COMMUTER PROTECTION

NO HOLDS BARRED (060) March 28, 2010
By Ike Señeres

COMMUTER PROTECTION

The National Council for Commuter Protection (NCCP) has joined the party lists running for Congress as sectoral representatives. Listed in the ballot as party list candidate number 163, it aims to get the support of air, sea and land commuters, which is practically 100% of the population! The list of transports that commuters use everyday ranges from the lowly horse drawn carriage to the modern jumbo jets, but the list actually includes tricycles, jeeps, busses, taxis and even the “padyak” and the “habal-habal”.

NCCP 163 is new to the elections, but is not new to the public view. Its dynamic founder, Ms. Elvie Medina is now recognized as the public face that is always in the forefront of leading the opposition of commuters against fare hikes. If only all the commuters will know that NCCP 163 is the party that successfully led the rollback of the minimum fare to 7 pesos, it will surely get the vote of the riding public.

There is more to commuter protection than just fare hikes however. On top of the NCCP 163 advocacy is commuter safety and commuter convenience, two issues that may not always be hot, but are nevertheless important for everyone who rides any form of transport from anywhere to everywhere. Add to that the advocacy transport availability, and they will also get the support of passengers who are always fuming about not being able to get a ride when it is time for them to move.

As I see it, the bottom line in the NCCP 163 advocacy is mobility, a basic service that was recognized as one of the 11 basic needs during the time of former President Ferdinand Marcos. Nowadays, connectivity seems to be the buzz of the times, but what good is it if people are able to call and text each other but could not see each other because they could not move from there to here? Anyway, mobility and connectivity should blend together perfectly.

It is already generally recognized that livelihood is the most basic of all human needs, followed perhaps by health and by education. Comparing the three, it would be fair to say that people could gain access to health and education services if they have a means of livelihood.

They could actually buy all the other basic needs if they have livelihood, but how could they go about their livelihood if they do not have mobility? How could they go to a hospital or to a school if they do not have mobility? Of course, mobility is easy for those who are rich enough to buy their own cars, but even the rich have to ride boats and airplanes too!

Many in the middle class would wish that they could have the capital to put up a business so that they could earn more money. That is not even the problem of the lower class, because their problem is where to get the fare money that they would need to go to work. Yes my dear readers, their fare money is in effect their capital to earn a day’s wages, and that is how important the battle to freeze the fare hike was a battle that was won by NCCP 163 led by Ms. Medina.

Public safety is one thing; commuter safety is yet another thing. Even if people could afford to take a taxi for instance, they would hesitate to ride one if they fear that it is not safe to do so. Needless to say, even bus riders also fear for their lives when they get into a bus driven by maniacal characters. This is the reason why NCCP 163 is also advocating for the special licensing of bus drivers with certification exams to boot.

The rich people have their own convenience as they ride their own private vehicles, but NCCP 163 believes that the rest of the people have a right to have convenience too as they take public transports. Many of their advocacies are yet unheard of, but are actually doable. For instance, they want to have comfort rooms at the back of all busses, both for city and provincial runs. They are also advocating the use of “kneeling” busses for senior citizens, and why not?

In the advocacy of NCCP 163, they treat all drivers as their allies, and not as their adversaries. In pursuit of this goal, Ms. Medina convinced the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) to require transport operators to give SSS and Philhealth memberships to their drivers, and this is already being done now. As we witness the emergence of party lists with questionable profiles as genuine sectoral representatives, it is hard to question the legitimacy of NCCP 163 as it is led by real commuters.

Watch KA IKING LIVE! Thursdays 7pm to 8pm in Global News Network (GNN), Channel 21 in Destiny Cable. Email iseneres@yahoo.com or text +639293605140 for local cable listings. Visit senseneres@blogspot.com

MORE ON NATION BUILDING

NO HOLDS BARRED (059) March 23, 2010
By Ike Señeres

MORE ON NATION BUILDING

I have been writing about national development for a ling time now, but it is only recently that I realized that nation building is really a better term to use, since it is easier to understand, and is actually more encompassing. Based on this new understanding, nation building could mean anything and everything that will contribute to the fabric of our national life, and the long term stability of our institutions as a nation.

For purposes of clarification, I still would like to point out that growth is not the same as development. A nation could grow in terms of population and in many other aspects, but that does not necessarily mean that it has already developed. In this sense, nation building is really different from national development; a nation could be built without being fully developed.

