Climate Change, Displacement, Government Priorities and the 2011 Budget

My blog entry for 10/10/10 Blog Action Day on Climate Change

Climate change is probably one of the many worldwide concerns that every government is trying to address. Last year, Republic Act 9729 or Climate Change Act of 2009 was enacted into law.

While it may be true that serious and concrete actions have to be taken in order to address this phenomenon, let us check further how serious the government is in addressing this very serious concern.

This year, under the new administration of Noynoy Aquino, funds specifically intended to addressing climate change has been one of the highlights of the General Appropriations Act (GAA) of 2011.

For instance, the National Climate Change Commission has an appropriation of P38 million pesos while the Department of Interior and Local Government was given P 40 million under its local project, Enhancing LGU Capacity on Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Management Framework.

With huge amounts being appropriated to government projects that aim to pre-empt and address the ill-effects of climate change, do we expect the government to be more effective in dealing with climate change related disasters? Do we expect the government to be more competent in dealing with disasters like typhoons Pepeng and Ondoy that left thousands of people's lives and homes wrecked and decimated?

If the government is dead serious about presenting solutions to the ill-effects of climate change, concrete actions should be taken.

First off, big businesses that seriously cause damage to our environment should be stopped such as illegal logging and large scale mining. Large scale mining has not only caused landslides and pollution. It has systematically displaced many families living in mineral-rich areas. Take the case of Mt. Diwalwal.

So long as big foreign businesses and investors scourge the country's natural resources, the country will forever be vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

We cannot expect a government funded by big businesses to protect its people from the harmful effects of climate change. Programs and projects that supposedly address such concerns will be a staple to every president's budget but offers no concrete and long term solutions to climate change.#

March 29 is Blog Action Day for Education

My blog entry in support of the Blog Action Day for Education organized by Kabataan Party-list online team.

We have witnessed the show of defiance of students from two of the biggest state universities in the country: Polytechnic University of the Philippines and University of the Philippines.

PUP students bravely opposed the impending increase in its tuition from P12/unit to 1666 percent. UP students, faculty and employees, meanwhile, united on the following important issues: 1) the proposed laboratory fees and miscellaneous fees;2) the appointment of a new PGH Director over the previously appointed and legitimate Director; and 3) the UP BOR's continued meetings without a sitting Student Regent, thus denying the stakeholders to be represented in all important matters being tackled in the BOR.

The simultaneous actions served to inspire other schools who have opposed proposed tuition and miscellaneous fee hikes for the coming school year 2010-2011. Two hundred thirty three (233) schools have proposed to increase tuition and other fees based on a study by the National Union of Students of the Philippines.

The protest actions have reached every household, eliciting debates in various social networking sites, forums, and national TV.

What message does these protest actions serve to convey?

1) That the students' militance and vigor is of equal fervor with that of the FQS activists. Drawing inspiration from the mass actions staged during the 70s, students have proven that they will not take the government's continuous neglect sitting down.

As I have mentioned in my previous blog post, we have successfully opposed past Philippine presidents' education programs. We shall continue to oppose budget cuts in education resulting to schools going self-reliant, embarking on numerous commercialization schemes.

2) That the state of Philippine education has long been in crisis. Very meager budget is allotted for education -a measly 3% of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Of the 1648 Higher Education Institutions, only 110 are state-owned. Students and parents are thus forced to shoulder high cost of fees in private schools.

With state universities raising fees (UP raised its tuition from P300 to P1000 per unit, EARIST from P15/unit to P100/unit) education has become inaccessible.

2. That the state have long abandoned its mandated responsibility. That is, to provide the highest budgetary allocation to education clearly written in Article XIV, Section 5, Paragraph 5 of the Constitution. Education spending is only 3rd to debt-servicing and military spending.

The issue is of utmost importance, presidential candidates should clearly present their education agenda.

BLOG ACTION DAY 2009: Filipino Bloggers take a stand on climate change

Today is Blog Action Day. Express your thoughts, concerns, posts, videos, photos, and links on climate change.

Blog Action Day is an annual event held every October 15 that unites the world’s bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day with the aim of sparking discussion around an issue of global importance. Blog Action Day 2009 will be one of the largest-ever social change events on the web.

Climate change, a phenomenon that has wreaked havoc on a number of lives, continues to draw forth serious concerns worldwide. Let not this day pass without YOU joining us. If you wish to join this event, write a post on climate change today, Oct. 15 and place a link to this post.

You may also spread the word about Blog Action Day by placing this badge on your blog.

Blog Action Day

June 25 is Blog Action Day dubbed "KICK HER CON-ASS GOODBYE." It marks yet another cyberspace campaign against GMA's Con-Ass.

The campaign aims at enticing bloggers and social network users (facebook, friendster, plurk and twitter) to write their own blogs or posts, and express in their unique ways their abomination against Gloria's Con-Ass.

Let our collective voices serve to attract more people to protest against Con-Ass. Maximize cyberspace to invite people to protest actions and rallies.

Make your voices heard! Spread the word that will rattle this power-hungry regime.