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WHAT ARE REGAL OLIVA’S WISHES FOR GOOD GOVERNANCE? As the saying goes, some wishes are easier said than done. Then again, there is another saying that dreams are free anyway, so why not keep dreaming? In her own straightforward style, vlogger Atty. Regal Oliva has presented a spoken commentary that reflects what many ordinary Filipinos have long wished for: a government that genuinely works for the people. Some may dismiss her ideas as too idealistic, but I believe that most of them are not only achievable—they are already embodied in our own national development plans. Her message goes beyond any particular State of the Nation Address. It is a reminder that ordinary Filipinos judge government performance not by speeches but by what they experience every day. They want affordable rice, lower electricity and fuel prices, quality healthcare, better schools, effective flood control, decent jobs, and real support for farmers and fishermen. Above all, they want honesty, accountability, and ...

WHY IS SMALL SCALE COMPOSTING THE CRITICAL KEY TO SUCCESSFUL ORGANIC AGRICULTURE? It seems that nowadays, common sense is not so common anymore. That is rather ironic because in this age of information and artificial intelligence, it should be much easier to determine what is practical, affordable, and sustainable. Take fertilizers, for example. If there is an alternative that is not only cheaper but practically free, why are we still spending billions of pesos on expensive chemical fertilizers? There is no question that chemical fertilizers have contributed to increasing agricultural productivity over the years. However, they have also made our farmers dependent on imported raw materials and volatile oil prices. Since most chemical fertilizers are petroleum-based, every increase in global oil prices eventually translates into higher production costs for our farmers. Meanwhile, organic fertilizers can be produced locally from materials that are normally discarded as waste. The good new...

LOCALLY MADE FARM TRACTOR COULD CHANGE THE FUTURE OF PHILIPPINE AGRICULTURE For decades, we have been asking why Filipino farmers continue to depend on imported farm machinery that is expensive to buy, costly to repair, and difficult to maintain. Today, we finally have an encouraging answer, thanks to a remarkable story reported by Eloisa Victoria Laud . The Department of Science and Technology (DOST), through its Grants-in-Aid Program, partnered with the Technological University of the Philippines Visayas (TUPV), RU Foundry, and the farming community in Bago City to develop a homegrown open-system two-wheel farm tractor that is affordable, repairable, and designed for Philippine conditions. What makes this project truly historic is not just the tractor itself, but the four-way cooperation behind it. This is an outstanding example of what can happen when the national government (DOST), the local government and farming community, the private sector, and the academe work together towar...

WHAT ARE THE EFFECTIVE SOLUTIONS TO THE SOLID WASTE PROBLEM? Cebu City Mayor Nestor Archival has apparently found a practical solution to one of the country's biggest urban problems—the mounting cost of garbage. Is that not headline-worthy? We often dismiss garbage as something worthless, but perhaps that is exactly where we have been making our biggest mistake. What many people still call "garbage" actually contains valuable resources. Organic waste can become compost and vermicast. Plastics, metals, paper, and glass can be recycled or upcycled. What is truly worthless is only the small residual portion that cannot be reused. If we continue treating everything as garbage, we will continue throwing away money. The experience of Cebu City should serve as a wake-up call for every local government unit. By using mechanical shredders to process biodegradable waste into compost and eventually vermicast through African Night Crawler earthworms, the city reportedly reduced the a...

HOW CAN WE OFFER CREATIVE FINANCING FOR OUR LOW INCOME FARMERS? For decades, we have been hearing about government loan programs intended to help low-income farmers buy seeds, fertilizers, farm machinery and other production inputs. Yet despite all these announcements, many of our small farmers still cannot access the capital that they desperately need. Why is that? Is it because they cannot comply with the documentary requirements? Is the approval rate so low that the programs fail to reach those who need them most? If so, perhaps the problem is not the farmers but the design of the lending programs themselves. There is certainly no shortage of demand. What appears to be lacking is a financial product that truly matches the realities of farming. Banks still operate with what I call a "pawnshop mentality"—no collateral, no loan. Unfortunately, many low-income farmers till land they do not own and therefore have little or nothing to pledge. Fortunately, innovative ideas are be...

WHAT DOES IT MEAN NOW THAT THE PALACE HAS NOTICED THE GARBAGE PROBLEM? It is refreshing to hear a Palace spokesperson talking about something that is not political. Even more refreshing is hearing Undersecretary Claire Castro discuss an environmental issue, a topic that has rarely received sustained attention from the country's highest officials. Of course, I do not think she was merely referring to litterbugs or the sight of uncollected garbage along our streets. Her statement could very well be a signal that Malacañang is finally recognizing that the country's garbage problem has grown into a national environmental, economic and governance crisis. Many people believe the problem is that we are running out of landfill space. I see it differently. The real problem is that we never built enough sanitary landfills in the first place, while many open dumpsites continue to masquerade as compliant landfills despite violating Republic Act No. 9003, the Ecological Solid Waste Manageme...