100roses's Blog

Tribute to Piston leader Medardo Roda on Feb. 14

100roses — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 14:47:20 +0000

Thursday, 12 February 2009, 19:52 | Category : Events, Movements, Specials
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Everyone is invited to attend a public tribute in honor of Medardo “Ka Roda” Roda on Feb. 14, 2009, 4:30 pm at the garden of Bulwagang Bonifacio (SOLAIR), UP Diliman.

From Stuff

Ka Roda was the longtime chair of the transport group Piston, giving a face to our transport workers and fighting with and for them for the longest time. He has since “retired” and has been honored as Piston’s chair emeritus.

He is famous for articulating the demands of transport workers for rollbacks of the prices of oil products, his critique of the oil cartel and the excessive government fees and unfair policies slapped against drivers. Today, Ka Roda is frail and sick. Strokes have affected his body and speech, as you can notice in the way he talks. He looked terribly affected at the wake of his comrade Rep. Crispin Beltran last year:

A highlight of Saturday’s tribute program will be the showing of “Ruta ni Ka Roda”, a film by Kodao Productions which was written, directed and edited by Risa Jopson.

Ka Roda, of course, will be there, together with his family.

The tribute is organized by Kodao Productions in cooperation with Piston.

source: http://tonyocruz.com/?p=1900

Holding on to an Empty Promise

100roses — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 08:06:51 +0000

Written by Aries Rufo in Butuan City

Monday, 02 March 2009

Caraga re-embraces mining, but the region lacks the infrastructure, manpower, and long-term plans to produce the growth that the industry is expected to bring

Caraga’s flat-line economic activity has lately been showing signs of life, triggered mainly by mining operations.

The Supreme Court’s ruling declaring large-scale mining unconstitutional was like a death sentence to the region, which boasts of a rich history and tradition in mining. In fact, Surigao City in Surigao del Norte is said to have evolved from the operations of two mining companies—the still-active Pacific Cement and the now-closed Nonoc nickel mining.

For four years, Caraga registered a negative growth rate—until the tribunal reversed itself in December 2004.

With the resurgence of mining, the region’s economy is experiencing a renaissance of sorts, notes Carmencita Cochingco, the National Economic and Development Authority’s regional executive director for Caraga. The production value last year from mining hit P6.8 billion, up from P2.1 billion in 2006, representing a sales value of P19.8 billion in 2007 from P1.3 billion in 2006.

The region has been a favorite destination of this extractive industry, hosting at present 15 large-scale mining companies from China, Japan, Hong Kong, and Australia, with eight more in the pipeline. All in all, at least 62 mining companies maintain offices in the region.

Second Poorest

But growth fueled by mining is only one side of the coin, and the variables in the other equation present a different picture. The total outlook on Caraga is not as rosy as it seems.

Caraga is a microcosm of what the Philippines is: abundant in natural resources but also in poverty. Almost half of its two million people live below the poverty line, way above the 33 percent incidence nationwide.

Created through Republic Act 7901 in 1995, the 13-year-old region has yet to realize its full potential. Its Human Development Index ranges from low to very low, indicating that it would not meet its Millennium Development Goals target by 2015, according to its MDG status report.

Based on its regional development plan, Caraga by 2010 is targeted to hit a steady growth rate of 6.74 percent from the present 6 percent. Aside from mining, major industries like tourism, agro-forestry, and fisheries are expected to contribute to its Gross Domestic Regional Product. As of 2006, its GDRP represented only 1.28 percent of the national GDP and 7.24 percent of the Mindanao GDP.

Caraga is the second poorest region in the country, already an improvement from the 2003 poverty survey by the National Statistical Coordination Board which it topped.

Most Peaceful

In most sectors—agri-fishery, industry, manufacturing, construction, trade, and services—its percentage share is either second lowest or lowest among the Mindanao regions. The only bright spots are the mining sector, which is second highest in Mindanao, and forestry, which is highest in the country.

Its macroeconomic forecast for 2010 paints a vibrant picture, with the robust mining activity creating a ripple effect on construction, manufacturing and services sectors, and the trade sub-sector. The industry sector is expected to grow by an average of 11 percent from 2008-2010, by the “recovery of mining, construction and manufacturing.”

It appears, however, that the fundamentals are not in place to support such an optimistic forecast.

Unlike other regions in Mindanao troubled by insurgency and terrorism, Caraga probably has the lowest risk of investment in terms of peace and order and criminality problems. Criminality is low in the region while insurgency and secessionist problems is almost non-existent.

“Caraga is one of the most, peaceful regions in Mindanao, maybe even in the entire Philippines,” says Supt. Nestor Fajura, chief of the regional operations and plans division in Caraga.

No Conflict Spillover

Statistics support this claim. From January to July, Caraga registered a crime volume 62 percent lower than the national average. Most of the cases were non-index crimes involving illegal gambling, logging, and drugs.

The generally peaceful environment however got a jarring jolt last July when a band of communist rebels attacked the municipal police stations of Dapa and General Luna towns in the Siargao Islands, the region’s jewel tourist destination.

Fajura says the incident was an “isolated one” and reports reaching the National Police showed that it was prompted by a landgrabbing case involving a local official and that the perpetrators were from provinces in nearby regions. While there are small pockets of rebels in the region, these are mostly New People’s Army members from the Compostela Valley.

As for threats from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Fajura says the group could not gain ground in the region because of the presence of indigenous peoples. “They would have problems with the IPs,” Fajura says.

The threat of a possible spillover of hostilities in the ARMM is also implausible as mountain ranges and the provinces of Misamis Oriental, Bukidnon, and Davao border the region, Fajura adds. Caraga is perched on the northeastern portion of Mindanao.

High Unemployment

But security is only one of the variables for development and, in the case of Caraga, is no assurance for development. As investors continue to favor other regions, employment generation has been sluggish, and exports have been low with the exception of mineral commodities.

Neda’s Conchingco told Newsbreak that, for the entire region, there are only about 25 big business establishments employing 10 or more persons. The Regional Development Council has identified and registered with the Philippine Economic Zone Authority at least five economic zones in Caraga but, so far, there have been no interested locators.“There are no takers,” says Caraga trade and industry regional director Brielgo Pagaran.

Based on 2007 data, of the four major provinces, Agusan del Norte and Surigao del Norte hold the biggest share of investments. However, at the same time, these two provinces registered the biggest decrease in investment generation. In all, there was a 14.8-percent shrinkage in investment, mirrored by a decline in new businesses registered from 5,151 in 2006 to 3,446 in 2007.

The low investment easily translates to low employment figures in the formal sector—that is, those with regular pay. As of January 2008, Caraga had a high employment rate of 95.4 percent, but the figures could be misleading as almost one-fourth of the labor force are underemployed.

Regional director for labor Chona Mantilla says that more than half of Caraga’s labor force is in the informal sector—those who are self-employed or entrepreneurs. “Caraga is still basically an agri-business region,” she noted.

Mismatched Jobs, Skills

Mantilla says the resurgence of mining has perked up employment. In Surigao del Norte, for instance, the center of mining in the region, the industry has created 5,000 jobs, says the province’s planning and development office chief Arturo Cruje.

But Pagaran does not share this rosy view. “Mining is not labor-intensive and the trickle-down effect to employment generation is minimal,” he argues.

Also troubling is the disconnect between labor demand and supply. Residents could not take advantage of the high-paying employment opportunities in mining because of a shortage of skills. “The skills do not match the demand,” Conchingco says.

For instance, the Platinum Groups Metals Corp. operating in Surigao del Norte has announced vacancies for senior mechanics, auto-electricians, licensed civil engineers, communication and development and education officers. But then, non-Caraga residents usually fill up such vacancies, Pagaran says.

The skills mismatch is not confined to technical jobs. Call centers have launched job fairs but could not find right candidates for the job openings, Cochingco says.

Mantilla says they are aware of the skills mismatch and the regional labor office has initiated tie-ups with local colleges and universities and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority to address the situation. Schools are now offering tourism courses and are encouraged to offer technical and vocational courses to meet the expected labor demand in local tourism and mining. With the lack of employment opportunities, there is also little migration from other regions, which may be good in a way, as the limited resources of local government units are not spread thinly.

Infrastructure Problems

One major factor for the lukewarm investment interest in Caraga that emerged in our interviews was the lack of infrastructure and an efficient logistics system. Interested businessmen we interviewed also cited inadequate infrastructure as a major turn-off.

There are major public works projects, for sure, such as the completed P2.1-billion Diosdado Macapagal Bridge in Butuan City, the P100-million Dinagat Island road, and the P6.3-billion Surigao-Davao Coastal Road that would connect the the two Surigao provinces to Region 11.

But within the region, provinces are still isolated from one other and from neighboring regions, hampering economic integration. For instance, no major road network connects Agusan del Norte and Agusan del Sur to Surigao del Sur. There is also no major road network connecting the two provinces of Agusan to neighboring Bukidnon.

A former member of the Regional Development Council (RDC) told Newsbreak that a proposal to link the Agusan provinces to Surigao del Sur was rejected by local officials there, fearing it could affect the port business in Surigao del Sur (Caraga has two major ports: Nasipit and Surigao). They felt that traders might transport their cargo to Nasipit port in Butuan, which is geographically nearer to Cebu and other provinces in the Visayas.

Protectionist LGUs

“Local officials have yet to shed their protectionist notion. They don’t realize that the purpose of the road network is to interconnect the provinces. We are connected in a roundabout way,” the former RDC official said.

Aside from major road networks, the region also lacks farm-to-market roads, hampering the agri-business industry. Regional director for agriculture Ricardo Regis says this is being addressed.