By implication, development should be the outcome of a plan, as in a national development plan. Perhaps this is where nation building could really be different from national development, because nation building could be the activity of individual persons in particular and the citizenry in general, whereas national development is supposed to be a process that should be led by the government, specifically its development and policy planners.

Based on the general definition of nation building that I am now presenting, it could be said that any form or function of corporate social responsibility (CSR) could be considered as leading to, or contributory to nation building. This would include all efforts of private corporations, as well as those of privately led civic organizations.

By definition, or I should say by expectation, our national development plan should be translated into the local development plans of our municipalities and provinces. At this point, I would like to suggest that we just use the term “municipalities” to refer to both the cities in the towns. This should be a no-brainer, because up to now, even the city halls are still called “municipio”.

Up to now, I could not understand why the Local Government Code (LGC) removed the supervision and the authority of the provincial governments from the chartered cities. As a result of that, new capitol buildings have to be built outside the capital cities where these used to be located. In some cases, we have ironical situations wherein capitol buildings are located inside the chartered cities where they do not exercise authority.

Looking at it from another perspective, our national development plan could also have been based on the inputs of our provincial development plans, but it appears that that is not possible now, because of the fact that the LGC has removed the jurisdiction of the chartered cities from the provinces. At the very least, I would say that this is not good for environmental planning and management, because despite the artificial political divisions, all the provinces, including the chartered cities are in the same biosphere, and in the same watersheds.

Also looking at it from another perspective, it is really important and necessary to support and sustain all privately led initiatives in nation building, because of the weaknesses and shortcomings in the publicly led national development planning and implementation. Hopefully and with God’s grace, the private efforts in nation building could fill in the gaps that are left open by the government led national development planning function.

In theory, the government is supposed to be owned by the people, given the fact that all the officials and staff of the three branches of the government are in the payroll of the people. In this sense, it could truly be said that governance is not supposed to be the exclusive domain or function of the bureaucracy, meaning that the people should be part of the governance process both at the local and the national levels.

In theory as well, the people are supposed to be represented in the municipal and in the provincial councils, but the actual practice is very far from the theory. As it is now, there appears to be no venue where the people could actually participate in the monitoring and the reporting of the status of the local and the national development plans.

The people are also supposed to be represented in the municipal and the provincial development councils, but these do not seem to be functioning. If only these are functioning, then CSR programs and projects could also help.

Watch KA IKING LIVE! Thursdays 7pm to 8pm in Global News Network (GNN), Channel 21 in Destiny Cable. Email iseneres@yahoo.com or text +639293605140 for local cable listings. Visit senseneres@blogspot.com

NATION BUILDING

NO HOLDS BARRED (058) March 14, 2010
By Ike Señeres

NATION BUILDING

Are you interested in NATION BUILDING? It happens to be the goal of the United National Integrated Development Alliance (UNIDA). UNIDA is the organization behind the UNIDA PHILIPPINES Yahoo Group. If you are not yet subscribed to this group, please send any email, even a blank email to unidaphilippines-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. If you are already subscribed, please send me an email for my information.

Effective next week, I will no longer post my weekly columns in the UNIDA PHILIPPINES Yahoo Group. My weekly columns will henceforth be posted only in the SENSENERES Yahoo Group. If you wish to receive copies of my weekly column via email through this other group, please send an email to senseneres-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. As an alternative, you could also read my weekly columns at www.senseneres.blogspot.com.

If you happen to be a Filipino scientist, inventor or engineer based in the Philippines or abroad, please join the Roster of Scientists, Inventors and Engineers (ROSIE). To do this, please join first the Global Action for National Development Assistance (GANDA) Yahoo Group by sending an email to ganda_assistance-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. Spouses and friends of Filipinos may also join both ROSIE and GANDA.

GANDA is an international organization of volunteers who would like to assist developing countries in planning, implementing, monitoring and reporting their national development programs. GANDA is positioned to assist all developing countries, including the Philippines. Hopefully, it will become the vehicle for Filipino scientists, inventors and engineers to reach out to the rest of the world.

Taken as a whole, I am hoping that UNIDA and ROSIE could become the active forces in leading the process of NATION BUILDING in the Philippines. I am also hoping that beyond the Philippines, GANDA could also become a force in promoting the talents of Filipino scientists, inventors and engineers abroad.

