ikeseneres

  LET’S STOP POISONING OUR OWN FOOD SYSTEMS We are supposed to be the smartest species on earth—and yet we may be the only one foolish enough to poison its own food system and call it “progress.” No tiger sprays chemicals on its prey. No bird contaminates the worms it eats. Only humans do that. We lace our farms with pesticides, herbicides, and synthetic fertilizers, then wonder why cancer rates rise, why children are getting sick earlier, and why ecosystems are collapsing. And still, we insist this is the price of development. The industrialization of agriculture—once proudly labeled the “Green Revolution”—did succeed in producing volume. But as we enter 2026, the bill has arrived. We are now borrowing today’s harvests from tomorrow’s health. Chemicals do not simply stay on the surface of crops. They enter the soil, the water, the air, and eventually our bodies. Because we sit at the top of the food chain, we suffer from biomagnification: toxins accumulate as they move upward—from...

  RESTORING OUR RIVERS THE NATURAL WAY For decades, we believed that the answer to flooding was simple: pour more concrete. Straighten the river. Box it in. Make it look “clean” and “modern.” What we did not realize—until floods kept getting worse—is that concrete riverbanks are often part of the problem, not the solution. There is an irony here that engineers now openly acknowledge. When we cement a river, we remove its natural roughness—the rocks, plants, bends, and wetlands that slow water down. This creates what experts call a hydraulic trap . Water accelerates, gains destructive force, and slams into downstream communities like a liquid battering ram. The result? Faster floods, higher flood peaks, and more damage—despite all that cement. Nature works differently. A natural river spreads out. When heavy rain comes, water spills into floodplains and wetlands that act like giant safety valves. This process—known as floodplain reconnection—can reduce flood risk by as much as 40 pe...

  TEMPORARY FISHING BANS FOR PERMANENT SUSTAINABILITY AND FOOD SECURITY Sometimes, protecting tomorrow really does mean giving up today. Indonesia understood this painful truth and acted on it. By temporarily closing fishing areas and enforcing seasonal bans, it chose patience over panic, sustainability over short-term profit. In doing so, it showed the rest of the region—including the Philippines—what ecological foresight looks like in practice. Indonesia’s logic is simple but powerful: you cannot keep withdrawing from nature without letting it regenerate. Think of the sea as a bank account. For decades, many countries have been spending the capital—the breeding fish—rather than living off the interest. Indonesia decided to pause, let the interest accumulate, and allow fish populations to recover naturally. The results are hard to ignore. Studies from community-led closures in places like West Kalimantan show mud crab harvests increasing by almost 30 percent once fishing resumed, ...

  HOW THE PHILIPPINES CAN STOP IMPORTING BEEF We often describe the Philippines as an agricultural country, and rightly so. We have land. We have manpower. We even have a growing number of jobless Filipinos who are willing to work. Most importantly, we have demand. Yet here we are—importing beef and milk that we could, and should, be producing ourselves. Every kilo of imported beef is a lost sale for our local farmers. Every liter of imported milk is income taken away from rural families. The more we import, the more we deny ourselves livelihoods. This is not about blaming anyone; it is about understanding why a system that should work keeps failing. And we must remember this simple truth: food security is national security . Engr. Jowie Sindol Lopez, author of Beefing Up the Philippines , puts it bluntly: Filipino cattle farming is still run on tantsa-tantsa —guesswork. “You cannot build a profitable cattle industry on hula ,” he writes. Lopez, a farmer’s son from Mindanao who lat...

  CONVERTING ORPHANAGES INTO BOARDING SCHOOLS Sometimes, the solution to a long-standing social problem is not revolutionary at all. Sometimes, it is simply a matter of branding — and courage. The word orphanage carries a heavy stigma. It quietly labels a child as someone to be pitied, someone “left behind,” someone different. That label follows children to school, to job interviews, and even into adulthood. But what if we remove the label altogether? What if we stop calling these institutions orphanages and start calling them what they can truly become: boarding schools ? At one level, this is just rebranding. But rebranding matters. A “boarding school” produces students and scholars, not charity cases. It reframes childhood from survival to preparation, from dependency to potential. At another level, it is deeply practical. Children living in orphanages already reside in one place. Turning these into boarding schools means they no longer need to commute long distances just to at...

  LET’S GROW FRESHWATER MANGROVES IN LAKES AND RIVERS Many people still believe that mangroves belong only to salty seas and coastal mudflats. That is only half the story. Yes, “true” mangroves are biologically adapted to saline and brackish environments—but in the Philippines, several mangrove species and mangrove associates can grow, survive, and even thrive in freshwater-dominated lakes and rivers. Some of them have been there for centuries. Sadly, many have disappeared quietly, without us even noticing. The good news is this: as far as we know, none of these species are extinct. That means they can still be brought back—if we decide to do so deliberately. One famous example is Nilad, the white-flowered mangrove that gave Manila its old name, May-Nilad . Nilad is not technically a freshwater mangrove; it is a true mangrove species ( Scyphiphora hydrophyllacea ) adapted to coastal and tidal rivers. But history explains the confusion. Nilad once grew abundantly along the Pasig Riv...

  PLASTIC POLICE, ANYONE? IS IT NEEDED NOW? Every few years, a catchy phrase captures public imagination. Lately, that phrase is “Plastic Police.” Some people imagine enforcers chasing vendors with plastic bags. Others see inspectors knocking on factory doors. Either way, the idea is gaining traction—and not without reason. For decades, we relied on voluntary corporate pledges to reduce plastic waste. The results are now painfully clear. Global plastic production continues to rise—estimated at more than 400–500 million metric tons annually—and “Plastic Overshoot Day,” the point when plastic waste exceeds the world’s ability to manage it, arrives earlier every year. In short, promises alone have failed. This is why negotiations for a Global Plastics Treaty have become so contentious. As of the August 2025 Geneva talks, countries remain divided. Some want hard caps on plastic production and enforceable bans. Others prefer softer rules focused on recycling and waste management. The d...

  MISCOMMUNICATIONS IN ZERO BALANCE BILLINGS Zero Balance Billing (ZBB), also known as No Balance Billing (NBB), is one of those government policies that sound simple, generous, and humane: qualified patients pay zero pesos for their hospital bills. Under the Universal Health Care (UHC) Law and recent directives of the Marcos administration, its coverage has been expanded significantly. On paper, this is good news. On the ground, however, miscommunications continue to cause confusion, frustration, and unnecessary complaints. Let me be clear at the outset: Zero Balance Billing is not automatic, and it does not apply everywhere. There are three non-negotiable conditions. First, the hospital must be government-run or a DOH-accredited public facility. Second, the patient must be admitted to a ward or basic accommodation. Third, the services must fall within the PhilHealth case rate package, meaning standard care, medicines available in the hospital pharmacy, laboratory tests, and prof...

  OUR ANCESTRAL DOMAINS ARE BETTER THAN THE AMERICAN INDIAN RESERVATIONS This may sound provocative, even politically incorrect, but it needs to be said: our ancestral domain system is, on paper, better than the American Indian reservation system. The irony, of course, is that many American Indian reservations still enjoy a better quality of life than most of our ancestral domains. That contradiction deserves serious reflection. Let us start with land ownership. In the United States, many people assume that Native American tribes own their reservations. That is largely a misconception. Most reservation lands are held by the US federal government in “trust.” The tribe is the beneficiary, but the title remains with the State. Selling, leasing, or mortgaging the land often requires approval from Washington. Add to that “fee lands” and “restricted fee lands,” and you get a checkerboard of ownership that complicates governance and economic development. In the Philippines, the Indigenou...