The underdeveloped transport infrastructure, says Pagaran, slows down the development of Caraga’s agro-business sector, which is concentrated in Agusan del Norte and Agusan del Sur. The two provinces of Agusan have the largest farmlands and forest areas, accounting for the bulk of the region’s agricultural and forest products. (In the RDP plan for Caraga, Surigao del Norte has been identified as the center for mining, tourism, and agri-fishery and Surigao del Sur for mining and agri-forestry.)

A draft economic situationer for Caraga obtained by Newsbreak also identified the lack of transport infrastructure as one major dampener on Caraga’s tourism prospects. “What drives away tourists… is not the peace and order condition. The lack of road networks and facilities tops the list of factors why the region cannot get the big pie of [the tourism] market,” the report said.

Second Nature

Given its limitations and challenges on human resources and its shaky economic fundamentals, what is the prospect for Caraga of transforming into a “super-region” and a major contributor in the country’s economic growth?

The answer is tentative, even doubtful, despite the promise of mining.

Caraga was among the first regions to reembrace large-scale mining. It was as if it had rediscovered the antidote to poverty.

Historically, mining is second nature to Caraga. “People here are very open to mining. Mining has been good to them. They know the economic benefits brought by mining,” said engineer Leonel Santos, the RDC private sector representative.

To be sure, there are those opposed to mining operations but the objections are largely muted. Catholic bishops there, for instance, adopt a less critical view compared with their colleagues in other regions. One bishop was quoted to have said, “If we don’t allow mining, what alternative can you offer to the people?”

In the 1960s and the 1970s, mining, both large-scale and small-scale, was a major source of employment and income for the residents. People recall the time when the Nonoc nickel mining stopped operations in the 1980s, rendering thousands jobless. “Surigao City was like a ghost town,” one resident recalled.

Decline in Investments

Thus, when the SC gave the go-signal to mining, it was like infusing new blood to a dying region. Caraga boasts of US$2 billion worth of gold deposits, and has huge deposits of nickel and chromium ores. Half of Mindanao’s mineral deposits is believed to be in Caraga.

In Surigao del Norte alone, it is estimated that 25,000 new jobs from related sectors like tourism and services were generated by the mining boom, says Cruje. Another positive note is the fact that mining companies are required under the law to apportion at least 1 percent of their operational cost for community-related project and services, Cruje adds.

There is a mirage, however, in the luster of mining. Underneath is a symptom of weak economic fundamentals.

The decline in investments, for instance, shows that Caraga’s economy is heavily reliant on mining and betrays the disparity in the economic performances of the Caraga provinces. It could be argued that mining largely triggered the 6 percent GRDP growth of Caraga in 2006, as other traditional sectors like employment, agriculture, forestry, and fisheries suffered a decline in growth.

In the entire region, income and local taxes generated have broken the P2-billion mark for 2007, mainly because of mining operations. But growth appears to be heavily concentrated in Surigao del Norte, due to the fact that 13 of the 15 the mining companies are found there, with more expected to participate.

Abandoned Dev’t Plan

With the promise of mining, development planners and local government officials are now looking to join the bandwagon and set aside other development programs that are more sustainable, Pagaran warns. One indication of this is the increasing number of exploration permits and mineral-production sharing agreements in the region.

Pagaran recalls that shortly after Caraga was formed, its regional development plan was centered on tapping its agro-business productivity and forestry potential through a sustainable program. Caraga has 800,000 hectares of forest area and 600,000 of potential agricultural lands. “It was estimated that we will generate P200 billion in GDRP, to include the value-added output if we process the products,” Pagaran says.

However, due to some constraints, the ambitious plan was abandoned, Pagaran says. “Unlike mining, which is exhaustible, that RDP was sustainable.”

One area aside from mining where Caraga has a huge potential is palm oil production. The region owns 53 percent of the total palm area in the country. There are two processing plants in Agusan del Norte and Agusan del Sur. The increasing worldwide demand for palm has encouraged more oil palm growers. The regions aims to increase its palm oil plantation from 13,000 hectares to 85,000 hectares in 10 years.

In the mad scramble for mining and with the instant gratification it brings to local income, local government units have not mapped out a long-term development program. Pagaran notes. “Although they say the mining industry will last 25 to 50 years, what happens next once the minerals are already exhausted? Our local officials should look beyond that.”

Blessing in Disguise

Of immediate concern is that right local taxes should be imposed and collected from the mining companies and strict monitoring of environmental regulations, Conchingco and Pagaran say. Conchingco says mining should be pursued without sacrificing the environment. For now, environmental degradation and disasters have spared the region. The only instance of a mining disaster occurred in the 1970s in Placer, Surigao del Norte, when a dike for mine tailings from the operations of Manila Mining Corp. collapsed and spilled tailings into the river.

Pagaran says Caraga has not fully benefited from all the supposed economic benefits brought by mining. As it is, the trickle-down effect, especially in employment, is limited since companies merely transport the minerals to other countries for processing. “It would be better if these companies put up processing plants here so more could be employed.”

Others, however, prefer to look at the bright side. Cruje says the entry of mining, if properly managed, could boost tourism. “It is just a matter of balancing environmental concerns and mining.”

The one major obstacle for mining from going full-blast in the region is the tenurial issue raised by indigenous peoples. Caraga is home to five major IPs, and Conchingco says ancestral claims by the IPs have stalled some large-scale undertakings. The tenurial issue has also hampered the development of lands suitable for industrial and agricultural production because of ancestral domain claims.

From another viewpoint, such an obstacle may be a blessing in disguise. With mining, Caraga may be holding on to an empty promise.

source: http://newsbreak.com.ph/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5886&Itemid=88889377

Tuna in Transition

100roses — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 08:04:25 +0000

Written by Edwin G. Espejo in General Santos City

Monday, 16 February 2009

Troubles in the global economy catch up with Soccsksargen’s main industry

Once considered a backdoor entrance to the Cotabato region, General Santos City has risen to become one of the key cities in Mindanao. In many respects, it has outpaced its peers. And when one thinks about General Santos—or the neighboring province of Sarangani for that matter—tuna comes to mind.

The tuna industry has been responsible for the vibrancy of Soccsksargen’s economy.

The country produces over 400,000 metric tons of fresh, canned, and processed tuna every year, generating more than US$280 million in annual export revenues. It accounts for 4 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product.

General Santos City annually produces 100 to 200 metric tons of fresh yellow fin tuna, which are exported to Japan, the United States, and Europe. The industry directly and indirectly employs 120,000 workers.

But these figures belie the gloomy outlook of the industry.

Recent developments in the world economy have caught up with the business of catching, storing, and canning tuna. They threaten the growth of not only General Santos, but of the neighboring provinces as well.

The tuna industry, which is export-oriented, has naturally fallen prey to the surging costs of fuel. Worse, the waters in which fishermen can catch tuna have become limited, considerably decreasing the industry’s output. Stiffer competition from countries that are also in the business of catching, canning, and exporting tuna has not helped either.

The industry is not yet in panic mode, but it is raising the alarm due to rising fuel costs. “We are raising this alarm because the volume of landed catch has dramatically declined in the first semester of this year,” said South Cotabato Boat Owner and Tuna Association president Domingo Teng.

Fuel costs alone eat up 45 to 75 percent of the production overhead, depending on the engine, size, and make of the ship, according to Jerry Damalerio of Damalerio Fishing.

Richie Rich Tan, vice president for operations of San Andres Fishing Industries Inc. (SAFI), said that their company consumed about 600,000 liters of diesel and gasoline products per month before the fuel crisis. SAFI owns several of the more than 70 registered large purse seine ships, which have over 100 service boats among them. (There are also a number of small- and medium-sized purse seine owners that account for 750 more fishing vessels. These numbers exclude the tuna handline fishing vessels, which number close to 4,000.)

Many vessels have been grounded, further reducing the amount of fish caught.

Even as oil prices have recently gone below $100 per barrel, tuna industry stalwarts have proposed a number of measures aimed at mitigating the negative effects of the sharp increases in the price of fuel commodities. For one, big tuna producers and small fisherfolk here are asking the government to extend a P5-per-liter discount on petroleum products to keep the tuna industry from collapsing.

The volume of catch from January to June has dropped by 34 percent, year-on-year. The output for 2007 also paled in comparison to the year before that. Industry players pointed to the increase in global temperatures as the culprit for the decline in 2007.

If tuna producers are granted a discount of P5 per liter on fuel products, the industry could save as much as P1.2 billion in operating costs in one year.

The tuna producers are also looking into directly importing and supplying the fuel needs of the vessels, according to some industry insiders. However, some oil companies have shot down the idea. Officers of an oil company operating in General Santos said that while they welcome the move to allow tuna producers to import their own fuel requirements, they doubt if it will be viable from the standpoint of business.

In a deregulated environment such as ours, the tuna producers’ idea is possible. There is a downside, however: the tuna industry “will have to put up their own depot facilities and distribution network,” said a marketing official of a big oil company, who requested anonymity due to lack of authority to speak on behalf of the company and the oil industry.

The same marketing official said that if tuna producers are allowed to import fuel, they should be made to also pay the corresponding taxes and import duties that all oil companies are paying the government. The same market forces that govern oil companies should govern tuna producers as well.

Oil companies are understandably threatened. They stand to lose a major share of the market if producers can independently import their fuel requirements. Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) director Malcolm Sarmiento said that the tuna industry consumes between 18 and 20 million liters of petroleum products a month, making it the single largest consumer of fuel products in the whole of Soccsksargen region.

