columnbackups

INCOMPLETE PUBLIC HOSPITALS AND CLINICS Dear Mr. President: It is a well-known fact that most if not all our public hospitals and clinics are lacking in beds, medical equipment and other devices that are necessary in treating patients and saving lives. Every year, the two houses of Congress allocate new funding for the Department of Health (DOH), through the General Appropriations Act (GAA). And yet, year in and year out, the problem of lacking beds, equipment and devices always remain unsolved. Why is that so? Do the members of our Congress not know that healthcare is one of our top priorities? Or do the members of our Congress not know how to prioritize their appropriations? Or could it be that there really is not enough money to go around, such that the appropriations are almost always never enough? Or could it be that the officials of the DOH do not know how to manage their funds wisely? Or perhaps these DOH officials are the ones who do not know how to prioritize their expense...

HOW ABOUT USING DRONES? Dear Mr. President: In layman terms, a drone could be defined simply as a flying robot, because that is what it is. As a matter of fact, even grade school students are now capable of making makeshift robots, using microcomputers or mini motherboards such as Arduino and Raspberry Pi. These robots could do basic tasks such as walking, jumping and fighting. With some more programming, these robots could already be made to fly, hence they become drones. Contrary to popular knowledge, drones could not only fly, but they could also walk or crawl on land, and dive or swim underwater. If their bodies or casings could be made to be waterproof, they could dive or swim. I am not qualified to talk about using drones for combat purposes, but in response to requests from some of my readers, I decided to write about building drones for whatever purpose, but not necessarily for war purposes. However, I will not hesitate to say that all drones that are designed for civilian ...

DATABASES OF SENIOR CITIZENS Dear Mr. President: Technically senior citizens are not in the same category as Persons with Disabilities (PWDs), but in a manner of speaking, many seniors have already lost their abilities to function normally, such that they would already need some of the facilities that are intended for PWDs. But if I may ask you Sir, what does it take for a senior citizen to be considered as a PWD? Is it a cane? Or a walker? Obviously, it is not a wheelchair because if a senior citizen must use a wheelchair, that will already qualify him or her to be a PWD. Aside from some listings in the Office of Senior Citizens Affairs (OSCA) in the Local Government Units (LGUs), that are probably mostly in paper form, there appears to be no reliable electronic databases that are hosted anywhere, at both the national and local levels. As proof of that, most of the local senior citizen’s cards and discount booklets are still in paper form. Aside from that, there is no real monitor...

MOBILE VERSUS INTERNET Dear Mr. President: There was a time when messaging via mobile and messaging via internet were two different options that were separate from each other. During that time, it was cheaper to send messages via mobile means, through the short messaging system (SMS) because we did not need an internet connection to use that option. However, our behavior changed when we were offered another option to avail of messaging via the internet, using personal computers, and using web applications such as Facebook Messenger. Eventually however, we were also offered the option to connect to the internet by using our mobile phones, using either WI-FI or a mobile data plan. Because of these two connectivity options, we were able to also use Facebook Messenger in our mobile phones, through what we thought was a mobile application, or a mobile app for short. Later, we were also offered other mobile apps for messaging, such as Viber, WhatsApp, Skype and Telegram. But why am I w...

ELECTRONIC COMMERCE FOR EVERYONE Dear Mr. President: I wish that as soon as possible, every Filipino will be able to sell online, regardless of what product he or she is selling, regardless of how big or small his or her business is. That is happening now, because many Filipinos are already selling online, via Lazada, Shopee and many other online platforms or marketplaces, as they are also called. However, I have also noticed that there are still many small-scale merchants who are unable to sell online, for some reason or another. I think that some of these reasons are the lack of connectivity, the lack of knowledge about electronic commerce, the lack of product development, and the lack of connections to logistics and payment partners. While these might seem to be major obstacles, I thank that with a little help from National Government Agencies (NGAs), Local Government Units (LGUs) and Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), it could be done. Based on my own observation, every Fil...

USING PROJECT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE Dear Mr. President: By definition, a project should have a beginning and an end. If it has no beginning, then it is not a project at all. That is like saying that a problem should have a solution, otherwise, it is not a problem. In other words, it could not be a problem if it could not be solved, at least mathematically. Continuing with this comparison, a project should have defined problem that has to be solved through a solution. Once that problem is solved, then that would mean that the project should already end. The conventional wisdom in governance is that everything should start with a policy, in other words a policy framework. To implement the policy frameworks, there should be program plans that are derived from these policies. In theory, all project proposals should be derived from official policies that are derived from program plans. What that means is that there should be no projects that are not rooted in official policies. Official...

