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Article 3:

Why a rice shortage in the Philippines?

Upi Asia Online

Mong Palatino / April 2, 2008

To access this article, click here.

Article 4:

Is there a rice shortage?

Philippine Daily Inquirer

Cielito Habito / April 13, 2008

To access this article, click here.

b) Personal Response

When I first read these two articles on the rice shortage problem in the Philippines, I was taken aback for a while because I didn’t know we have this dilemma right now. Therefore, I thought the government is doing a great job in hiding this fact because it doesn’t feel like we are running out of rice until now that I have encountered there articles. I noticed the major difference between these articles right away because one is arguing the fact that there is a decreased in rice supply in the Philippines and the other maintains that this country is very self-sufficient in rice production. I think the conflicting viewpoints and some of the disagreeing information given by these two articles are based on their origins. The article that shows a negative image of the situation, titled “Why a rice shortage in the Philippines?” is not a local newspaper but a global news site on the internet. The “Is there a rice shortage?” article was extracted from the Philippine Daily Inquirer, a major local newspaper in the Philippines. The global news site is not from the Philippines and is free to paint a picture of a situation without thinking about the reaction of the government. Local newspapers, like the Philippine Daily Inquirer, have more pressure to make the government look good and would probably want to steer away from controversies and criticisms from the government. However, there are still similar information given such as the corruption of the rice markets, but I still think the people of the Philippines needs to know the truth. When’s all said and done, it is the government’s responsibility to declare valid facts whether there is a rice shortage problem or not.

c) Questions

1)      Why is the Philippines, one of the top rice producers in the world, importing rice from other countries to feed its people?

2)      How can the traders and government officials’ mistreatments towards the farmers be related to the quantity of their rice output?

3)      Why is the act of increasing the rice production sector in the Philippine economy not helping to improve the national rice shortage problem?

4)      If there is no rice shortage problem, why are the companies increasing the prices for the rice now especially when the population is starting to grow at an overwhelming rate?

5)      What do you think the consequences the farmers, the government, and the public are going to pay due to the dishonesty in the rice markets, where imported rice from other countries are bought in a much lower price than the same rice sold to the Philippines?

6)      Why isn’t the government charging the officials that are creating corruption in the rice markets when that fact is clearly obvious to the public?

Article 3:

Guimaras declares state of calamity over worst oil spill

Philippine Daily Inquirer/ August 15, 2006

To access this news article, click here.

Grave concern has started to rise concerning a giant tanker that managed to spill two million liters of oil into the sea near Guimaras Island.  

Undeniably a disaster that was waiting to be rendered, the Philippine coastguards sensed the urgency to promote this issue to the public.

Innocent sea creatures are suffering due to the harmful oil that is swathing their habitat.   

Many marine reserves have been polluted in the Philippines over the years and Guimaras Island is merely one of these places.  

Affected areas by the oil spill consist of fishing grounds and diving spots, harming the Philippines’ environmental and tourism factors.

Rainstorms were the cause of this problem for they made the tanker sink and eventually leading to the oil spill.

Appeals for help have been sent to Japan and Indonesia in order to request their assistance in clearing out the oil. 

Sadly, the oil is beginning to spread at a rate too rapid for the coastguards and environmentalists to clean it efficiently.

It is believed that the oil will take three years to be taken out of the water.

Sources said that two members of the crew is missing at sea due to the sinking of the tanker. 

Lack of competent equipment is a major obstacle for the goal of getting rid of the oil and stopping the spill.

A submerged tank is still lying on the floor of the ocean, waiting to be found.

Numerous amounts of cash are what the Philippine government needs to get a hold of so that they can fix the destruction created by the oil spill.

Definite results have been recognized over the past years as the damages are slowly beginning to be repaired.

Personal Response

      This oil spill, which occurred near the Guimaras Island, can only be defined in one word and that is miserable. I feel sadness and distress that this incident had to happen. There are various reasons why I feel this way. The event is overflowing with grief because some of the crew members are still missing, the oil has murdered a majority of the marine life, and the Philippines cannot even afford to completely clean up the leak. Having crew members being lost at sea is devastating for family and friends because they do not know if they will ever see them again. I shudder to think how despondent it was like for a relative to see their loved one this morning and then finding out later that they might never see them again. Along with humans being lost at sea, the oil spill damaged and killed several parts of the ocean life. Since this occurrence, the fishing grounds, diving spots, and the national marine reserve have been closed to the public. In addition, countless of sea creatures have died because of the dispersal of the oil that is not a natural part of their habitat. It is very depressing to realize that the small amount of the beautiful nature Philippines has left are dying due to a man-made cause. To make this issue even more unfortunate is the fact that the Philippines, being a third world country, does not have the financial support to fully clean up all the oil from the sea. I sense a terrible urgency about this because if the oil is not being efficiently disposed of, then it will just keep spreading. The chilling result will then be that the sea critters living near Guimaras Island will continue to suffer and slowly die. Just like Philippines’ deforestation problem, the oil spill in the Guimaras Island just goes to show how incapable the Philippines is at protecting its environment. This is why this issue is upsetting; humans are missing, floras and faunas are dying, and the Philippines is not competent enough to entirely clean up the mess.