But there’s a flipside to the issue of rising fuel costs. Japan, another major player in the tuna market, recently announced the suspension of its tuna fishing operations. As of August 1, all its 233 member vessels have suspended operations.

Masahiro Ishikawa, president of Japan Tuna Fisheries Cooperative Association (Tuna Japan), said that they “cannot make profit at all from fishing operations because of the prohibitively high fuel prices.” The suspension will run from two months to two years, according to Infofish Trade News.

The Japanese decision drove up the prices of Philippine yellow fin tuna to record levels this year. Local landed price of sashimi-grade yellow fin tuna reached P350 per kilo at the General Santos City Fish Port complex immediately after Japan made the announcement. In lean months, yellow fin tuna goes for as high as P250 per kilo (usually during the months of July to early November); when in abundance, it can go for as low as P180.

This rise in prices may help the local industry temporarily, but many players are saying that not all stakeholders can take advantage of the increase because of the prohibitive price of fuel. So far, many local fishermen have had to stay at home, severely affecting the livelihood of some 50,000 residents in General Santos who are dependent on the tuna industry.

The shortage in fisherfolk catching and hauling tuna has left some companies without tuna to can. Canneries, such as Philbest, have resorted into importing frozen tuna to keep up with its export supply contracts in the US and Europe.

The problem of not being able to catch and haul tuna is not exclusive to the small fisherfolk. For big operators, the high cost of fuel simply means that their ships cannot sail into the high seas. “Fewer vessels going out to the high seas means less catch,” Teng said. These ships have to sail far in order to catch the tuna in their natural migratory avenues.

But going out to the high seas isn’t as simple as it used to be. Before 2006, Filipino companies or small fisherfolk were able to venture into the overlapping exclusive economic zones (EEZ) of Indonesia and the Philippines in the Sulawesi Sea.

Today, that is no longer the case. Since the expiration of the bilateral agreement between the two countries, the Philippine government has been having problems in setting up an arrangement with Indonesia. The termination of the agreement has been blamed as one of the causes of declining tuna catch landed at the General Santos City Fish Port complex.

It appears that it is not only with the Spratly Islands that the government has to concern itself when it comes to the delineation of the national baseline and the EEZ. Tuna fishing fleet operators are asking the Philippine government to immediately delineate the country’s territorial waters to protect fishermen from being apprehended in traditional fishing grounds, which they share with neighboring countries in Southeast Asia. “We have a deadline to meet on May 9 next year to define our territorial waters,” Teng said.

Not only that, there appears to have been a mix-up in the payment of membership dues to the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC). Teng said the Philippines had been prevented from fully participating in policy discussions due to its failure to pay its annual dues.

This, however, has been remedied by the government. Agriculture Undersecretary Jesus Emmanuel Paras said the Department of Agriculture, through the BFAR, has assumed the payment of required WCPFC fees, which the government reportedly thought should be covered by the private sector.

The WCPFC has both binding and nonbinding powers over its 26 member countries and eight participating territories in the Western and Central Pacific Region. The governing body defines regulations in managing international fishing grounds in the region.

Among the measures adopted by the commission was the identification and subsequent authorization of fishing vessels operating in the area. The Philippines is also committed, under another WCPFC measure, to the conservation and management of big eye and yellow fin tuna in the Central and Western Pacific Region.

Paras said that despite the many problems that the tuna industry has to deal with, the government is confident it will weather the storm. “There is reason to remain bullish on the future of the tuna industry.”

The story isn’t that bad when compared to other major tuna-exporting countries such as Thailand, where canneries have started to close shop. So far, this hasn’t happened in the Philippines.

He said the Arroyo government has been addressing the clamor for wider access to more fishing grounds for the country’s tuna fishermen and purse seine operators.

“Our government has recently signed a bilateral fishing agreement with Timor Leste,” he told some 250 delegates attending the annual tuna conference.

According to him, efforts to forge similar arrangements with the governments of Palau, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Marshall Islands, and Kiribati are ongoing. More immediately, measures that will address high fuel costs have to be in place if our tuna industry has to sail again toward distant seas.

source: http://newsbreak.com.ph/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5853&Itemid=88889377

The Price of Progress

100roses — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 08:01:21 +0000

“It’s an irony that we have gold in the province, yet the local government is not getting any of the revenues from mining,” said Uy, who has been in public office for the last nine years. The province is literally sitting on a pot of gold and yet the people here remain poor. Compostela Valley and Davao Oriental, the sites of some of the world’s biggest deposits of gold and nickel, have the highest incidence of poverty in the region.

The Price of Progress

Written by Germelina A. Lacorte in Davao City

Monday, 02 February 2009

In the last three years that the Davao Region surpassed its economic targets, the number of poor people increased. Where did it go wrong?

Get hired before August 8 and get a P10,000 signing bonus,” declares a streamer posted by Concentrix, a call-center company at Damosa Park along Bajada in Davao City. Two blocks away, construction workers work doubletime on the new Robinson’s Cybergate, a mall that will feature a 5,000-square-meter IT park on its second floor once it’s finished early next year. Farther down the road, just a stone’s throw away from the city’s Victoria Plaza mall, heavy equipment is laying the foundations on the marshy ground for the development of a sprawling Ayala Center mall and IT Park.

“There’s no stopping BPOs in Davao City,” says Lizabel Holganza, chair of the Davao ICT Council. From only one call center in 2003, nine are already operating here and more are coming. “They’re very bullish. BPO investors believe Davao can deliver.”

In the Davao region’s medium-term regional development plan, ICT has been among the four leading industries targeted to spur economic activities in the region that, according to NEDA, aspires to become the country’s most livable by 2010.

Of the 10,000 ICT jobs targeted in the region for the period, close to 4,000 have materialized, most of them in Davao City, the anchor of the region’s ICT program and part of the fast emerging cyber-service corridor running from Luzon to Mindanao that will eventually serve as the country’s call center backbone.

Davao City is considered the hub of the region that includes seven cities and the provinces of Davao del Sur, Davao Oriental, Davao del Norte, and Compostela Valley.

Since Asiaweek cited it among Asia’s most livable in 1997, Davao City’s reputation stuck. Businesses coming here expect quality of life on top of the usual amenities of an urban center.

The entire region wants to follow suit. But how to turn a region, where 31 percent of the people live below the poverty line, into the country’s most livable?

Regional planners aim to reduce poverty to only 20 percent by 2010, banking on four leading industries that they believe can create more jobs: agriculture, ecotourism, mining, and ICT.

Consumer-Driven

Holganza said the vast local pool of untapped English-speaking talents continues to attract call center firms to Davao City.

The Asian Institute of Management (AIM) has consistently cited the city as the place where the cost of doing business is lower than other parts of the country. Salary rates for call center agents in Davao are also much lower than those in Metro Manila.

Robinsons and the Ayala Center are only two of the latest property development projects seeking local government incentives this year, according to Roberto Teo, head of the Davao City Investment Promotion Center (DCIPC).

Most of these investments, however, are consumer-driven, said Nicanor Agustin, NEDA regional director. The region needs to attract more investments in industries.

The Davao region posted P57.8 billion in total gross regional domestic product (GRDP) last year, contributing 4.5 percent to the country’s GDP.

Turning to Mining

This growth has been fueled mainly by services. The sluggish and erratic growth of agriculture has forced regional planners to turn increasingly to mining for better growth prospects.

A flurry of activities in mining pushed the region’s growth last year, exceeding medium term targets.

Extracting mainly gold, mining posted a growth of 9.6 percent from a negative 20.6 percent in 2006, boosting the growth of the Davao region to 6.7 percent from only 4.3 per cent in 2006. This growth rate exceeded the average six-year target of 5.7 percent in the regional development plan.

Growth in services, which make up 42 percent of the region’s GRDP, was pegged at 5.9 percent, a slight drop from the 6.4 percent in 2006 because of a slowdown in trade, real estate, and government services.

Agriculture, which makes up 28 percent of the gross regional domestic product, posted the highest growth of 7.2 percent in 2004, but plunged to only 2.6 percent in 2005, moving slightly up to 3.1 percent in 2006 before dipping down again to 2.1 percent last year.

Northern Mindanao, which posted a 7.9 percent growth last year, has overtaken Davao for the first time, according to Dr. Edmundo Prantilla, an economics lecturer at the University of Southeastern Philippines (USEP). “That region has a lot of the flourishing industries that we don’t have,” Agustin added.

Prantilla noted that while Davao has always been considered Mindanao’s top performing region, its continued reliance on agriculture has slowed it down, compared to the vibrant manufacturing industries of Northern Mindanao. He said Davao should use the latest technology to boost agricultural production which seems to have reached a plateau.

Biggest Asset

On the other hand, Agustin sees mining as the last hope for the Davao region to boost its economy. “There seems to be no way to get out of the rut except through mining. If mining can soar, the performance of the region will be Number One in the Philippines. Now we’re Number Six but we can easily slide down to Number Seven.”

He said, however, that the region should encourage only “responsible” mining, which means that only big companies who can afford to “take care of the environment” should be allowed to operate. He said that environmental costs will be very prohibitive for small miners, who make up a large number of those engaged in mining in the provinces.

Eighty-eight kilometers north of Davao City, in Nabunturan town, an 18-karat gold ring, mounted and encased in a glass case, sits conspicuously in the lobby of the Compostela Valley capitol.

Gov. Arturo “Chiongkee” Uy, who could barely hold it in the palm of his hand, launched the 1.5-kilogram gold ring during the March 8 Bulawan Festival, on the 10th founding year of the gold-rich province. It was the biggest gold ring in the country, a symbol of the province’s biggest asset, which is its huge gold deposits, according to Uy.