RECYCLING ELECTRONIC WASTE Dear Mr. President: It appears that there is no existing government program right now that addresses the problem of collecting and electronic waste. Electronic waste includes not only personal computers, workstations, servers and mobile phones, but all machines and devices that have processors, keyboards, keypads and memory units. The problem is many of these wastes contain toxic materials that are toxic to the environment. In the private companies, it is very easy to get rid of these wastes because they could auction these off easily. That is not the end of the problem however, because no one knows what they do with the toxic remains after they extract the valuable materials such as metals, such as gold even. Probably, they could end up in the dumpsites or landfills. It could still be a problem if the toxic wastes would end up in the landfills, because of leaching. In the government side however, it would be more difficult to get rid of the electronic ...

PATHWAYS TO PROFESSIONS Dear Mr. President: Perhaps the problem of the so-called “mismatch” in the job market has already come to your attention? According to the statistics, every year, there are thousands of college graduates who could not find jobs, while there are supposedly thousands of jobs that could not be filled, because the qualifications of the job applicants supposedly do not meet the requirements of the prospective employers. I know that there could be many possible solutions to the said problem, but may I present to you one solution that could possibly work? For lack of a better term, I am temporarily calling it “Pathways to Professions” (P2P). This is not a new idea, because as far as I know, there are already some countries that are already doing it. What is new however, is that very recently, artificial intelligence (AI) is now being used to match the profiles of the prospective employees with the “wish lists” of the prospective employees, hence removing or avoidin...

EASE OF DOING BUSINESS WITH THE GOVERNMENT Dear Mr. President: What does “ease of doing business” mean? That is a very easy question to answer in relation to the private sector, but what does it really mean in relation to doing business with the government? Short of conducting a survey, I think that the general sentiment now is that it is very difficult to do business with the government, because most of the government services are still on a “face to face” basis and are therefore not online. It is very easy to do business with the private sector, because most of the private companies have already perfected their Customer Relations Management (CRM) software and systems. As a matter of fact, it could be said that CRM is the life of every private company, because without good CRM, those companies could lose their customers, and therefore lose their market shares. Among other “telltale” signs, one clear indicator that a government agency has very poor CRM is the fact that only their...

  CAN COCONUT MILK REPLACE COW’S MILK? Dear Mr. President: I am writing you about the problem of malnutrition among children in our country, a problem that has been identified to be the cause of stunting among them. In that connection, I have come across studies that have established the fact that one of the solutions to the problem of stunting is to feed our children with cow’s milk. However, it turned out that that is not a practical solution, because we are not producing enough cow’s milk locally, and as a matter of fact, the data shows that our country is importing most of our milk supplies. Meanwhile, perhaps due to globalization, our local market is now swamped with non-dairy milk substitutes such as almond milk, cashew milk and soybean milk. As I understand it, we are not producing enough almonds, cashews and soybeans to be able to produce milk out of those, so that is out of the question, there is however one source of non-dairy milk that we seem to have overlooked, eve...

FROM ENROLLMENT TO EMPLOYMENT Dear Mr. President: I am writing you about the long journey that Filipino students must make from enrollment to employment, and how difficult it is for them to arrive at their destination, and that is a stable job, while having a good career or profession. As it is now, that journey is fragmented, and they are bound to encounter problems in every fragment, and there is no one to help them with those problems, more often than not. According to human resources expert Ms. Deanne Hernandez, it is possible to plan the entire journey of students from the time that they are enrolled in the schools, to the time that they are assigned to temporary engagements as part of “on the job” (OJT) programs. Ms. Hernandez was quick to clarify that these should be real OJT programs with actual work to do, and not the bogus “programs” where the students are just assigned to make coffee and to photocopy documents. When I was the Department Manager of the Information Techn...

MAKING TRAFFIC FLOW FASTER Dear Mr. President: I think that it is wrong to ask if there is “traffic” or not, because there is always a “traffic flow” whenever there is at least one vehicle on the road. Perhaps it is our wrong understanding of the term “traffic” is one of the reasons why we have not solved the problem after all these years. In other words, the problem is not the “traffic” itself because it is always there. The problem or the challenge is how to make it flow faster. Internationally, the flow of traffic is always measured in terms of travel time from point to point. For example, it could be measured in terms of hour many kilometers per hour is covered when driving from Alabang to Monumento. Or in other words, how many minutes it takes to travel the same distance. And to measure whether there is an improvement or not, the data from one point in time should be compared against another point in time. So how can we make the flow of traffic go faster? The obvious answer ...

PATRONIZING FREE MOBILE APPS Dear Mr. President: I am writing you about the fact that many National Government Agencies (NGAs) and Local Government Units (LGUs) have been unable to comply with your orders to digitalize the delivery of their public services, in line with your administration’s goal of achieving the so called “ease of doing business”. I think that the problem is two-pronged. Either the NGAs and LGUs do not have enough budgets for digitalization, or they are burdened by the complexities of public bidding rules, which could take months or even years to process. In the meantime, the public is suffering from the travails brought about by the “difficulties of doing business” with the government. I found the courage to write you directly, because I believe that I have found the solution to the two-pronged problem. Firstly, the solution is very cheap and very affordable, and therefore solves the problem of not having enough budgets. Secondly, the cost of the solution is wa...

