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HOW CAN WE RESPECT INDIGENOUS PEOPLE’S RIGHTS?

HOW CAN WE RESPECT INDIGENOUS PEOPLE’S RIGHTS? Respecting the rights of Indigenous Peoples (IPs) is not merely a matter of issuing government titles or passing laws. It is a matter of recognizing historical justice — and understanding that many ancestral lands were already owned long before the modern State existed. In the Philippines, our legal framework is actually among the most progressive in the world. The Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act (IPRA) and the famous Cariño Doctrine affirm the concept of “Native Title,” meaning that lands occupied since time immemorial are presumed never to have been public lands at all. The Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT), therefore, does not grant ownership; it merely recognizes an ownership that already existed. As of recent estimates, more than 220 ancestral domain titles covering over 5.4 million hectares have already been issued nationwide, benefiting more than one million Indigenous people, equivalent to roughly 16 percent of the cou...
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CAN WE EVER BREAK AWAY FROM PLASTIC AT ALL?

CAN WE EVER BREAK AWAY FROM PLASTIC AT ALL? When people ask whether humanity can ever “break away” from plastic, my honest answer is simple: we probably cannot — but we certainly can stop using plastic for the wrong purposes. The real challenge is not elimination; it is intelligent substitution. Plastic is both a villain and a hero. It is a villain when it is used once and thrown away, such as grocery bags, food wrappers, and disposable packaging that lasts minutes but pollutes the environment for centuries. Yet it is a hero in medicine, aviation, electronics, and public health, where sterile, lightweight, and highly durable materials literally save lives. This is why I am proposing the creation of a joint government initiative — the Alternative Sustainable Packaging Options (ASPO) Task Force, composed of the DENR, DOST, DFA, and DTI. Instead of relying purely on regulations, the task force could function as a scientific advisory and economic diplomacy group that persuades industries t...
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WHAT ARE THE PROS AND CONS OF ALLOWING COUNTER FLOWS IN TRAFFIC CONTROL?

WHAT ARE THE PROS AND CONS OF ALLOWING COUNTER FLOWS IN TRAFFIC CONTROL? Allowing counter-flow lanes—also known as contraflow or reversible lanes—is one of the most controversial tools in traffic management. It is often compared to emergency surgery on a city’s road network: when properly executed, it can relieve congestion quickly; when poorly managed, it can create confusion and serious safety risks. The main advantage of counter-flow operations is efficiency. Traffic demand is rarely balanced. In many urban corridors, 70 percent of vehicles travel in one direction during peak hours while the opposite direction remains underutilized. By temporarily reversing selected lanes, authorities can increase capacity without building new roads. For developing cities where infrastructure expansion is expensive and slow, this approach can save billions in construction costs while improving travel time. Counter-flow operations are also valuable during emergencies. In large-scale evacuations cause...
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TOURISM AS A NATIONAL MOVEMENT

TOURISM AS A NATIONAL MOVEMENT For many years, we have treated tourism as just another industry — something handled by the Department of Tourism, hotels, airlines, and travel agencies. But perhaps the time has come to see tourism differently: not merely as a business sector, but as a national movement involving every Filipino. This idea came to mind when I noticed an unfortunate practice that still exists in some places — the so-called “tourist price,” where visitors are charged more simply because they are foreigners. Of course, not everyone does this, and the vast majority of Filipinos are honest, hardworking people. Still, even a few bad experiences can discourage visitors from returning, and in tourism, reputation travels faster than airplanes. Turning tourism into a national movement means changing our mindset. Every taxi driver, store owner, hotel employee, immigration officer, and even ordinary citizen becomes part of a nationwide “guest relations team.” Each tourist who leaves ...
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LET’S REQUIRE THE USE OF MOBILE PHONES BY ALL GOVERNMENT AGENCIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

  LET’S REQUIRE THE USE OF MOBILE PHONES BY ALL GOVERNMENT AGENCIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS If the government truly wants to bring services closer to the people, the simplest solution is staring us in the face: make every agency reachable through official mobile numbers and SMS channels. In plain language, citizens should be able to text their government the same way they text their relatives and friends. For decades, most government directories have listed only landline numbers—often outdated, sometimes without direct extensions. That system belongs to another era. Today, mobile phones are the primary communication tool of Filipinos. In fact, the Philippines already has mobile connections equivalent to more than the total population, reflecting the widespread reliance on mobile devices. Even more telling, at least 90% of households can access smartphones, although affordability gaps still exist in some areas.  These numbers show a simple truth: government communication systems ...
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A LETTER TO EVERY MAYOR ABOUT SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT

A LETTER TO EVERY MAYOR ABOUT SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT From time to time, I receive letters that deserve to be shared far beyond their original addressee. This is one of them. What you are about to read is based on a letter originally written by my brother, Rey V. Seneres , to the Mayor of Butuan City. Rey is a practicing architect and town planner in the State of New Jersey. He also happens to be a product of Butuan City public schools , a son of the Agusan River, and proof that overseas Filipinos can give back—not with donations alone, but with ideas shaped by experience. I have edited his letter and expanded its audience. This is now a letter to every mayor in the Philippines . Rey begins with a simple premise: solid waste management is not just a sanitation issue; it is a governance issue, a livelihood issue, and a future-generations issue . Drawing from his work in waste-management projects in the United States and his exposure to municipal systems in New Jersey, he argues that what...
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NO CODING FOR HIGH OCCUPANCY CARPOOLS

NO CODING FOR HIGH OCCUPANCY CARPOOLS Let me state my bias upfront: the purpose of number coding is traffic reduction, not driver punishment. If that is the real objective—and it should be—then it is baffling that Metro Manila continues to ignore one of the most obvious, cheapest, and fastest traffic management tools available to us: incentivizing high-occupancy vehicles. As of February 2026, there is still no MMDA-wide exemption from the Expanded Unified Vehicular Volume Reduction Program (UVVRP) for carpools or high-occupancy vehicles (HOVs). Whether you are alone in your car or carrying four co-workers, coding applies just the same on EDSA, C5, Commonwealth, and most major roads. One car, one penalty—passenger count be damned. That approach may be simple to enforce, but it is also stubbornly illogical. Common sense tells us that the more people we pack into one vehicle, the fewer vehicles we send onto the road. Fewer vehicles mean less congestion, lower fuel consumption, reduced emi...
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