The first-term governor wants to transform his province into a jewelry-making center. But at the moment, the measly revenues the province has been getting from mining have been a cause for dismay.

Region’s Poorest

“It’s an irony that we have gold in the province, yet the local government is not getting any of the revenues from mining,” said Uy, who has been in public office for the last nine years.

The province is literally sitting on a pot of gold and yet the people here remain poor.

Compostela Valley and Davao Oriental, the sites of some of the world’s biggest deposits of gold and nickel, have the highest incidence of poverty in the region.

According to the Mines and GeoSciences Bureau, the Davao region is one of the top five gold regions in the country. MGB estimated the metallic mineral reserves in Davao region to include 44.8 million metric tons of gold, 363.6 million metric tons of copper, mostly concentrated in Compostela Valley, and some 475.7 million metric tons of nickel in Davao Oriental.

Uy is also trying to entice mining investors from China to put up processing plants in Compostela Valley, which also showed some deposits of chromite and silica.

Four large-scale mineral development projects in Davao region could attract foreign direct investments of up to US$1.73 billion and create some 9,500 direct and indirect jobs, with potential annual revenues of US$654 million.

Wary

Small miners coughed out 15 percent of their gross to the Philippine Mining Development Corporation (PMDC), which promptly turned it over to the national treasury in Manila. But the province, which is supposed to share 1 percent of those revenues with the town and the barangay where gold was extracted, has not been getting its share, said Uy.

Compostela Valley is now revising its tax code to extract revenues from mining while lobbying to increase share from existing 1 to 5 percent. He said the province will increase its revenues tenfold if it is able to set up checkpoints in the mountainous mining areas for environment taxes and ore transport permits from miners.

Some local government units in the region, however, are wary about mining. Davao City, for instance, shuns mining outright. Wendel Avisado, the city administrator and executive director of the Davao Integrated Development Plan (DIDP), said the city refused to identify mining among its priority industries despite the gold potentials of some of its areas because it will destroy the environment and affect the quality of life of the people.

“The fact that it is extractive means that it is destructive,” Avisado said. “No amount of responsible mining will prevent it from destroying the environment. In fact, people are often left without any other means of income after the whole mountains are reduced to waste. Mining investors only take advantage of the profit they get, and then run away,” he said.

Easy Money

In Davao Oriental, which has been one of Mindanao’s last frontiers because of its remaining forest cover, Governor Cora Malanyaon said she is not really that hot about mining. “But it is there and it is legal. We can’t do anything to stop it,” she told Newsbreak.

Environment activists have opposed mining in Mati’s barangay Macambol, for instance, because it will threaten two protected areas, nearby: Mt. Hamiguitan and Pujada Bay. Activists said the jobs brought about by mining could not compensate for the communities that will be displaced and villagers who will lose their capacity to produce their own crops.

Uy said Compostela Valley has always been a “mining town,” where mining could be an easy way out to create jobs because there are still enough lands for food production. “We haven’t come to a point yet where we need to choose one over the other. There are still lots of space to expand.”

“We sit on a mining belt,” echoed Avisado, “So, for those who want easy money, they can go into mining. But there’s always a price to pay for it. This activity will definitely destroy the environment. You can’t see it now, but the generations to come will suffer from the greed of our own generation.”

“I’ve been telling people to discard the getrich-quick mentality,” Malanyaon said. “We have land, as our greatest resource, and so, let us focus more on agriculture, planting food that we need and crops that have ready markets.”

Agri for Growth

The Davao Region, however, is still dependent on agriculture. Of the eight industry clusters identified to spur growth in the region, five of them are agriculture (and aquaculture) crops: bananas, wood, mangoes, coconuts, and seaweed.

Fresh bananas, pineapples, coconuts, and their by-products make up the bulk of exports in the region, so that, in the industry cluster plan, the region still expects much from banana and the wood industries to provide most of the jobs.

In fact, jobs expected from the ICT sector is minuscule compared to close to 300,000 jobs targeted to be created by the banana and wood sectors by 2010.

Of the 150,000 jobs expected from the banana industry, only 27,000 were actually delivered. The region, however, is offering some 18,389 proposed expansion areas for more banana plantations.

As the region’s chief export, the banana industry is looking to attract P1.1 billion worth of investments and to rake in $4.5 billion worth of exports by the end of the medium term. But like the wood sector, which is still reeling from the effects of the total log ban, it has failed to deliver the expected jobs.

LGUs Remiss

Agriculture has remained in a slump and failed to kick off because of built-in weaknesses that remain unaddressed. Businesses continue to gripe about high freight rates and other problems, which continue to dampen interest in agricultural exports and agro-processing in the region.

Local businessmen blame this on the Cabotage Law, which prohibits vessels from transporting cargo between two domestic ports other than those designated international ports.

But aside from that, Agustin said, the local government has also failed to lead the way. He said it’s not enough to identify investment priority areas and offer local incentives. The government should also put up infrastructure and support facilities.

One of the concerns that have dampened agricultural exports is the lack of a food storage terminal that could extend the shelf life of agricultural goods before they are shipped to markets. “As much as 50 percent of fresh farm produce rot along the wayside, which could have been prevented if we had a food terminal,” said Agustin.

Its nearness to big international ports and air cargo services would have made Davao City ideal for this facility. The city has, in fact, identified a 16-hectare site in Toril but failed to promote the idea to possible private investors, so that the identified site lay untapped for years.

Tagum’s Initiative

Now Tagum City is putting up its own food terminal, through a loan facility it could get easily, either from the Land Bank or the Development Bank of the Philippines. The food terminal facility will feature not only a refrigerated storage area, where fresh farm produce can be stored while waiting to be shipped outside, but also a food exchange facility (where to market some of these goods) and a research and development laboratory for product upgrading.

But on top of these, agro processing and more value-added to the region’s agriculture exports should be encouraged, said Virgilio Leyretana, chair of the Mindanao Economic Development Council (Medco). “We should stop thinking of ourselves as a mere food bowl,” he said, referring not only to the Davao region but also to the whole of Mindanao.

Regional planners believe that by increasing growth in the economy, in industries that will create jobs, they will automatically improve the quality of life and reduce poverty in the region. This did not prove to be true.

The region exceeded its economic target in the last three years but the number of poor people in the region also increased. Estimates of the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) pegged a million more poor people in the region in 2006 compared to those in 2003.

Didn’t Trickle Down

Even the NSCB itself conceded that the figures imply that government’s poverty alleviation efforts failed to reach the poor.

Latest NSCB estimates show that a family of five in the Davao region needed at least P6,290 to meet their basic needs in 2007. A sole wage earner in the region needs to earn P207 a day to bring his or her entire family above the poverty line.

Although daily minimum wage in the region increased to P230 for agricultural workers and P240 for non-agricultural workers, these existing workers’ wages are only slightly above the survival level of families.

“This could only mean that the income stayed at the level of the industry and did not really trickle down to benefit the families,” explained Agustin.

Of the 745,995 jobs targeted within the six-year period, only 104,000 jobs have been created so far.

Mining is looking to attract 30,000 jobs, but so far only 4,548 mining jobs have been created in the Davao region.

Pollution Feared

NEDA’s midterm assessment report also pointed out other threats to the environment that could affect the region’s quality of life.

Although air quality in the cities is still generally good, there’s a prevailing fear that the coming of new industries will increase pollution. Even the coastal waters in the Davao Gulf have already shown signs of strain.

In 2002, there were 228 industries in the region classified as hazardous. Of the 315 firms in the region that could pollute the water, only 230 had water pollution control devices, while 85 firms that did not have them were still allowed to do business.

Timber cutting, on the other hand, has been rapidly destroying forests at alarming levels and the diminishing forests have been blamed for the increasing poverty in the uplands. Malanyaon said the lifting of the total log ban in her province also made it very difficult for authorities to apprehend illegal loggers.

Although Hedcor’s hydropower plant in Santa Cruz, Davao del Sur, registered one of the biggest single investments in 2005, some sectors raise the possibility that it might dry up one of the city’s main water sources, the Panigan River.

Other indicators, such as the rising infant and maternal mortality, the declining cohort survival rate in the region’s elementary education, and access to potable water to at least a third of the region’s barangays also point to the fact that the bustling Davao region, despite all its potentials for growth, still has so much work to do before it can rightly become the country’s most livable region.

source: http://newsbreak.com.ph/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5834&Itemid=88889377

It’s Time for the Business of Creativity

100roses — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 18:31:37 +0000

Saturday, April 12, 2008

You read and hear often enough about the Pinoy’s “world class” creativity: the jeepney, the Lunar Rover (or Moon Buggy), woodcarvings from Paete. And then there’s the truly world class creative furniture designs of Kenneth Cobonpue.

But “world class” creativity, while a feel good label, counts for next to nothing in a peso driven economy unless it earns money as a viable business. Banal or uncreative as this may sound, this reality leaves creative people and organizations with only two business models to choose from: the heroic but starving artist (unfortunately the dominant model)—or Kenneth Cobonpue.

Cobonpue of Cebu might be the icon of the successful creative person/entrepreneur the fledgling “Creative Industry in the Philippines” earnestly seeks to develop, and whose existence is a major force for growth in economies such as the United Kingdom, Hong Kong and Singapore.

The now world famous Cobonpue manages Interior Crafts of the Island, Inc., a family-owned furniture design and manufacturing company. Among Cobonpue’s more recent awards was the 2005 Design For Asia Award that he won in competition against 500 other entries.

