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HOW COULD WE RECYCLE WASTE PAPER?

HOW COULD WE RECYCLE WASTE PAPER? Nobody seems to be paying enough attention to the recycling of waste paper. Perhaps this is because paper is biodegradable anyway. But I think we are missing the bigger picture. What about the recovery value of waste paper? What about its potential to create jobs, generate new businesses, and contribute to the circular economy? Even if paper eventually decomposes, it can still occupy valuable space in landfills and dumpsites for years before it breaks down. More importantly, every ton of recycled paper means fewer trees cut down to make new paper products. According to environmental studies, recycling one ton of paper can save around 17 mature trees, thousands of gallons of water, and significant amounts of electricity. That is not a small contribution to environmental protection. I have been monitoring technological trends and breakthroughs on the internet, and I have observed that many companies abroad are transforming waste paper into products with ...
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HOW COULD WE BRING BACK THE ENVIRONMENTAL OMBUDSMAN?

HOW COULD WE BRING BACK THE ENVIRONMENTAL OMBUDSMAN? The Environmental Ombudsman is gone, but the environmental problems that justified its creation are still very much with us. To cut a long story short, the Environmental Ombudsman of yore disappeared when Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales left office. The reason is simple: it was created merely through an internal office order and not through an Act of Congress. As a result, when the leadership changed, the watchdog quietly went to sleep. If we want to bring it back this time, we should do it right. The Philippines is not lacking in environmental laws. We have Republic Act No. 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the National Integrated Protected Areas System Act, and many others. Neither are we lacking in government agencies. We have the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB), local government units, and various regulator...
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WHAT ELSE CAN WE DO TO SAVE THE PHILIPPINE EAGLE? ARE WE DOING ENOUGH ALREADY?

WHAT ELSE CAN WE DO TO SAVE THE PHILIPPINE EAGLE? ARE WE DOING ENOUGH ALREADY? The short answer is no, we are not doing enough yet. Yes, there have been remarkable successes in Philippine Eagle conservation. From an estimated population of barely a hundred individuals in the 1960s, conservation efforts have reportedly increased the number to about 400 breeding pairs today. The Philippine Eagle Foundation has done admirable work in breeding, rescuing, rehabilitating, and releasing eagles back into the wild. But is that enough? I do not think so. Some conservation experts consider 500 breeding individuals as a minimum threshold for relative stability. Personally, I prefer the more rigorous concept of the Minimum Viable Population (MVP) used in conservation biology. For large apex predators such as the Philippine Eagle, the ideal MVP could reach 5,000 individuals or more to ensure long-term survival against disease outbreaks, genetic decline, natural disasters, and environmental changes....
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HOW CAN WE ADOPT MEDICAL BREAKTHROUGHS FASTER THAN USUAL?

HOW CAN WE ADOPT MEDICAL BREAKTHROUGHS FASTER THAN USUAL? Every year, thousands of Filipinos die not because there is no treatment available in the world, but because the treatment has not yet reached our shores. This is the painful reality of medical innovation in the Philippines. Foreign breakthroughs usually arrive years late because their entry is left largely to commercial forces. Pharmaceutical companies naturally prioritize bigger and more profitable markets. As a result, Filipino patients often wait five years or more before accessing life-saving technologies already available elsewhere. A perfect example is the breakthrough anti-cancer drug daraxonrasib . Researchers recently presented data showing that this once-daily pill nearly doubled the median survival of patients with advanced pancreatic cancer—from 6.7 months to 13.2 months. Pancreatic cancer has long been one of the deadliest cancers, with a five-year survival rate historically in the single digits. For many oncologis...
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CAN CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING TRANSFORM THE PHILIPPINES?

CAN CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING TRANSFORM THE PHILIPPINES? For full disclosure, I am a Roman Catholic, born and raised. This column is intended primarily for fellow Catholics, although Christians from other traditions and even people of other faiths are welcome to read it and decide for themselves whether faith can become a force for national transformation. I often ask myself a disturbing question. How can a country like the Philippines, which proudly calls itself one of the largest Christian nations in Asia, continue to suffer from so much corruption, poverty, injustice, and violence? Since the majority of Filipinos are Christians, is it not fair to say that many of the corrupt people among us are also Christians? How can people hear the Ten Commandments on Sunday and then steal public funds on Monday? How can people profess their faith inside churches and then engage in bribery, cheating, and dishonesty in their workplaces? Could it be that many of us are Christians only inside our chu...
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GRANTS TO FOUNDATIONS AS A FORM OF OUTSOURCING

GRANTS TO FOUNDATIONS AS A FORM OF OUTSOURCING There is an unspoken truth in governance that deserves more public discussion: many nongovernment organizations (NGOs) and foundations are already doing the work that national government agencies (NGAs) and local government units (LGUs) either cannot do, do not have the expertise to do, or simply do not have the manpower to accomplish. Sometimes, these NGOs spend their own money. Sometimes, they receive partial support from government agencies. In many instances, they are even requested by government offices to implement programs on behalf of the government. If that is already happening, then I have a simple question: Why not officially recognize this arrangement and provide grants to qualified foundations and NGOs as a form of outsourcing? After all, not every government office can be a jack of all trades. Unfortunately, many agencies try to be exactly that and end up becoming masters of none. On the other hand, many foundations and NGOs ...
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LET’S INSTITUTIONALIZE GOVERNMENT GRANTS TO COOPERATIVES

LET’S INSTITUTIONALIZE GOVERNMENT GRANTS TO COOPERATIVES Correct me if I am wrong, but there appears to be no formal and institutionalized system in the Philippines for government grants to cooperatives. Yes, government agencies and local government units (LGUs) have been providing assistance to cooperatives for many years. However, these often come in the form of donations in cash or in kind, distributed on an ad hoc basis and sometimes dependent on available funds or changing priorities. To me, there is a difference between a donation and a grant. A donation is a simple transfer of resources. A grant, on the other hand, operates within a formal regulatory framework, with clear objectives, application procedures, eligibility criteria, monitoring systems, and measurable outcomes. That is exactly what I am proposing: let us institutionalize government grants for cooperatives. Why is this important? First, a competitive grant system promotes transparency. If cooperatives can systematical...
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