If you want to join local UNIDA chapters, please tell us your location. As we start to know where our members are, we are going to organize eyeballs so that we could get to know each other. In the case of Metro Manila, we are going to organize chapters in each city. In the case of the provinces, we are going to start with provincial chapters until we could get the critical mass to start city chapters.

It was a pleasure to meet again with Dr. Poch Macaranas, who was my boss when he was an Undersecretary for International Economic Cooperation (IEC) at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA). I was first “captivated” by NATION BUILDING when I worked under Dr. Jolly Benitez when he was Deputy Minister for Human Settlements, but it was Dr. Macaranas who taught me the international dimension of this goal.

As a result of my meeting with Dr. Macaranas, I have decided to incorporate the goal of NATION BUILDING in everything that I am doing, both in my businesses and in my advocacies. As Dr. Macaranas aptly put it, this is not a difficult thing for me to do, and as a matter of fact, I could no longer “escape” it, because it is already part of me. Jokingly, I told him that he is partly to “blame” for that.

It is perhaps providential that my boss at the Global News Network (GNN), Mr. Harry Tambuatco, is also zealous about the goal of NATION BUILDING. I am now producing ten shows for GNN including my own show, and because of Mr. Tambuatco, the goal of NATION BUILDING is now the common denominator of all of my shows.

Perhaps it is also providential that Mr. Bombit Buencamino, the President of Metro Club has asked me to organize seminars for his venue, along the goal of NATION BUILDING. In particular, Mr. Buencamino wants me to organize events and seminars that would encourage cooperation between government and industry, in support of national development in general.

What is NATION BUILDING? To cut a long story short, it is the better and the more understandable term for national development. For good measure however, we should aim for integrated national development.

Watch KA IKING LIVE! Thursdays 7pm to 8pm in Global News Network (GNN), Channel 21 in Destiny Cable. Email iseneres@yahoo.com or text +639293605140 for local cable listings. Visit senseneres@blogspot.com

UNIDA PRIMER (Last of a Series

NO HOLDS BARRED (057) March 09, 2010
By Ike Señeres

UNIDA PRIMER (Last of a Series)

Q. How will UNIDA provide the training services?

A. The network of extension schools that will be owned and operated by the cooperatives will be equipped with connectivity to Internet, mobile and television networks. Training content will be delivered by UNIDA to the extension schools using any combination of these networks. The training content will be a combination of materials for literacy and for productivity. All courses will be approved and certified by the appropriate authorities namely DEPED, CHED and TESDA.

Q. How will UNIDA provide the connectivity?

A. UNIDA will engage the services of Internet, mobile and television connectivity providers; so that they could become the backend technology providers to the cooperatives that will operate as the front end service providers. This approach is necessary in order to provide the cooperatives with a long term source of sustainable revenues. This approach will also give the cooperative members with the triple advantage of earning from the rebates and dividends, on top of saving from group discounts.

Q. How else could the cooperatives make money from the connectivity business?

A. As of now, several cooperatives already provide cable television services. Some cooperatives also offer telephone services as Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) providers. Eventually, they could also become Internet Service Providers (ISPs) as well. There is not much room for them in the mobile phone business, but they could still make money as bulk distributors of cell phone loads. Several companies are already poised to provide Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) based telephone services to the cooperatives, offering both handheld and desktop units.

Q. How could cooperatives profit from VoIP telephony?

A. VoIP phones could enable cooperative members to call any buyer or supplier with a VoIP number anywhere in the world practically for free, paying only for the Internet connection. Towards this end, UNIDA is going to publish a VoIP phone directory, in order to help the cooperatives take advantage of this opportunity.

Q. How could the cooperatives profit from LETS?

A. A percentage of each and every LETS transaction goes to the cooperatives. Each and every member of the cooperatives will be provided with a cash card that will contain the value points that they have accumulated, including their earnings from the rebates and the dividends. The cash cards are designed to jointly function as debit cards and as ATM cards, meaning that the members could also withdraw their cash values as they wish. In addition, the cooperatives will also earn each time that the cash cards are used to purchase goods and services from participating stores.

