WOMEN | Janine Togonon: Indigenous beauty

Janine Togonon wearing a costume
worn by Muslim royalty of Mindanao
in Southern Philippines.

Janine Togonon continues the Philippines' winning streak in the Miss Universe beauty pageant. Like her predecessors, Miriam Quiambao, Venus Raj and Chamcey Supsup, Janine is a dusky, morena beauty. She looks like the indigenous women in Manuel Panares paintings of Pre-Spanish inhabitants of the Philippine islands.
The world is taking notice of the Philippines with Janine's 1st runner up win in the prestigious beauty pageant. The people of the Philippine islands are beautiful physically, culturally, spiritually.

Related Read:
Asian and proud of it 
Native beauty 
Today's Cebuanas
Panares paintings

NEWS | OP suspends Gov. Gwen Garcia

The Office of the President (OP) in an order signed by Sec. Paquito Ochoa has suspended Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia, less than six months before her term ends. The suspension stemmed from an administrative complaint on usurpation of authority filed by former Cebu Vice Governor Greg Sanchez. Garcia, however, has contested said suspension as she has not received the order and that the complainant is already deceased. The governor calls the six-month suspension, a power grab and a political maneuver in a statement posted at her official Facebook page. (photo from Inquirer.net)

EDITORIAL | Growth without benefits

Reports of the country's economy has been positive.

Manila Bulletin reported: "Exceeding analysts’ expectations, the Philippine economy grew 7.1% in the third quarter of 2012, the highest in Southeast Asia and second highest in Asia, the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) reported on November 28, 2012. The growth resulted in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) expanding by 6.5% in the first nine months, above the target range of 5-6%. It was the highest under the Aquino Administration, driven mainly by services sector."

The issue, however, is not just about growth but also about distribution of wealth. The Aquino administration has been trying to remedy the situation with its 4Ps program, a band-aid solution to the problem of poverty of millions of Filipinos both in rural and urban centers.

Not waiting for the enlargement of the national pie of economic surpluses and for it to trickle down to the poor, the Aquino government distributes money as dole-outs to the country's poorest of the poor. The problem has been in the implementation of the program marked by wrong beneficiaries, manipulation by local politicians, exploitation by lending firms, etc.

Instead of alleviating poverty, in several instances it has exacerbated it. Lending firms accept as guarantees the beneficiaries' 4Ps receivables for loans used by the poor to buy television sets, pay debts, and whatever they need the money for. As a result, children who are in school as precondition for the 4Ps program are the ones suffering. Some parents are unable to support their children in school who are made to attend classes without food to eat during recess or lunch.

The Aquino government can learn from the purok system of San Francisco Camotes on grassroots poverty alleviation and micro-finance management at the bottom if it sincerely wants to help the poor.

Growth without benefits to the poor is meaningless. The government's distributive measure is good but it's short-term solution and defective in its implementation.

ECONOMY | It's More Prosperous in the Philippines ... soon.

LONDON Jan 11 (Reuters) - The Philippines and Peru will be among emerging economies that become much more prominent in the next few decades, helped by demographics and rising education standards, with the Philippines set to leapfrog 27 places to become the 16th largest economy by 2050, HSBC predicts.

The bank expects China to overtake the United States as the world's biggest economy by 2050, and says strong growth rates in other developing countries will help drive the global economy. Read more>>

PEOPLE | Poverty in the Philippines

Shanties along the river - urban
dwelling of the city's poor. (Photo
from Inquirer.net)

Poverty in the Philippines is prevalent among the indigenous cultural majorities and minorities. This is ironic, to say the least. The country is rich in natural resources. It has the world's most diverse species of birds, plants, animals, insects, trees, and marine life. And yet, the country's fishermen and farmers are poor.

Many among the indigenous population end up working as house help, kargadors, drivers, construction workers. Those who finish college find employment in call centers [which pay much], in private companies [which pay less] and the government as favor dispensed by political patrons. Many leave the country and work  in well-paying jobs abroad as drivers, wielders, pipe-fitters, fastfood crew, garbage collector, carwash attendant, gasoline boy, etc.