DIGITAL GOVERNMENT FORMS Dear Mr. President: As a former Director General of the National Computer Center, the precursor of the Department of Information and Communications (DICT), I know how difficult it is for National Government Agencies (NGAs) and Local Government Units (LGUs) to comply with your instructions to digitalize their ICT systems to make it user friendly, in line with the goal of the government to promote the “ease of doing business”. I know of many ways to comply with your instructions, but for now, for the purpose of this letter, I will only mention two suggestions, just to get the ball rolling. My first suggestion is to start by digitizing all government forms, and my second suggestion is to avail of low-cost, subscription only software products and services, to avoid the long and tedious procurement processes. There are many online forms service providers now, some are for free, while others are for pay but they only charge affordable subscription plans. Google...

  THE HOSPITAL ON WHEELS AND THE MOTORCYCLE CHARIOT AMBULANCES Dear Mr. President: The "Hospital on Wheels" (HOW) and the "Motorcycle Chariot Ambulances" (MCA) projects are indeed groundbreaking and highly impactful in addressing healthcare accessibility challenges. In essence, HOW brings healthcare services directly to the people, eliminating the need for individuals to travel to the hospitals. Their mission includes providing medical, surgical, dental, and optical services. They specifically target communities where healthcare services are inadequate and are greatly needed. During each HOW mission, they serve an average of 1,000 to 1,500 patients per day, with the following breakdown: - Medical cases: 400 per day - Surgical cases: 100 to 120 per day - Dental cases: 300 per day - Vision screening (including the provision of free reading glasses): 400 per day - Basic Life Support Training: 10–20 barangay staff/volunteers. HOW highlights its tremendous potential in...

POROUS BORDERS Dear Mr. President: During the series of Senate hearings about how dismissed Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Gou was able to leave the country, one of the resource persons said that one of the reasons is that we have “porous borders”. I think that there is nothing new with that, because that is a reality that we could not avoid, considering that we are an archipelagic country. However, what could be a cause for concern, is that if that porousness could enable fugitives to get out, it could also enable terrorists and even hostile foreign agents to come in. Because our borders are naturally porous, there is probably no way to fully prevent the exit of fugitives, and the entry of terrorists. However, it would be realistic to assume that we could do the next best thing and that is to minimize both the exits and the entries. And how could we do that? I do not have a ready design yet, but I believe that we could do that through a mix of manual and digital systems. If there is...

FULLY EQUIPPED BARANGAY HEALTH CENTERS Dear Mr. President: If you go to your nearest Barangay Health Center (BHC), you will be lucky to find one that is fully equipped, meaning that it is complete with doctors, nurses, medical equipment, medicines, consumables and other supplies. That is really a sad reality, because our low-income citizens really have no choice but to go centers, because they could not afford to go to the private clinics. According to the concept of “universal access to healthcare”, every citizen should be able to avail of health services either through public hospitals and clinics, or through their private counterparts. What is obvious however is that since going to private hospitals and clinics are too costly for our low-income citizens, they have no choice but to go to the public options. Obviously, the bottom line here is money, or the availability of funds, because that is always the reason given by the government. If that is the problem, then why not properly ap...

INTER-OPERABILITY OF GOVERNMENT AGENCIES Dear Mr. President: Since the time that you have been calling for the digitalization of government processes, I have observed that both National Government Agencies (NGAs) and Local Government Units (LGUs) have been very slow in responding to your instructions. Why has it been difficult for these government units to obey your orders? Is it because the heads of these units do not know what to do? Or is it because they do not have the right people who could implement Information and Communications Technology (ICT) projects? If that is so, why don’t they hire contractors or consultants to do it for them? As a former Director General of the National Computer Center (NCC is the precursor of the Department of Information and Communications Technology), I think that I might know some of the answers to those questions. But to be able to answer those questions, I must go back to the fact that even before the arrival of digital information and communi...

PRIVATE ROOMS IN PUBLIC HOSPITALS In theory, all services in all public hospitals should be 100% for free, meaning that patients need not pay, not even a single centavo. But that is only in theory as of now, because we are still very far from that becoming a reality. Also in theory, the Congress is supposed to appropriate 100% of the budget requirements of all public hospitals, but that is also very far from becoming a reality. Truth to tell, having private rooms in public hospitals is an oxymoron, but that is the sad reality that we are facing now. Hospital administrators of public hospitals are quick to explain that they are forced to go into the practice of offering private rooms because they earn additional revenues to augment the limited budgets that they are getting from the Congress. Putting two and two together, is it not that the simple solution is for the Congress to fully fund them? The practice of charging for private rooms in public hospitals is not the only problem....