His is a shining success story for Filipino creatives, and is the outstanding Filipino example of world-class design and creativity. “Brangelina” are two of his satisfied customers.

“Creativity or in economics/business terms the act of value-adding and, more importantly, value-creating provides a differentiating factor in the ability of the Philippines or a Philippine company to deliver a product or a service,” said Rhea Matute, Officer-in-Charge, Operations Group 1 for the Center for International Expositions and Missions (CITEM), and who is deeply involved in pushing creativity as a competitive weapon in the export market.

“Most especially, applied creativity de-commoditizes a product or service and elevates it where the creative input or content greatly determine its value. This enables Philippine companies to have a stronger hold on the market and reverses the relationship from a mere supplier to a business partner.”

She noted that for a creative country like the Philippines, there is tremendous potential for Philippine companies to use this creativity to carve out a niche in the global market instead of playing the game through somebody else’s rules.

“Creativity allows us to develop our own strategy, our own game in this globalized economy that maximizes the natural inclination of our human capital for creative expression. Especially in this fast changing world, it is ones ability to adapt, re-invent and capitalize on an opportunity that will spell success.”

Having the creative potential is only the beginning, however. The bigger challenge, she said, is developing the ability to harness creativity and use it in the operations of the company: be it developing products, services or a company’s competitive advantage, and managing creativity to truly reap its full economic benefits.

CITEM is one of the spearheads in advancing the Philippines’ “Creative Economy Agenda” through the Creative Industry Task Force. Its strategic partners in this push are the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and The British Council.

Matute said the Creative Industry Task Force aims to harness the country’s creative talent and knowledge to fuel activity in the whole spectrum of the economy—from manufacturing to services.

“In doing so, the initiative brings the creativity of the Filipino to a new level, recognizing its value as an economic asset that enables differentiation of Philippine products and services in the global market. In the process, we enhance the country’s international image and make our people even prouder of things Filipino.”

With the holding of the “1st Philippine Creative Industry Forum” in 2005, the government tacitly recognized the existence of the Creative Industry as an industry alongside others such as manufacturing and services. Held in September at the CCP, the forum was the first real effort to take a closer look at this nascent but vital industry. “Nurturing Creativity” was the conference theme.

The three-day event brought together representatives from countries that acknowledge the existence of, and benefit economically from, their creative industries with those from government and business. The speeches showed the wide gap between the Philippines and countries with recognized creative industries.

While foreign guests talked from experience and cited upbeat economic data to bolster their case for developing a creative industry, Filipinos outlined plans for nurturing a creative industry, and were in agreement that bold action must now be taken by the government to grow the vital industry.

Young or unborn?
CCP president Nestor Jardin said the creative industry “has been outpacing and outgrowing the rest of the industries in percentage growth” in the United Kingdom, the USA, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam. He cited Australia whose creative industry contributed “a staggering 13% to the GDP,” well above the Asian norm of about 5%.

He described the Philippines’ creative industry as “a young or perhaps an unborn sector of the Philippine economy.” He said the creative industry could be classified to include the Performing Arts; Visual Arts; Literature and Publishing; Architecture, Crafts and Design; Audiovisual and New Media; Cultural Heritage and Cultural Activities.

What defines the creative industry as a unique sector of the economy, he said, is that its collective outputs are products of human creativity “and because they are such, they are products with intellectual property rights.”

Jardin said an important challenge that must be surmounted is to formulate a workable national creative industry plan that will identify the gaps and propose policies, strategies and policy reforms and programs that would help develop and promote the creative industry.

He acknowledged, however, that the most important and most challenging problem is how to convince government leaders that the creative industry needs attention.

“In simple terms, we’re all ‘KSP’ or ‘Kulang sa pansin (unnoticed)’,” he said. “I’m tired of trying to convince them that arts and culture should be given more support because they are vital to the establishment of a national cultural consciousness that will define our cultural identity.

“Try explaining this to a DBM officer and halfway through your passionate dissertation, the official becomes fidgety and you begin to feel that you’re speaking to him in the Swahili language.”

Jardin, however, recognizes that economics is the language the government understands, and that the pioneering work of the United Kingdom in quantifying the economic impact of creativity has inspired creative industries everywhere to amass the economic data needed for investment and growth.

The UK: Creative Industry Leader
British Ambassador Peter Beckingham said that the United Kingdom today ‘boasts an economy based substantially on creativity.”

After four years of mapping or determining the extent of its creative industry, the UK found out this industry, surprisingly, had an economic value of P10.5 trillion (112 billion pounds sterling) and accounted for more than 5% of the UK’s GDP. Its exports were valued at P1.03 trillion.

“Perhaps the most significant figure of all,” said the Ambassador, “the rate of growth in these creative industries was more than twice that of the economy as a whole.”

He noted that one of the most interesting things about the creative industry is that they mostly tend to be small businesses. They also tend to want to come together “because they recognize they can feed off each other.”

The UK came to realize the immense value contributed by the creative industry because one man wanted to know what the creative sector was worth. In 1997, Chris Smith, then the new secretary of state for culture, wanted this information but was stymied because no statistics existed.

He went to work to answer this question, gathering government and business leaders and creating a task force to manage this complex undertaking. The data obtained by 2001 “surprised everybody,” said Beckingham.

Along the way, they crafted a definition of the creative industry that has come to be accepted almost universally: “Creative industries are those industries that have their origin in human creativity, skill and talent and that have a potential for wealth and job creation through the generation and exploitation of intellectual property.”

The data obtained two years later was more surprising because it showed creative industries accounting for 8.2% of gross value added in 2002, and had grown 8% from 1997 to 2000.

The UK had 122,000 creative businesses in 2002 that employed 1.9 million persons. Employment in creative industries grew by 3% annually compared to 1% for the entire British economy. And more telling was a report that creative industries are now more important to London’s economy than financial services, hardly surprising considering London’s eminent position as a center for culture and creativity.

The British define their creative industry as including advertising, architecture, art and antiques, markets, crafts, design, designer fashion, film and video, interactive leisure software, music, performing arts, publishing, software and computer services and radio.

The British realized, as the Philippines soon will, that the development of creative industries is a process that involves the government, government agencies, economists and the creative and cultural sector.

Mapping for success
They also discovered that “mapping” or providing the economic data that shows the current value of the creative economy, is absolutely vital to growing this industry. Although a complex task, mapping exposes the economic impact of creative industries and reveals the economic loss of not providing adequate protection for intellectual property rights.

Mapping has taken place throughout the UK for the past decade. It has given British cities and regions economic evidence of what the creative sector contributes and an understanding of its potential.

In 2001 also, the British decided to share their experience with creative industries with the rest of the world through a program called “Developing Creative Economies.” Six countries—including the Philippines as the final pilot—are involved in this program that also allows each country to develop its creative economy in a way that reflects its culture.
Each program is to run for five years.

The Philippines is now busy sourcing funds for the mapping project, said Matute. It is tapping the private industry to provide the bulk of this funding.

Hong Kong’s creative industry consists of 11 sectors and has been mapped, according to Prof. David Hui, director of the Center for Policy Research at the University of Hong Kong and a speaker at the forum.

Mapping showed that in 2001, Hong Kong’s creative industry contributed 3.8% of total GDP and had a value of P287.8 billion (HK$46 billion).

“We compared it to the other studies that were carried out by other countries and we found out that it’s actually close to our region like New Zealand, Australia and Singapore from the region of 2.8 to 5%,” he pointed out.

He said that, like the UK, Hong Kong discovered that creative industries grew faster than the general economy. Knowing the ups and downs of the industry, which mapping uncovers, allows Hong Kong to put in place policies that reduce the downs and enhance the ups.

Singapore’s creative strategies
Singapore in 2003 adopted the “Creative Industries Development Strategy” whose aim is to double the GDP contribution of creative industries from 3% to 6% by 2012. This three-pronged approach adopted the UK’s definition of a creative industry.

Baey Yam Keng, director, Creative Industries Singapore, said the first part of the strategy focuses on the arts, the second on design and the third on media.

The arts strategy seeks to integrate arts and culture development into Singapore’s economy, thereby unleashing the potential of Singapore’s creative cluster.

“We need to continue to invest in talent, content and infrastructure for the arts, and adopt a cluster development strategy,” he said.

The design strategy aims to develop excellence in design as a key driver in national competitiveness. The Design Singapore Council works very closely with schools and students “to cultivate the precision of design and include design as a creative learning tool in the curriculum in schools,” said Yam Keng.

Singapore’s media strategy hopes to develop Singapore into a global media city. One of the initiatives that advance this strategy is the “Asia Media Festival” that drew over 300,000 participants in 2004. This “Made by Singapore” approach also extends to producing content for new media and gaming

Most important, said Yam Keng, is that Singapore “must create the environment that allows such creativity to happen but also to uphold Asian values.”

Design – made in Holland
There are 46,100 designers in The Netherlands. Together they contribute P166.9 billion (2.6 billion Euros) to the Dutch economy – in other words, 0.7% percent of The Netherlands’ GNP. In fact, the design industry accounts for a larger share of the economy than the Dutch oil industry or traditional sectors such as shipbuilding.

The figures quoted above stem from two studies carried out by Statistics Netherlands (CBS) and the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) for the Premsela Foundation (which represents the Dutch design sector) and the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. The purpose of the studies was to investigate the economic significance of design.

Subsectors
Almost 60% of all Dutch designers work in visual communication, a subsector of the design industry. That 60% is made up of 27,400 commercial artists, window dressers, ornamental painters, graphic designers, illustrators, quick-draw artists and advertising designers.

