Francis is an unorthodox campaign tactic. This might seem especially obvious if your electorate is over 80 percent Catholic. But Rodrigo “Rody” Duterte, no orthodox candidate, did just that en route to a convincing win in the Philippine presidential election on May 9. Mr. Duterte eventually apologized for his comments, but concerns over his election rest on deeper differences than on an admittedly foul mouth. Duterte’s resounding win is troubling to many who are concerned over his strongman approach to governing. This includes leading voices among the Catholic bishops of the Philippines. His election, in spite of the clergy’s opposition, raises questions about the future role of the Catholic Church in Philippine public life. To readers in the United States, mention of the Ca...

Duterte’s Inaugural Speech June 30, 2016 President Fidel Ramos, sir, salamat po sa tulong mo making me President; President Joseph Ejercito Estrada; Senate President Franklin Drilon and the members of the Senate; Speaker Feliciano Belmonte and the members of the House of Representatives; Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno and Associate Justices of the Supreme Court; His Excellency Guiseppe Pinto and the members of the Diplomatic Corps; incoming members of the Cabinet; fellow workers in government; my fellow countrymen. No leader, however strong, can succeed at anything of national importance or significance unless he has the support and cooperation of the people he is tasked to lead and sworn to serve. It is the people from whom democratic governments draw strength and this administration is no exception. That is why we have to listen to the murmurings of the people, feel their pulse, supply their needs and fortify their faith and trust in us whom they elected to public office....

Sun.Star Cebu's  Carvajal: "Presidential" AS THE saying goes, it takes a village to raise a child. That is basically what post-modern sociology means when it defines man/woman as a “social construct,” a  product of the society he/she was born into. It remains true that man/woman is a rational being. But how this being behaves in ground zero, like how irrational he gets over some issues, is programmed into him  by the social milieu. Free will would be what sociology refers to as “agency” or the ability to get out of the conventional mould and become your own man or woman.  Thus, a nation’s establishment protects the system that affords it so much power, wealth and privilege by promoting a culture of submission to, dependence on and  acceptance of the existing social order. Through this dominating culture, it subconsciously “constructs” society’s children into submissive, accepting and  unquestioning members of their society’s way of doing things and of gi...

Inquirer  "Supermajority " The speed with which the national political landscape has shifted, since the election of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte as president, has been dizzying. The use of  the earthquake analogy is appropriate; in the House of Representatives and, to a lesser extent, in the Senate, the change has been seismic.  Or, to change metaphors: The rapid ripening of the balimbing or star fruit in the political orchard has been one for the farmer’s almanac. The President-elect joined  the PDP-Laban only recently; on May 9, only three of its candidates for Congress won. But a month after the elections, PDP-Laban is set to become the new majority,  not only in the House but also in the Senate. The shifting of alliances in the House will not look out of place in any episode of “Game of Thrones.” From a tiny base of three, Representative-elect Pantaleon  Alvarez was able to grow his support to about three-fourths of the entire chamber—in part...

Sun.Star Cebu's  Carvajal: "How long?" WITH the onset of heavy rains, we can declare victory over a long and nasty drought. But the remarkable thing is we survived it in spite of the absence of pro-activeness in our political leaders. We survived it by pure luck or, as the bishops might want to claim, by God’s answer to their oratio imperata. Local officials did nothing but declare a state of emergency (which causes no water to spring from the ground) and distribute free water containers. But how crazy is it to give people water-containers when there simply is no water to put in them?  Yet, previous to this drought, they had a water summit. People were glad then to hear that, in addition to declaring a state of emergency and distributing water-containers, they will build water impounding systems and reservoirs. But the rains came and water impounding systems were nowhere to be found. Hence, the last drought was even worse (for water) than the previous one they had a su...

Philippine Star  "Modern slavery" Here’s another downside of the migrant worker phenomenon: many of those 10 million Filipinos overseas work under conditions likened to modern slavery.  Australia-based Walk Free Foundation released this week its 2016 Global Slavery Index, in which the Philippines ranked 19th among 167 countries in terms of absolute  number of people living in conditions of modern slavery, and 33rd in terms of proportion of the population. The study estimated that 401,000 Filipinos, most of them  working overseas, are trapped in modern slavery – up from 261,200 in the 2014 index, when the country ranked 103rd in terms of proportion of population.  The study, initiated in 2012 by Australian billionaire Andrew Forrest to draw global attention to the problem, estimated that 45.8 million people worldwide live in  modern slavery, with the greatest number – 18.35 million – residing in India and two-thirds of the total in the Asia-Pacific.  ...

     

Philippine Star  "Sustain the momentum" Nearly two weeks after election day, the 12 winners in the Senate race were proclaimed yesterday by the Commission on Elections. The proclamation crawled along like  a graduation ceremony, raising fears that 13th placer Francis Tolentino, former chairman of the Metro Manila Development Authority, would have enough time to stop  the proceedings with a court restraining order.  There was no TRO, however, and the Comelec completed the proclamation. At least one candidate groused about being cheated, but did not plan to file a formal protest.  Two groups have filed a complaint for electoral sabotage against officials of the Comelec, poll watchdog Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting and  automation service provider Smartmatic. The criminal complaint stemmed from Smartmatic’s change of the hash code of the transparency server used in the PPCRV’s  unofficial quick count for the national races.   [full ...