There is a rising middle class courtesy of OFW dollar remittances. But they don't have a say yet on how the country is managed. They remain powerless despite keeping the Philippine economy afloat.

RELIGION | A Christian nation

Christianity gave Cebu and most of the Philippine archipelago its unique place in Asia as the continent's only Catholic nation.

Just like our Malaysian and Indonesian brothers, we, Cebuanos or Sugbuanons (we don't know how to call the country and its people other than what the Spaniards named them.), have to carve our niche in a predominantly Buddhist, Hindu, Confucian and Taoist Far East.

We have to make our mark under the long shadow of the Chinese and Hindu people and their great civilizations. For the Malaysians and Indonesians, it is Islam that gave their countries their identities and place in Southeast Asia. For us in Cebu and the rest of the archipelago, it is Christianity.

But it has not been smooth-sailing for us. We have to find our own way out of the mesh created by years of foreign subjugation while remaining true to our Christian faith. It shouldn't be difficult as Christianity had its roots in the Middle East, not in Europe or the Americas.

We have to get our acts together. Lest, we give Christianity a bad name. Many foreigners are asking why are we called the "sick man" of Asia while remaining as the region's only Catholic nation. Christianity unifies us all: rich or poor, native or mestizo, powerful or powerless. Yet, we leave our faiths behind in our day-to-day lives as public servants, government officials, businessmen, ordinary workers, etc.

We have to integrate our faith with our history before our colonization and with who we are as a people now so it doesn't come out as something just forced upon us but a matter of choice, an exercise of our own free will.

A Visayan saint

The Philippnes will have its second saint in San Pedro Calungsod, a Visayan martyr who was with the Jesuit mission in Guam led by Blessed Diego.Luis de San Vitores. Thousands of Filipino faithfuls, especially Cebuanos are in Rome to witness this rare event to unfold on Sunday, Oct. 21, 2012.

Claims have been flying as to the saint's genealogy following his canonization. There are those who say he is from Ginatilan in Southern Cebu. Some say he is from Bohol and others say he is from Iloilo. There are only two clues to help us based on his name in official Spanish records which was Pedro Calonsor Bissaya. He was from the Visayas which was then part of the Cebu archdiocese. And that his surname is Calonsor. (read more>>>)

The glory that was Butuan

Hindu-Buddhist goddess Kinari found
in Butuan. Photo from Wikipedia

BY JD VELEZ

Before there was the Philippines, there was Butuan.

I was in Butuan sometime in the early 90s during an exposure trip by Anthropology students of  the University of San Carlos in Cebu. What I saw there left a lasting imprint in my mind

Butuan is one of its kind. No other site has yielded such rich, enormous finds. In what is said to be a dried up portion of Masao river we saw an endless array of Chinese porcelains in all shapes and sizes, testament to its trade with China. There is evidence indicating that Butuan  was in contact with China.

read more >>>

THE PEOPLE | European encounter

Blood compact by Manuel Panares

Indigenous Cebuanos, the original inhabitants of the island of Cebu were full of tattoos and adorned with gold earrings, bracelets and necklaces as depicted above in a painting by Manuel Panares. In this painting, Rajah Humabon had a blood compact with Magellan , captain of the Spanish expedition that landed in Cebu.

After the blood compact, Magellan went to war with Humabon's enemy, Lapulapu who killed him. The rest of Spanish men who were in Humabon's court were butchered. So much for mixing blood as symbol of brotherhood and unity. The natives thought they could use the European's military strength to their advantage in their war against Lapulapu. . Unfortunately, Lapu-lapu, killed the leader of the Spanish conquestadores. Miguel Lopez de Legaspi conquered the Philippines for good in 1565.

Today, most of the natives are powerless, poor, marginalized. What happened since then?

THE ISLAND | SanFran is Disaster Resilient : UN

Vice Mayor Al Arquillano (left)
receiving the trophy from UNISDR

In May 2011, the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) recognized San Francisco's  disaster preparedness and awarded it the Sasakawa Award for Disaster Reduction for its “indigenous solutions to disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation through its Purok system.”

