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  HOSPITAL ON WHEELS AS A MOVEMENT   In a country like the Philippines where there are many towns that do not e ven have hospitals, something must be done, not only to bring the ho spital services closer to where the people are, but to bring these services to where they really are, right where they live and work. And that is precisely what Dr. Jim Sanchez had in m ind, when he founded Hospital on Wheels (H O W).   But now, after many years of visiting many remote and distant destinations, after providing many medical, surgical, dental and visual services to thousands of people, Dr. Sanchez wants to grow HOW, s o that he could bring it to many more destinations, and so that he and his teams could provide many more services to many more people.   The solution to the problem is social networking. Nowadays, almost any form of human activity has something to do with social networking, either directly or indire ctly. And that is why I think that the best direction fo...

  FUNDING FOR URBAN FARMING   Farming is nothing new. Mankind has been farming since our departure from purely hunting and gathering . Urban farming is nothing new either, except for the venue perhaps, being places where there are human settlements. Rural farming will always be there also, and there is nothing new about that either. So, what is it that is new that we are looking for?   In order not to sound too ambitious, I will just put this in the form of a wish. I wish that urban mayors will start providing funds for urban farming in all its forms, including vertical f arming and tree farming of course, and not to forget bamboo farming as well. And vertical farming should include not only fruits and vegetables, but also fish, poultry and livestock .   As part of our initiatives for food security, we should go beyond the stage of treating urban fa r ming as a hobby, m e aning that we should start treating it as a business . We should now include urban f...

  URBAN FORESTS AND HEAT WAVES   Urban forests could be a three in one solution to the problem of heat waves and rising temperatures . Firstly, the trees could provide shade that could as the heat . Secondly , tr ee s could produce oxygen that could cool the air. Thirdly, the tre e s could produce food that could nourish us. As proof of the first and second solution, it was recently reported that the temperature in the Arroce ros Forest Park in Manila was lower than anywhere else in the city.   The third solution could be a little bit tricky, because not all trees could bear fruit and produce food. There is a solution for that however, because the late Dr. Jose “Pepe” Cunanan came up with the idea of using the trees, any tree as a trellis that could grow any climbing plant or vine that could produce edible leaves and fruits. Can you imagine an acac ia tree bearing squash fruits?   We have always known that trees could be a solution to climate ch...

  WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR WATER IN THE PROVINCES?   The power sector has perfected a system wherei n the functions of production, transmission and distribution are clearly assigned to three separate industry players. The National Power Corporation (Napocor) does the production, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) does the transmission, and power concessionaires like MERALCO does th e distribution . That is not so in the water sector.   In Metro Manila, the two water concessionaires, namely Manila Water and Maynilad are responsible for production, transmission and distribution in their respective concession areas, even if they also depend on water sources owned by the government . It appears to be a different story in the provinces , where the production, transmission and distribution of water is the responsibility of the local water districts .   These local water districts are supervised by the Local Water Utilities Authority (LWUA) which is ...

  MARKETING OF FILIPINO SOFTWARE BASED SERVICES   When I was working for a Singapore based software development company, we had much success developing web apps and mobile apps made by a combined team of Filipino and India n designers and programmers. Of course, the Indians were good programmers but later , I learned that Filipino programmers are just as good.   Just like the case of Filipino inventors, the problem is always on the marketing side, and not on the production side . T here are very few Fil ipino inventions that have successfully penetrated the global markets, and sadly, neither has Filipino made software products and services. That is why I am trying to do something about it , however I can.   Recently , here has been an explosion of new artificial intelligence (AI) software such that it has opened doors for some of my friends to offer consulting services for clients as to how to come up with a strategic plan, so that they could either survive the...

MORE COOPERATIVE OWNED HEALTH CLINICS  In theory,  cooperatives could own and  operate  any business under the sun,  provided that   it is legal .  Given that premise, it is therefore perfectly doable a nd allowable for a cooperative to own and  operate  a health clinic, even a hospital, for that matter. Since there are no legal impediments towards  doing that, the coops should go towards that direction, and they should get help if they want to do that .   It's  no big secret that the existing Rural Health Units (RHUs) are  almost always  ill-equipped, s hort-funded and are lacking in doctors,  nurses  and other related health professionals.  As a matter of fact ,  you will be lucky if you  can  find a doctor in an RHU, more so in the Geographically Isolated and Depressed A reas (GIDAs), as defined by DOH.   As part of my advocacy, I am now convincing some satellite based internet se...

FROM ABANDONED FISHPONDS TO MANGROVE FORESTS   Environmentalists seem to have hit the jackpot when DENR Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga ordered the inspection and evaluation of abandoned, underdeveloped and underutilized (AUU) fishponds, to be able to identify potential areas for mangrove restoration. Although it may still take some time before the order becomes fully implemented, she has already fired the first shot .   Just to give this order a historical perspective, hundreds if not thousands of wetlands and mangrove fores ts were destroyed in the past, to be converted into commercial fishponds. Perhaps at that time, there w as not much appreciation about how the destruction of wetlands and mangrove forests could affect the environment. To be fair, nobody objected also to the potential of food production at that time, with new eco nomic growth of course. Although food production will never be replaced as our top national priority, we must now balance that nowad...