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THE CATCH 22 CONUNDRUM OF ZERO BALANCE BILLING So far, about four cases of this Catch-22 situation have been reported to me by my readers. For them, it feels like being caught between the devil and the deep blue sea . On paper, Zero Balance Billing (ZBB)—also called No Balance Billing—sounds like a godsend. The announcement is simple and reassuring: if you are confined in certain public hospitals, you pay nothing. Zero. Walang babayaran . But as with many well-intentioned government programs, the devil is in the details. The first and most common “catch” is this: to qualify for ZBB, the patient must be admitted to a ward, not a private room. That sounds reasonable—until real life intrudes. In emergencies, patients do not shop around for beds. They are rushed in, sometimes unconscious, sometimes barely able to understand what is happening. If the ward is full—and anyone who has stepped into a public hospital knows how common this is—the patient ends up in a private room. Sometimes it is...

  WHAT ARE HIGH OCCUPANCY VEHICLE LANES? In the United States, special lanes reserved for vehicles carrying more people than just the driver are called HOV lanes—short for High-Occupancy Vehicle lanes. In plain language, these are “carpool lanes.” Some people also call them diamond lanes, because of the white diamond symbol painted on the road. Different name, same idea: move more people using fewer vehicles. In some countries, a vehicle with two occupants—including the driver—is already considered an HOV. That might work elsewhere, but here in the Philippines, I think we should aim higher. My suggestion is four passengers, including the driver, especially on expressways. If we are serious about reducing congestion, we should not settle for token compliance. What surprises me is that we are only talking seriously about this idea now. HOV lanes have existed for decades abroad. Their basic purpose is simple but powerful: instead of measuring success by how many cars we move, we measu...

  PROS AND CONS OF THE CABINET CLUSTERS SYSTEM At first glance, the Cabinet Clusters System looks like one of those reforms that actually make sense. Instead of every Cabinet secretary lining up at the President’s door, departments are grouped into thematic clusters—economic development, human development, infrastructure, security, climate change, and participatory governance. Coordination, in theory, becomes smoother. Decision-making, in theory, becomes faster. And yes, generally speaking, there are more pros than cons. One major advantage is that the system has a clear legal basis. Executive Order No. 43 (2011) created the Cabinet clusters to improve policy coordination, while Executive Order No. 24 (2017) reorganized them and even expanded their scope by adding the Infrastructure Cluster and the Participatory Governance Cluster. This is not some ad hoc arrangement; it is institutionalized. That alone is a big plus in a bureaucracy that often runs on personalities rather than sys...

  IS IT TIME TO REVIEW THE ROLE OF THE METRO MANILA DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY? Many experts, urban planners, and even lawmakers now agree on one thing: it is not just time to review the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) charter, the review is long overdue. Perhaps the problem already starts with the name. The MMDA is called a development authority, yet in practice it behaves more like a regulatory and law-enforcement agency. Traffic enforcer, flood responder, road disciplinarian—yes. Metro-wide development planner? That part seems to have been quietly pushed to the background. In theory, the MMDA doubles as the Regional Development Council (RDC) for the National Capital Region. But unlike all other RDCs in the country, NCR is structurally odd. Elsewhere, RDC members are governors, with private sector representatives, and the chairmanship follows a clear balance between government and business.  In NCR, however, the “RDC” is effectively composed of mayors, not gover...

  COULD THE PHILIPPINE COAST GUARD DO MORE ENVIRONMENTAL POLICE DUTIES? The short answer is yes. The longer—and more interesting—answer is that the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) is already doing environmental police work, but it can, and probably should, do much more. I ask this question not to criticize the PCG, but to stress a point: if an agency is already capable and already halfway there, why not finish the job? At present, environmental law enforcement at sea is a shared and sometimes awkward arrangement. The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), which is under the Department of Agriculture, focuses mainly on fisheries production and protection. It sets the rules—such as bans on catching undersized fish, egg-bearing lobsters, and berried crabs under the Fisheries Code (RA 8550, as amended)—but it does not have full police powers of its own. As a result, BFAR often calls on the PCG to help enforce these laws at sea. To its credit, that arrangement works reasonably w...

LET’S PROMOTE SORGHUM AS A SUPPLEMENT TO RICE I have to be careful with my choice of words here, because this is one of those topics where people can easily misunderstand my  intentions. So let me be clear from the start: I am not proposing that sorghum replace rice. I am proposing that sorghum supplement rice—along with breads, noodles, root crops, and other alternatives that we already eat anyway. Like most Filipinos, I grew up on rice. Breakfast, lunch, dinner—rice was always there. Recently, however, on my doctor’s advice, I started experimenting. Quinoa. Shiitake rice. Oatmeal and boiled bananas for breakfast. No tragedy happened. The world did not end. I simply adjusted. And that, really, is the point. This is not an anti-rice campaign. It is a food security conversation. The uncomfortable truth is that we import a large portion of the rice we consume. That alone should already set off alarm bells. What happens if there is a global rice shortage? What if exporting countries...

  CAN SOYBEANS SAVE US FROM FAMINE? The short answer is no—soybeans alone cannot save us from famine. There is no single “magic bullet” crop that can. But if we are honest about the realities of food security in 2026, soybeans may well be one of the most powerful tools we have in the global fight against hunger and famine. First, we need to be clear about terms. Hunger and famine are not the same thing. Hunger is an everyday condition experienced by millions of individuals and families. Famine, on the other hand, is a catastrophic, society-wide collapse of food systems. Under international standards, famine is declared only when food shortages, severe child malnutrition, and rising death rates occur at the same time. By the time famine is officially declared, people have already started dying. That is why prevention matters—and this is where soybeans come in. Soybeans are not meant to replace rice, corn, or wheat. They are meant to complement them. Food security is not about one cr...

  LET’S PROTECT INDIGENOUS CULTURAL EXPRESSIONS I strongly support the call of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) for local government units (LGUs) to pass municipal ordinances protecting indigenous cultural expressions—especially handwoven arts and crafts. In fact, I have gone a step further. I have already drafted a model municipal ordinance for this purpose and submitted it to both the NCIP and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), in the hope that they will endorse it to LGUs nationwide. Only recently did I fully realize that God has blessed me with the thinking and writing skills needed to draft policy proposals such as municipal ordinances. Once that realization sank in, the next step became obvious: I must use these skills. From now on, I am making it my personal mission to draft as many municipal ordinances as I can—on issues that matter, issues that affect real lives, and issues where local action can make a real difference. But this...

WHAT ELSE SHOULD THE COMMISSION ON HIGHER EDUCATION BE DOING? To be perfectly honest, I am not too conversant with what the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) is actually doing right now. So for the purposes of this essay, I will focus less on what CHED says it is doing, and more on what it should be doing—in my opinion, of course. Fortunately, I am not alone in this line of thinking. The Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM 2) has already publicly stated what many have long suspected: CHED lacks strategic focus. I will take off from that point. Let us get the obvious out of the way. CHED’s regulatory function—accreditation, compliance, tuition oversight—is a no-brainer. That is administrative work. Necessary, yes, but hardly inspiring. Regulation alone will not move Philippine higher education forward. If CHED is to have a strategic focus, it should be on its developmental function—assuming it fully recognizes development as part of its mandate. And legally speaking,...