San Francisco won the prestigious award after beating 25 other nominees coming from from other nations who also vied for the recognition. Former San Francisco mayor and now vice mayor, Al Arquillano went to Geneva, Switzerlad to receive the award.

Indigenous solutions and `the people's role in disaster-preparedness won for San Francisco the award. While other nominees can boost of better technology, know-how and communication equipments, many cannot get as much cooperation and coordinated response from the people as San Francisco can.

THE PEOPLE | And this is democracy?

BY J.D. VELEZ

The Filipino elite have pulled a fast one on the Filipino majority the past one hundred years. And they still do up to now.

I know some sectors and development workers who are working to end this by capacitating communities so people can chart their own furure and decide what is best for them.

But until then, the masses have to leave the country and work abroad so their lives would be better. The elite have no plans of improving their plight. They corner key government contracts, get themselves elected to government positions after agreeing with each other how positions are to be distributed among themselves. They enrich themselves in office and act as patron who dispense favors to gain loyalties and persecute those who oppose them.

THE ISLAND | Which will prevail?

Parts of Cebu island are seeing signs of rejuvenation and rehabilitation especially in the towns. Mountains are reforested, coastal areas are planted with mangroves, seas declared as marine sanctuaries, more lands declared protected areas and previously unseen and endangered species of birds are spotted in places not previously known to be inhabited by them. 

It's a different story when it comes to Cebu's urban centers where mangrove areas are reclaimed, mountains bulldozed and quarried, rivers polluted (some are  biologically dead) to give way to "progress". Rebirth and destruction are happening side by side in the same island. Only time will tell which will prevail.

THE METRO | Unchecked development

Metro Cebu is expanding rapidly. But with urbanization is the accompanying plethora of problems ranging from over-congestion to uncollected garbage, from heavy traffic to air pollution, from dwindling resources to lack of decent housing. The list can go on and on. And there's no agency or master plan to manage the growth the metro is experiencing.

Cebu is an island with meager resources. If recent developments go unchecked, it can have its toll on the island's capacity to sustain the present growth. Read more >>

URBAN PLANNING | Moving the urban center

Cebu City reaffirmed it is Southern Philippines' premier city after the end of the Marcos regime and some five decades after the end of world war 2. 

Lito Osmeña, first Cebu Grovernor after Marcos left, made tremendous impact on the city, although, he never served as chief executive, just like his grandfather, Pres. Sergio Osmena. His conversion of non-productive provincial lots, into real estate ventures during his lone term as governor from 1988-1991, paved the way for Cebu City's radical transformation.

To fund infrastructure projects in the province, the provincial government which owned a five-hectare property in Banilad, entered into a joint venture with Ayala Land, Inc. and formed the Cebu Property Ventures and Development Corporation (CPVDC), the first of its kind in the country. With land as its equity contribution, the province owned 74.8 percent of CPVDC, the first purely corporate venture by a Local Government Unit in the country. Read more>>

Demystifying Jose Rizal

In my peripheral Southerner's view, Rizal was simply a Mestizo-Sangley ilustrado born to a family who made money from the cash crop boom of the 19th Century. His is a descendant of Dominador LamCo, a Chinese immigrant from Jinjiang, Quanzhu in China.

He was better educated than his countrymen because of the privileges of his class just like many of the Mestizos from Cebu's Parian District, a rich mestizo enclave in the 19th century.

In 1840, the port of Manila opened to world trade, years ahead of Cebu and Iloilo. It paved the way for the cash crop boom in Luzon. Just like the rest of the country, Mestizo Chinese traders were the ones who took most advantage of this opportunity as they were the only ones who had the capital needed to engage in plantation farming. Rizal's Chinese ancestors were among those who benefited from Spain's trade liberalization policy in the Philippines during the 19th Century. read more>>

DOSSIER | Interview with Rep. Tomas Osmena (Updated)

Sometime in February  2011, J.D. Velez interviewed Congressman Tomas Osmena for a book project. Here are a few excerpts from that interview.