One out of three designers (13,900 persons) works in product design. This category consists of industrial designers, fashion designers, goldsmiths and silversmiths. It also includes flower arrangers, because their design skills also add value to a product. The third subsector, environmental design, accounts for 10% of all Dutch designers.

It is represented by 4,800 interior architects, garden designers and landscape architects. In summary: 59.4% of Dutch design professionals are involved in communication design, 30.2% in product design and 10.4% in environmental design. All in all, the number of people working in design is comparable to the number working in the insurance and pension industry (53,000 persons).

Design specialists
Seventy-two percent of all designers work in the service sector, 20% in industry and 8% in the non-profit sector. TNO’s report also distinguishes between different corporate categories.

The first category consists of the “design specialists”, which employ 16,900 designers or well over a third of the total. The design specialist sector is made up of companies such as advertising agencies and interior and fashion design houses, whose core activity is design.

Advertising agencies employ 14,000 designers and represent the largest group in the design specialist sector. The sector accounts for 24.5% or EUR 635 million of the EUR 2.6 billion that the Dutch design world contributes to the nation’s economy.

The second category consists of companies that employ a considerable number of designers. The include publishers, furniture manufacturers, service engineers for consumer items, firms of architects, consulting engineers and technical design and drafting firms and consultancies.

These companies employ 21,600 designers. In other words, one out of every two designers works in this category, which represents 35.6% of the design world’s economic value, or EUR 922 million.

Design pays
TNO’s report also concludes that design plays a key role in innovation. Fifty-eight percent of the companies that combine technical and design innovation say that innovation has a major impact on their competitiveness, as compared to only 47% of companies that do not do so. Design is therefore a significant competitive factor.

This is the first major survey of the Dutch design industry. Never before has its economic significance been analyzed in such detail. A follow-up report is scheduled to appear in 2010. Industry representatives have stated that their contribution to the Dutch economy should have increased to EUR 5 billion by then.

Creativity’s value to the EU
Europe has also taken pains to study its creative industries. According to the European Commission, Europe’s cultural sector contributed a staggering P42 trillion (EUR 654 billion) or 2.6% of the EU’s GDP in 2003. In 2004, it employed some 5.8 million persons, which increased to 7.2 million last year and is on the uptrend.

Trends in the last decade show digital culture set to develop vigorously, thanks to the virtuous circle between culture and technology (multimedia, e-commerce, telecommunications). While the sector will act as an important employment booster, challenges involving education and training still need to be faced.

The Philippine: leading with design
As for the Philippines, the bottom line in developing a creative industry “is the creation of jobs and livelihood as a poverty alleviation method,” said Zorayda Alonzo, undersecretary of the Department of Trade and Industry.

“We have to nurture key industries that make up the Philippine creative economy by directing investments, programs and policies towards the development of the infrastructure, both hard and soft, and the environment that can stimulate the growth and international competitiveness of the creative industries,” she said.

She said that a strongly enforced intellectual property rights would protect Filipino creatives and their works.

Alonzo cited the inroads made in Europe by “Movement 8,” a creative alliance and design collective formed in September 99 by the late Eli Pinto Mansor of CITEM , together with design great Budji Layug , featuring Tes Pasola, Milo Naval, Renato Vidal, Carlo Cordaro, Tony Gonzales, Luisa Robinson, Ann Pamintuan and Kenneth Cobonpue.

Movement 8 is a prime example of design leading the successful transition from mere commodity exports to value-creating exports.

By focusing on the design and designer aspect of furniture and home accessories, the market began to appreciate Philippine products, its originality, and elevated the Philippines from just a production center to a developer of original design and original content. The Philippines became integral partners in the business and not just an element in the global supply chain.

The economic value of creative industries lies in the intellectual property it produces. Protecting intellectual property has become extremely important in the “copy and paste” environment facilitated by computers and the Internet. Making sure creatives have proper copyright protection in a digital environment is, therefore, vital if the industry is to profit and grow.

Stricter enforcement of copyright protection laws will immensely benefit the animation industry, which for years has been hyped as a shining example of Filipino creativity and business success. Revenues generated by the animation industry in 2005 rose 25% to $52 million (from $40 million in 2004).

The Animation Council of the Philippines, Inc. (ACPI), a national association of animation industry players and stakeholders, counts 35 member organizations. ACPI is working with the government to increase in the number of animators from the present 6,500 to 25,000 by 2010 to take advantage of vast global opportunities and erase the problems posed by the small number of Filipino animators.

The Philippines is known as a provider of high quality animation in contrast to rivals India and China, which are low cost providers. India’s animation industry generated $285 million in revenues in 2005; China earned $604 million.

Matute described animation as a major creative sector of the Philippines. She noted the Philippines has been a major producer of animation for the North American, European and Japanese markets since the 1980s, with major projects completed for Hanna Barbera, Disney, Warner Bros, Nelvana, Toei Japan and many other internationally recognized producers of animated features worldwide.

She said a sustained, strong track record and a reputation for creativity in animation—and the benefits of English proficiency, a western sense of humor, and varied cultural exposure—make Filipinos the preferred choice for the world’s animation requirements.

She also pointed out that an emerging sector of the IT and IT-enabled industry is game development for the X-box, Play Station and other hardware makers. Anino games recently won an international award in Barcelona, Spain for the technical superiority of a game they developed.

CITEM’s vast experience in exports serves to confirm the immense value of creativity as a competitive advantage, said Matute. She noted that over the past years, from their conversations with foreign investors, Filipino entrepreneurs, manufacturers and exporters, and most especially the SME’s, it became more and more apparent the value that Filipinos bring to the market—the element that differentiates us from our neighbors and other nations in this global environment—is creativity.

“Creativity and spirit of innovation inherent in Filipino workers and professionals are the elements why investors come to the Philippines; why international buyers buy Philippine-made products despite being more expensive than other Asian countries; why there are Philippine engineers, architects, designers and other creative professional being hired from the Philippines and sent abroad to work; why back room operations and other creative work such as animation, software design and development are being outsourced to the Philippines.”

CITEM always emphasizes that its clients nurture this creative potential and always keep in mind the content value, be it product development for home style and living to fashion to food to e-services/BPO/KPO.

Business must play a key role
The Creative Industry, however, belongs to the private sector where the need to generate revenues trumps other considerations such as employment generation. One of the interesting findings revealed by mapping is that most creative businesses are micro-enterprises or small businesses with minimal employment.

Business can foster a culture of creativity by ingraining the quest for innovation and creativity their corporate cultures. This is a must not just in private enterprises, but most especially in the education sector because this is what creativity all boils down to—education.

There also needs to be a major change in the mindset of business and about work. Government and business have to treasure creative industries, understand and appreciate design and be willing to invest into creative people/designers.

“The better one understands the creative worker or what Richard Florida, a recognized expert in the Creative Economy and author of the Rise of the Creative Class, calls the ‘Creative Class,’ then it is more likely that businesses can develop an environment that will value their input, challenge them, have mechanisms for mobilizing resources around ideas and are receptive to both small challenges and the occasional big idea, or what Florida calls the ongoing movement of capital toward more effective mechanisms for harnessing human creativity,” Matute explained.

The challenge for business, therefore, is how to keep stoking and tapping the creative core of each human being. And since the Creative Class blurs the line differentiating work, life and leisure, it even becomes a challenge for communities and cities to develop and nurture the kind of experiences that reflect and reinforce their identities as creative people.

For the creative economy to flourish, however, it must not just depend on technology but on talent and tolerance, as well. Tolerance being defined as openness, and the acceptance of a diverse population and diverse ideas.

Needed: a Creative Industries Coalition
These insights mean that it makes sound business sense to band together Filipino creatives under the premise that their strength lies in unity. Creating a “Creative Industries Coalition” of individuals and organizations, private and government, local and abroad, as proposed by Henry Schumacher would be a giant leap in furthering the growth of the Philippines’ Creative Industry, and supporting the Creative Economy Agenda.

As Schumacher contends, it is necessary to focus on the design sector initially. A design environment be created that would allow design to thrive as a service industry in the Philippines. Initiatives will have to be undertaken to develop the next generation of Filipino creatives.

In this Knowledge Society, it’s a smart move to arm Filipino creatives with the knowledge of what’s out there in the realms of ideas, technology, trends, fashion, materials, methods and financing.

Material ConneXion is a leading knowledge base for information about new and innovative materials. It has libraries of innovative materials and provides information for the packaging, architectural, interior design and the apparel industries, among others.

New technology gives designers and companies’ new tools with which to play the game. It expands the capabilities of manufacturers and service providers, and enhances the delivery of the products and services. Technology must be viewed as a partner of creativity and competitiveness.

A Material ConneXion-type library has to be established in the Philippines for the use of the creative industry, especially those involved in furniture, furnishings and interior design.

These businesses have long been a source of Philippine export strength, especially in Europe, and the many exhibitions built around them such as Manila FAME International continue to be cash cows for the country. The increasing Philippine participation in European trade fairs is another reason for upgrading Filipino creativity.

Over 80 countries and thousands of buyers and guests flocked to the World Trade Center in Pasay City for the October edition of Manila FAME International 2006, which generated revenues of $57.3 million. Among the guests was George Beylerian, President of Material ConneXion, whose seminar was one of the highlights of the trade show. The next FAME will take place this April.

Excellent Philippine design was also visible at the just concluded furniture fairs, the Cebu International Furniture and Furnishings Exhibition or Cebu X 2007, and the Philippine International Furniture Show (PIFS) both held in late February.