UPDATE 1: As of February 16, I am already a producer of prime time evening shows for the Global News Network (GNN), but I will still be producing some segments in my previous assignment as a producer of the Philippine Stock Market Show in the mornings. I have also returned to my old show KA IKING LIVE!

UPDATE 2: Mr. Bombit Buencamino, President of the Metro Club near Rockwell asked me to organize seminars and other events for the club, by tapping the talents and experts that are already involved with me in my TV production business. In this connection, I organized the Penta Open Training Center, which will start operations next month.

UPDATE 3: Starting this month, I will also be co-producing the “Learning Show” in GNN from 7:00 AM to 9:00 AM. In cooperation with TESDA, GNN will be offering technical and vocational courses on the air, with corresponding hands on training in accredited testing centers nationwide. Using G-SAT which is the satellite affiliate of GNN, we will be able to deliver education even to the remote areas that could not be reached by cable TV. We are now looking for cooperatives that could host the satellite dishes.

Watch KA IKING LIVE! Thursdays 7pm to 8pm in Global News Network (GNN), Channel 21 in Destiny Cable. Email iseneres@yahoo.com or text +639293605140 for local cable listings. Visit senseneres@blogspot.com

UNIDA PRIMER (Sixth of a Series)

NO HOLDS BARRED (056) February 28, 2010
By Ike Señeres

UNIDA PRIMER (Sixth of a Series)

Q. How can convergence happen on the environmental side?

A. First, we have to restore our environment, and then we have to preserve it. Restoration and preservation are the twin approaches that are needed in order to ensure higher productivity and long term sustainability of the environment. Every piece of land, every sphere of air and each body of water in our territory has to be made productive, and sustained on the long term.

Q. How can we make every piece of land productive?

A. Agroforestry is the technology that UNIDA will promote to make every piece of land productive. Agroforestry is the combination of agriculture and forestry technologies, but without the plantation method. According to Mr. Joseph Reynolds, a member of UNIDA, agriculture was built on the back of slaves. This is a true observation, because it was the plantation method that encouraged the growth of slavery. Today, many plantation workers are still laboring under slave-like conditions. In agreement with Mr. Reynolds, UNIDA will pursue the biodiversity method instead; growing and raising plant life and animal life together in restored and preserved forests, both in urban and rural settings.

Q. How can we make every sphere of air productive?

A. Aerophonics is the technology that UNIDA will promote to make every sphere of air productive. Aerophonics is the process of growing plants in an air or mist environment, without the use of soil or any other growing medium. In some ways it is similar to hydrophonics, except that the latter uses water or water based solutions as the growing medium.

Q. How can we make each body of water productive?

A. Aquafarming is the technology that UNIDA will promote to make each body of water productive. These bodies of water will include the natural forms such as the seas, lakes, rivers and streams, as well as the manmade forms such as swimming pools, fish ponds and fish tanks. Mr. Enrique Macadangdang, a member of UNIDA says that fish could now be grown anywhere and everywhere, even in the mountains, for as long as fish tanks could be built, and for as long as clean water could be made available. In Europe, some countries are already growing salmon in factory buildings.
Q. What is the correlation between connectivity and automatibility?

A. Automatibility is necessary in order to achieve higher productivity. Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) are now available in the market. In a manner of speaking, PLCs are the industrial equivalents of personal computers (PCs). PCs are used for office automation, whereas PLCs are used for factory automation, PLCs are used to control machinery, running on programs that are designed to work repeatedly, such as repetitive manufacturing processes. Through the combination of connectivity and automatibility, factories could integrate their backend production activities with their front end marketing activities.

Q. What is farm automation?

A. Farm automation is the goal of modernizing all land, air and water production activities though the use of PLCs.

Q. How will UNIDA promote farm and factory automation?

A. UNIDA will offer training services and financing services to cooperatives and enterprises, leading to the adoption and implementation of farm and factory automation.

Q. What is the correlation between training and financing?

A. Many cooperatives and enterprises fail because of the lack of coordination between the training aspects and the financing aspects. As a remedy to this problem, UNIDA is going to make sure that the training provided will qualify the borrowers to pass the financing requirements of the lending institutions.

Watch KA IKING LIVE! Thursdays 7pm to 8pm in Global News Network (GNN), Channel 21 in Destiny Cable. Email iseneres@yahoo.com or text +639293605140 for local cable listings. Visit senseneres@blogspot.com