J.D. VELEZ: What would be the defining achievement of your administration? You served five terms as Mayor of the City.

CONG. TOMAS R. OSMENA: You name it. I don't know. You tell me. Mactan Bridge I've done that.

JDV: The Second Mactan Bridge?

TRO: Yeah.

 Read more>>

PROFILE | Cebu City, Queen City of the South

Cebu's port is home to most of the Philippines' shipping companies. It's not surprising as Cebu City has been, historically, the center of commerce, education, entertainment and information of Southern Philippines. It is also the administrative, ecclesiastical and cultural capital of the region. Its influence is far-reaching and wide. It has remained the Queen City of the South for years due to the ingenuity and flexibility of its people surviving the ups and downs of trade in sugar, hemp, copra and furniture.

read more>>

GALLERY | Beautiful Cebu

Cebu is not the same colonial province time has forgotten decades ago. It is not a periphery to the center but rather, a destination with its own unique charm. Discover for yourself.

THE FARM. Vice Mayor Cynthia Moreno's brainchild,
The Farm has an organic demo farm, a museum and a
 restaurant that offers organic food. It's a must stop if one finds
 himself/herself in Aloguinsan.

Moalboal's heritage park at the back of the municipal hall

Cabecera de Argao is first
Cebu town to have wifi-ready public plaza

A white sand public beach in Maravilla,Tabuelan.

ECONOMY | It's More Prosperous in the Philippines ... soon.

LONDON Jan 11 (Reuters) - The Philippines and Peru will be among emerging economies that become much more prominent in the next few decades, helped by demographics and rising education standards, with the Philippines set to leapfrog 27 places to become the 16th largest economy by 2050, HSBC predicts.

The bank expects China to overtake the United States as the world's biggest economy by 2050, and says strong growth rates in other developing countries will help drive the global economy.

"Plenty of places in the world look set to deliver very strong rates of growth. But they are not in the developed world, which faces both structural and cyclical headwinds. They are in the emerging world," the bank said in its report 'The World in 2050'.

It based its forecasts on fundamentals such as current income per capita, rule of law, democracy, education levels and demographic change.

HSBC projects the Philippines economy is poised to grow by an average of 7 percent annually over the next 40 years, while Peru should average annual growth of 5.5 percent over the same period.

The sheer pace of population growth in countries such as Nigeria and Pakistan means that these economies will swell in size to be included among the 100 biggest economies even if their incomes on a per-capita basis remain low.

HSBC said lower scores for rule of law in Latin America constrained its per-capita inccome projections for the region though it noted that Brazil was making headway in this aspect.

"The losers are the small population, ageing economies of Europe," added the bank, which says the demographics in much of Europe underscores concerns about the debt problems faced by many of the continent's governments.

PHOTO OP | A Picture Paints a Thousand Words

Philippine President Benigno Simeon Aquino III with US President Barack Obama. http://ph.news.yahoo.com/pnoy-obama-washington-meet-may-june-us-ambassador-072206010.html

POLITICS | A new political equation

J.D. VELEZ | Blogger

A new political equation is taking shape in Cebu's political landscape. Behind the scene maneuvering is realigning political alliances along administration and opposition party lines.

A chapter in the island's political history is coming to a close. But what is the shape of things to come? Politicians are predictable. And the future is apparent as day. But anything can happen between now and 2013. 

Nationally, the Aquino administration is flexing its muscle and is not afraid of any repercussions except for adverse public opinion. Those hoping for a coup are in for a big disappointment for nothing would be coming. And should one be launched, it will not succeed.

The Philippine Right is in for a rough sailing ahead. Not even Bongbong can pull a miracle with all his wealth. Only Jinggoy, Mar and Binay look promising as successor in 2016. But it's too far away.

The Left helped catapult GMA to power but she drifted to the Right for political survival. Now, the Right, is running out of options and could dangerously opt for the extreme.

But so far, GMA has taken the right course to survive politically. Her academic paper on the economy, whether done for political mileage, is good for the opposition's own soul searching. In the end, everything will hopefully be fine for the Philippines.