The Cebu International Furniture and Furnishings Exhibition or Cebu X 2007 was held for the 18th time this February. Its organizers describe Cebu X as the “Design Destination in Asia” for retailers and wholesalers.

The show introduced world-class products and excellent booth presentations from participating companies from all over the Philippines. Last year, Cebu X took part in Macef 2006 in Milan.

Macef is the world’s leading trade show for those who work in the table, kitchen and silverware, home decoration and textile, celebrations, gift, ceremony and stationery, jewellery and fashion accessories sectors.

PIFS, which exhibited some of the Philippines’ finest furniture, had as its special guest, Gaetano Pesce, an architect-artist-designer based in New York City. In more than 40 years of practice, Pesce has created an extensive body of work recognized for its emotive and tactile qualities, unrestrained use of color and insistence upon innovative building materials developed through new technologies.

It would also make sense to invite international designers to develop a top rate School of Arts and Design in the Philippines funded by the private sector. Creative laboratories will also have to be established. The government of Singapore is heavily involved in advancing that country’s design sector.

Mapping the Philippines’ Creative Industry, of course, is one of the first priority and an absolute necessity. But it still has to happen since funding is practically non-existent.

Jardin said mapping is, clearly, the basic step. “We need to undertake a creative industry mapping that will tell us where we are now, what our strengths and weaknesses are, what success stories we have that we can all learn from, how much we contribute to the GDP and GNP and to national employment,” he said.

Taken together, these initiatives will take the Philippines along the same road traveled by the UK, Singapore and Hong Kong—and will hopefully yield similar positive results.

In this day and age, a country that does not keep building or investing in its creative capital will fall behind in the race to improve its quality of life, said Matute

“And for a country like the Philippines to not recognize and appreciate the great opportunity that we have before us, and to not appreciate the potential that lies inherent in the Filipino, it will be like again losing another opportunity to develop this country to its full potential”.

Components of the Creative Industry in the Philippines*

Performing Arts (Music, Theater, Dance, Performance Art and all their related products and services)
Visual Arts (Painting, Sculpture, Photography, Video Art, Graphic Design, Installation Art and all their related products and services)
Literature and Publishing (Books, Magazines, Newspapers, Periodicals, e-books, Print Advertising and other printed and electronic materials and services)
Architecture, Crafts and Design (Architectural and Landscape Design, Fashion, Accessories, Furniture, Décor and other design products and services)
Audiovisual and New Media (Film, Television, Video, Radio, Entertainment, Software, Internet Activity Sites, Electronic Media Advertising and other products and services)

* As defined by the UNESCO Framework for Cultural Statistics

Asia’s Top Airlines See Filipinos as ‘Significant Market’

100roses — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 17:05:59 +0000

By Cynthia De Castro/Asianjournal.com

April 19, 2008

LOS ANGELES – More and more Filipinos are traveling the world over and this has made them a “significant market” in the global airline industry.

“We recognize the significance of the Filipino market in the airline industry that is why we have daily flights to Manila and Cebu,” declared Tony Tyler, the Chief Executive Officer of Cathay Pacific during the recent LA press conference of Oneworld, the world’s leading quality airline alliance.

The CEO of Japan Airlines, Haruka Nishimatsu, echoed the same sentiment when he stated at the same event in the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Marina del Rey last week that the “Filipino market is very important” and JAL recognizes “the value of Filipinos” in their corporate strategy.

Major increase in international and domestic travels

Recent surveys substantiate the Filipino market’s value in the airline industry. In the second half of 2007 Travel report by MasterCard Worldwide, the Philippines ranked in the top 5 in outbound travel across Asia Pacific. The report anticipated an increase in year-on-year growth in the volume of outbound air travel in the Philippines (5.7 percent), Australia (5.6 percent), Indonesia (5.6 percent), Hong Kong (4.9 percent), and New Zealand (2.1 percent).

But the most recent report by MasterCard (200 has even increased the forecast for the Philippines outbound travel to a 5.9% year-on-year growth, expecting 1.3 million Filipinos traveling outside of the country in the first six months of 2008.

The increase in the number of airborne Filipinos is not just confined to outbound travelers. Recent industry data reveal that the air travel within the Philippines is the third fastest growing market in the world, after India and Mexico. The country’s domestic air travel market grew by 23 percent with almost 10.4 million Filipino travelers in 2007 compared with 8.5 million passengers in 2006.

Hawaiian Airlines now flies to Manila

Noting the considerable growth of the number of Filipinos traveling to and from the Philippines, another international airline has taken a major corporate move targeting the market. A few days ago, Hawaiian Airlines made its first flight to Manila, marking their first route to Asia in their 79-year history. The maiden flight launched the first of four weekly nonstop flights to Manila.

The president of Hawaiian Airlines, Mark Dunkerly, was excited with the company’s new flights to Manila. “ We think there’s going to be a growing economic relationship between the state of Hawaii and the Philippines,” he added.

Filipinos in North America- major market

A considerable number of Filipino air travelers visit North America.

For the US inbound travelers, most of the Filipino visitors go to California. In 2006, of the 154,000 Filipino visitors, 69%, or 105,000 visited California. These Filipinos tended to center their trip itineraries on the major cities of Los Angeles (69%), San Francisco (48%) and Anaheim (11%).

For the US outbound Filipinos, a majority of them travel to visit the Philippines. The Philippine Department of Tourism estimates an average of 1 million balikbayans visit the country every year, most of them coming from the US. And this number continues to increase with 80,000 Filipinos migrating to the US yearly, adding to the current 4 million Filipinos in America.

Another country in North America with a substantial number of Filipino travelers is Canada. Last week, Statistics Canada reported that the country’s “visible minorities” now number more than five million due to the huge influx of Asian immigrants, coming mostly from China and the Philippines.

Cathay Pacific CEO Tony Tyler took note of this highly profitable market stressing that “The Filipino market in our North America routes is specially important to Cathay Pacific”.

Tyler, who admitted that he feels a special attachment to the Philippines having lived there for a time while working in the Cathay Pacific Manila office, said Cathay is enhancing its services to better serve its Filipino passengers, continually offering promotions and special offers to attract and satisfy its market.

“For our Filipino passengers- like our other passengers, we give very, very good rates -from first class to economy. Cheap rates compared to others, “ said Tyler.

More Filipina Flight Attendants

Perhaps another recognition of the Filipinos’ contribution to the airline industry is the move of several airlines to include Filipina flight attendants to their cabin crew.

Haruka Nishimatsu, the CEO of Japan Airlines, highlighted the fact that the JAL Group recognizes the value of Filipinos in their corporate strategy as demonstrated by recent major corporate moves taken by its subsidiary JALways Co. Ltd.

In what Nishimatsu calls a “unique project”, JALways has recently employed 20 Filipina flight attendants and opened a training center in Manila.

JAL Manager for Public Relations, Stephen Pearlman, reported why the JAL Group took the unprecedented move involving the Filipinos. “We recognize the Filipinas’ excellent bilingual skills, their very hospitable nature, and their innate warm and caring service. This is why the JAL Group decided to hire a big number of Filipinas,” said Pearlman,

“We are confident that the Filipinas can further enhance our service. They will surely give our passengers the JAL brand of care and attention and maintain our high standards of service, “Pearlman added.

Another airline, Atlasjet Airlines, Turkey’s leading private airline company, also recently recruited 56 Filipina flight attendants for their operations in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The Filipinas underwent a three-week training program and were assigned to service domestic flights in Saudi Arabia.

With all these significant developments in the travel industry, RP President Arroyo has reported the government’s ambitious aim of reaching 5 million tourists by the end of the decade. With ventures such as the opening of a Shangri-La hotel in Boracay and the Manila Ocean Park in 2008, and promoting the country’s ecotourism and medical tourism, the number of Filipino travelers is indeed anticipated to grow at an even more sustained pace in the future.

(www.asianjournal.com)

http://asianjournal.wordpress.com/page/24/

phood (eccentric squares (Kuya)) by noel

100roses — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 16:56:36 +0000

noel: hey fuki, check out these pictures from the motherland
fuki: is that your dad in this picture?
noel: yup, that’s him eating balut.
fuki: he looks so young
noel: he’s 62
fuki: oh, it must be from eating all the unborn duck fetus

balut is the name of a filipino delicacy. it’s a boiled duck egg with a duck embryo inside. one of my uncles actually has a balut farm balut nursery duck morgue duck matrix baby duck killing camp sells balut. my dad loves it. i’ve never seen him happier than he is when eating balut. my mom is afraid to eat it now though. my sister and i, while we haven’t tried it, aren’t morally opposed to it.

there are often times, when for fun, i’ll try to challenge my uber catholic parents on some of their views. usually i’ll try to find fault with their argument by citing some biblical precedent. my mom is usually obsessed with me getting a haircut. so when she starts going on and on about how long my hair is (it never is), i’ll usually say “well you know who had long hair…Jesus!” and then my mom usually concedes. with my dad, i said “how can you be pro-life, but continue to abort unborn duck. you can’t be against abortion, but for balut.” in response, i think he bit off the unborn duck’s head.

any discussion of food in the philippines warrants the obligatory inclusion of lechon. i’m not too big a fan of pork, but i do heartily approve of it’s use for decorative purposes. in the mega malls, we found another filipino favorite: tsitsaron (pork rinds). due to the pronunciation of tsitsaron, (chi-cha-ron), apparently they decided to give (as flips are so wont to do) the snack a nickname:

FLIPS EAT CHINKS FOR BREAKFAST!!!
taken alone, the text above would seem to suggest that all the food we ate still had all of its organs and appendages intact (where they had properly formed). that would be all the westernized meals (i <3 filipino spaghetti) that we ate at home and in the mega malls. all the fast food chains you’d recognize in the states are in the philippines, but they often have a filipino twist. the 7-11s in the philippines have a sio-down (cha siu bao) and the food packaging tends to be more colorful.

filipino mcdonald’s (mcdo) has the usual american menu, but non american-sized. for example, you can actually order a small drink and a small fries in the philippines. the american fatass sized meals, such as the double quarter pounder with cheese and even “super-sizing” is not available in the philippines. those are regional meals unique to the states. unique to the phillippines are the taro pie and the McRice burger. i’ve got to say, i like the international mcdonald’s pies (as recommended by angela) better than the american ones. abroad, they’re fried, which makes them crispier. i liked the taro pie, but not McRice burger not so much. basically the bun was just made of rice. maybe if they used banana sauce instead of ketchup…

one thing that surprised me about filipinos in the philippines was how often they ate. there were two breakfasts, lunch, merienda, dinner, and some more snacks during the day. i suppose i had a different idea growing up. my mom used to tell us stories of how often times when they were young, they’d only have a bowl of rice to eat for a day. now that i think about it, there’s been days when i’ve only had a bowl of rice to eat. but that’s usually with banana sauce. oh and i suppose that’s just because i’m lazy.

fruit at a filipino market

the food i’ll miss the most though will definitely have to be the fruits (and fruit products). the bananas, the pineapple, the chico, the list goes on and on. there are these dwarf bananas that are really sweet. but the mother of them all has got to be the filipino mango. i’ve tried buying mangos in the states, but they’re never near the quality of the ones that come from the philippines. my mom said that often, the mangos labeled “manila mangos” are actually from mexico. the mangos in the motherland are super sweet, not fibrous, and are so soft, that the way we usually eat them is with a spoon. cutting up mangos into small slices means you have an inferior mango. we had all things mango in the philippines, including mango ice cream. i really wish i could have smuggled some back.

http://arslounge.com/tag/philippines/

Food Writing 101

100roses — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 18:08:30 +0000

August 8, 2008

The world of culinary has gone beyond cooking and garnishing and is now opening new avenues to develop the creativity of the food professional. Food writing is one of them.

Being a food writer requires more than a flair for the written word and an interest in food. The food writing field needs people with a strong grasp of culinary principles and familiarity with trends in the hospitality and foodservice industry. Having solid writing skills is also a basic.

A great food writer is someone who writes about food using ideas from his or her very soul. The piece of writing contains not only information but reflects the writer’s passion in showing what the food is all about. Hence, the food writer finds a better word than delicious and involves all the senses to effectively bring the message across.

Aside from writing, food writers research, edit, proofread, test recipes, attend classes, and socialize occasionally. A food editor reviews cookbook proposals and works in the development of a book from contract to print. Food writers who work as editors for magazine and newspapers provide the direction for the content of the food section. They likewise set the tone and style for the publication. Even those popular TV food shows require the expertise of a food editor. The career options for the food writer is definitely varied and continues to expand as the global interest for food develops.

Food writing in the Philippines has gained popularity thanks to the ushering in of the blogging era and the proliferation of dining establishments all over the country. It also helps that Filipinos have an innate fondness for food, and using food as a vehicle to create and celebrate gives the Pinoy food writer an appropriate foundation for writing.

To date, we see quite a number of food-related publications in the local market. These glossy magazines attract not only the homemakers always in the hunt for tested recipes but also foodservice professionals who want to stay afloat in what’s going on in the industry. Even food travel writing gets a lot of attention because it lets people discover the cuisine in other parts of the world without actually traveling. In other words, food writing aims to inform, educate, and even entertain.

As a food writer, the learning never ends. The myriad of colors that appear in a dish and the melding of emerging aromas never fail to fascinate me. Getting deep into food history and culture presents a unique kind of wisdom. Talking with chefs and entrepreneurs allows me to realize how passion plays an essential role in making wonderful things happen.

Food writing is a satisfying hobby and may even be a rewarding career. Go ahead, it’s time to eat, live and love!

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John and Yoko: Cosmopolitan Japanese

100roses — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 18:03:47 +0000

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Rice-based dishes fascinate me: Spanish paella, Chinese congee, Italian risotto, Filipino lugaw, Japanese sushi. So when I heard about “Japaella” offered at johnandyoko, I went to try it out. As the name of the dish suggests, it is a Japanese version of the paella, Japan meets Spain.

The Japaella

Priced at P328, the Japaella is good enough to be shared by two, or even three. It is served in the traditional Spanish paellera, and the dish combines chicken and prawns (3 pieces) as its main ingredients. The addition of nori seaweed slivers and the teriyaki flavor makes it very Japanese. As you dig into the sticky rice, you’ll find another Spanish element: the chunks of chorizo. For me, this dish is a winner for 3 reasons: (1) the portion size is good for sharing, (2) the flavors are familiar yet still exciting, and (3) it is a one-dish meal. We Pinoys love to say this, “may kanin na, may ulam pa!”

Hip. Modern. Sensual. This is how I describe johnandyoko, an upscale Filipino-owned casual dining restaurant in Makati City. It is located at the 2nd level of Greenbelt 5, one of the newest shopping/dining blocks in Ayala Center. Since it opened in October 2007, it has created buzz among the local foodies and was placed under careful scrutiny by restaurant/food critics and bloggers alike.

Customers can understand better the dining concept in what’s written in the menu:

“John is from the West while Yoko comes from the East. As John is bold, modern, and fresh, Yoko is guarded, conservative and traditional. He is sunset while she is sunrise or the dawn of a new day! In essence, johnandyoko is a successful union of the two worlds. It is union where the new embraces the old and the innovative features the authentic.”

Here I was waiting for my turn since all tables were full.

In the end, going to johnandyoko to try out Japaella was worth it. I found another rice-dish that satisfied my palate. Mission accomplished!

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Longganisa Alaminos

100roses — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 17:59:53 +0000

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

The City of Alaminos in the province of Pangasinan is best known as the home of Hundred Islands, and the Hundred Islands National Park, the first national park in the Philippines. Dad brought us to Alaminos some years ago and I could never forget the sight and smell as we cruise along the highway. Being a coastal city, Alaminos boasted of rows and rows of stalls that sold dried fish and bagoong.

Growing up with a Pangasinense Dad gave me the edge of discovering the rich food culture of Pangasinan at an early age. We learned how to appreciate all sorts of bucayo (coconut candies), the Pangasinan tikoy (so different from the Chinese tikoy), putong Calasiao (the Putong Calasiao Festival is a must-see!), Bonuan bangus, bagoong, tupig, patupat (until now i am amazed how they make this), buro (fermented rice and fish, not for the faint of heart), padas (so crispy, a special treat for breakfast), a vegatable called baug (you must pronounce this properly), and a whole lot more.

I chanced upon Alaminos Longganisa when I did the grocery last weekend. Shopwise sells a dozen for P105.75. Alaminos Longganisa has its trademark toothpicks but mind you, they are not the commercial-type toothpicks. They are actually mature coconut sticks (the ones used for walis tingting), and the knots used are made of silag or buli (like the ones used for mat-making). A smart use of local materials — good job!

Loaded with garlic that gives much flavor, Alaminos Longganisas are fully organic, meaning no preservatives are used. Another plus point! They have a shelf life of up to seven days, or even a month if frozen.

I found this recipe at the official website of Alaminos City (www.alaminoscity.gov.ph) but you may modify it according to your preference.

Ingredients:

¾ k ground lean pork
¼ k pork fat
4 tbsp. sugar
2 tbsp. coarse salt
2 tsp. ground black pepper
2 tbsp. vinegar
¼ tsp. salitre
½ tbsp. soy sauce
2 tsp. chopped garlic
1 tbsp. rum, atsuete or food coloring
pork casings

Procedure:

1. Mix all ingredients and refrigerate for 5 days.
2. Stuff mixture in pork casings. Tie with strings to desired length.
3. Hang to dry.

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100roses's Blog

Tribute to Piston leader Medardo Roda on Feb. 14

Thursday, 12 February 2009, 19:52 | Category : Events, Movements, Specials Tags :

Holding on to an Empty Promise

Second Poorest

Most Peaceful

No Conflict Spillover

High Unemployment

Mismatched Jobs, Skills

Infrastructure Problems

Protectionist LGUs

Second Nature

Decline in Investments

Abandoned Dev’t Plan

Blessing in Disguise

Tuna in Transition

The Price of Progress

Consumer-Driven

Turning to Mining

Biggest Asset

Region’s Poorest

Wary

Easy Money

Agri for Growth

LGUs Remiss

Tagum’s Initiative

Didn’t Trickle Down

Pollution Feared

It’s Time for the Business of Creativity

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Asia’s Top Airlines See Filipinos as ‘Significant Market’

phood (eccentric squares (Kuya)) by noel

noel: hey fuki, check out these pictures from the motherland fuki: is that your dad in this picture? noel: yup, that’s him eating balut. fuki: he looks so young noel: he’s 62 fuki: oh, it must be from eating all the unborn duck fetus

Food Writing 101

John and Yoko: Cosmopolitan Japanese

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Longganisa Alaminos

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Thursday, 12 February 2009, 19:52 | Category : Events, Movements, Specials
Tags :

noel: hey fuki, check out these pictures from the motherland
fuki: is that your dad in this picture?
noel: yup, that’s him eating balut.
fuki: he looks so young
noel: he’s 62
fuki: oh, it must be from eating all the unborn duck fetus