Questions

1. How do you feel knowing that countless marine animals died by a cause that could have been avoided?

2. If you are given a chance to go back in time, what would you do to prevent this oil spill from happening?

3. How can this accident affect your daily life together with the rest of the population’s lives in direct and/or indirect ways?

Article 1:

The War with No End

TIME magazine

February 5, 2007

Summary

      Deep inside the forests of Mindanao, which is located in the south of Philippines, an unrecognized political party began to assemble. They are commonly known as the N.P.A (the New People’s Army), and consist of guerrillas and soldiers all fighting to overthrow the Philippines’ democratic government structure and create a communist nation. The members are typically poor people who show no obedience towards the upper class and are battling for the underprivileged. Some participated in the insurgence for personal rather than political reasons as well. The N.P.A. was formed when the Philippines’ domestic issues such as poverty, corruption, and unemployment were triggered and several Filipino civilians thought that the only thing the Philippines needs is communism as the philosophy for a well-organized government. A few years after the People Power demonstration, the N.P.A began fighting for their beliefs. They resorted to terrorist tactics to draw attention and warning to the Philippine government, currently the Arroyo administration. Numerous terrorist attacks and civil wars have taken place in the nation since the late 1970’s. The European Union and the United States of America have both recognized the N.P.A as a terrorist group, although some countries such as China widely consider that communism is the best first step to take in order to eradicate the issues in this third world nation. Although the N.P.A. is still fighting for their cause today, many guerrillas and rebels have been killed by the government and fewer people are joining the squad due to lack of enthusiasm. However, the N.P.A. still remains a symbol of the Filipino’s perpetual discontent for their government.

Personal Response

      The New People’s Army is, what I believe, an unnecessary pain to the Philippine government.  If the political party consists of some rebels who only joined in for personal reasons and a majority of the group is dying, the rebellion is not really worth it. The government should just declare the N.P.A. failure as a reasonable political group. Most former political groups have failed and retired from their campaigns, so why shouldn’t the N.P.A. just follow that rule? To prove my point further, communism is not a good ruling system and will definitely lead to instability and further injustice in this nation.  This article published by TIME magazine does not contain sufficient information on the N.P.A itself. Although the article describes the different theories and thoughts behind the rebellion group’s desire for communism, it lacks details such as the real reason as to why the N.P.A. was formed. Apart from the lacking of basic information, the article was very interesting and hooked me from the start. The images and words contained in this article really mirrored the situation between the N.P.A. and the Philippine government.

Questions

1. Do you think the N.P.A members, who fought against the Philippine army, died for good reasons? Why or why not?

2. What could be driving these members of the N.P.A. into persisting to fight for communism until the very end?

3. How will the Philippines and its citizens’ reactions be like if the government gets overthrown and the N.P.A. becomes the new government, ruling the Philippines by communism?

  

Article 2:

Philippine Population Climbs, Food Problems Loom

Reuters

Raju Gopalakrishnan / April 18, 2008

To access this news article, click here.

Summary

      The main subject of this article centers on the increasing population growth of the Philippines and how in spite of that, policies are not to be expected to change because of the Catholic Church’s domination over the government. The author points out that due to the escalating population, the price of Filipinos’ main food staple, rice, is rising to a point where the poor cannot pay for them. To emphasize the seriousness of this issue, the article draws attention to the fact that the desertification of agricultural land in order to build developed building is being stopped so the country can achieve the food requirements. The author also sat with the nation’s top economic planner, Augusto Santos, to converse about the situation. Santos stated that the government needs to reconsider its guidelines and give education for sensible parenthood and family planning, but he also highlighted that the encouragement of artificial birth control will unlikely to be used. This is because the Catholic Church, who supports natural family planning over the use of contraceptives, is a major influence to the decisions made in the government. Another obstacle is that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, a Catholic who has strong association with the church, does not want to ignore them and refuse to get contraceptives. The article ended with a feeling of urgency that the population growth is not decreasing enough and that unless the government breaks out of the religious barrier to help, the population growth will continue to be a threat to the country.

Personal Response

      It was mind-boggling to me, as I read the article, why the government is hesitating to take strong actions now against the overpopulation issue in the Philippines. I then presumed it is because I am not a strong devout believer. However, I still believe that one’s religious conviction should not interfere with one’s choice to improve a nation’s health. In my opinion, President Arroyo is pretty much in a cornered situation since she is divided between her religious belief and her duty to think about the good of the people. Even if the Philippines’ overpopulation issue is not as dangerous as other countries’ dilemma such as China’s, this country faces an obstacle that China doesn’t. It is the fact that the country’s main religion, Catholicism, prevents the nation to improve its population growth. China’s Communism allows them to at least take action against overpopulation. The Philippines’ population is also growing closer to Russia’s figure (more that 100 million), but the Philippines needs to worry more because this country is not as big as Russia. At the end of the day, these obstacles the government is facing will still put them beside the other bigger, crowded places in the list of countries threatened by overpopulation. 

Questions

1. Why do you think the government is so focused on solving the overpopulation issue with the use of contraceptives? What other methods besides that would work as well?

2. What would happen if President Arroyo chooses to get contraceptives for the people and ignores the Catholic Church?

3. If you were President Arroyo, what would you do regarding the issue and explain why.