LOCAL DATABASES OF SENIOR CITIZENS Dear Mr. President: If I may ask, how can the barangay councils effectively provide services to their senior residents if they do not know who they are and where they live? How can these councils make it easy for these seniors to do business with their councils? And how could the seniors avail of local service providers, specially those who are honoring the laws granting senior citizen discounts? These are good questions to ask, and I believe that I have the answers to them. Together with my technology partners, I am now developing a website application that has six functions at the barangay level, namely (1) To serve as a local database of senior citizens, (2) To serve as a directory of senior oriented products and services, (3) To serve as a marketplace for these products and services, (4) To serve as a load wallet that could receive cash assistance from Local Government Units (LGUs), (5) To serve as a communications device so that senior citize...

CULTURAL CHRISTIANITY I have always joked about the fact that the Philippines could not be a Christian country, because countries do not go to heaven, only the souls of people do. But seriously speaking, I could not agree that the Philippines is a Christian country, because many of the people here who identify themselves as Christians are not really practicing their faith, as they are supposed to. In other words, they would fall into the category of “cultural Christians” only. In a manner of speaking, the process of living out the Christian life is like planting a fruit tree. After planting the tree, it must be nourished so that it will grow and eventually bear fruit. Even if it grows tall but it does not bear fruit, it is no good as a tree, and it should even be cut down for being useless. We could also liken this analogy to the “gifts of the spirit” that are given to us, but these gifts would be useless if they do not bear fruit, meaning the “fruits of the spirit”.   Since ...

BETTER CUSTOMER SERVICE FROM THE GOVERNMENT Customer Relations Management (CRM) is one of the best practices of corporate governance that has been perfected by the private sector. To make it easy for the private companies to implement these practices, many brands are available in the market that are very easy to install and use. Unfortunately, most of the government agencies have not discovered the advantages of CRM software, and that could partly explain why the quality of customer service in the government has not improved. As a private citizen, I have been communicating with the Executive and Legislative branches of the government, but I seldom get a reply from them. I am using many forms of communications such as texts, emails, Viber, Messenger and WhatsApp, but almost all the time, I only get automatic replies that “promise” that they will get back to me, but they never do. Of all the senators, it is only Senator Risa Hontiveros who bothers to reply in person, and not via an a...

  DANGER ZONES AND HAZARD MAPS In the aftermath of the recent landslide tragedy in Antipolo City, a local official said that they have been offering alternative safe housing to the residents of the danger zone, but they did not take the offer, and they just stayed where they were. I think that it is only in the Philippines where people in authority would stand down in an impasse like that, even if it is already clear that the uncooperative residents were already facing certain death. The Antipolo City official said that they actually had housing units that were ready for the residents to transfer to, but they nevertheless refused to move. I do not doubt what that official said, but I am very much curious to know the reason why those people refused to move. Was the housing offered not to their liking? Was it substandard? What was wrong with it? More often than not, the prospective transferees would refuse because the housing offered does not have power and water or does not have...

COMPETING WITH SWISS CHOCOLATE The land area of the Philippines is about seven times bigger than that of Switzerland. Cacao does not grow in Switzerland, but they are smart enough to import cacao from many other countries to process them into some of the finest chocolates in the world. Despite their small land area, they can sustain a dairy industry that supports their massive production of milk chocolates. In contrast, the Philippines grows some of the best cacaos in the world, some of which are probably exported to Switzerland in its raw form. Despite our large land area, we are unable to sustain a dairy industry even for our own domestic needs, so much so that we must import most of our milk supplies. Not just milk itself, but everything else that are made from milk products, such as cheeses and ice creams. So what is it that enables Switzerland to do what it is doing, and what is it that prevents the Philippines form doing what Switzerland is doing? Certainly, it is not the l...

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SEWAGE AND SEWERAGE I think that many people do not know the difference between sewage and sewerage, so I decided to do some research about it. To make a long story short, sewage is the material that flows along a sewerage system, and the system is the infrastructure that enables sewage to flow. Having said that, I could now say that for the most part, very few LGUs have built their sewerage systems, and that could be partly the cause of flooding in some areas. Strictly speaking of course, the lack of sewerage systems is not the only cause of flooding. The bigger culprit I think is the lack of drainage systems. Not that I want to focus on semantics, but again strictly speaking, rain is not the cause of floods. The real cause of floods in my opinion is the lack of drainage systems, meaning that there are no systems to drain the rainwater into the rivers, lakes, streams and seas. Microsoft Co-Pilot defines sewage as “the actual  waste water and solids ...