The fire risk factor we don’t talk about
WHEN THE Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) announced that 74 barangays in Iloilo City are classified as high-risk, the focus immediately turned to electrical...
74 red zones – a wake-up call Iloilo City shouldn’t ignore
WHEN THE Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) announced that 74 barangays in Iloilo City are now classified as high-risk, it should have jolted us...
Strengthening Iloilo’s business climate from the ground up
ECONOMIC transformation does not always begin with billion-peso investments or towering skylines. Sometimes, it begins with a sari-sari store in a barangay corner, a...
Investing in smallest businesses
WHEN Iloilo City rolled out its Nano Enterprise Incentive Ordinance, the announcement may have sounded modest on the surface — graduated discounts on regulatory...
Oral health is public health: Why LGUs must invest more
WHEN local governments craft their annual budgets, health allocations often gravitate toward hospitals, medicines, and emergency response. Rarely does oral health command the same...
A quiet public health success
IN AN ERA when headlines are dominated by gleaming bridges, sprawling flyovers and megaproject inaugurations, it’s easy to overlook the quieter victories of governance...
When the watchmen fall
BARANGAY captains are called punong barangay for a reason. They are meant to be the first line of defense in their communities — the...
Should drug testing extend to all elected officials?
THE PROPOSAL to subject all barangay officials in Iloilo Province to random drug testing comes at a moment of reckoning. Three barangay captains have...
Drug-cleared on paper, infiltrated in reality?
ONLY ONE barangay in Iloilo Province reportedly remains undeclared as drug-cleared. On paper, that statistic reads like a triumph. It suggests a near-total victory...
Validation must lead to action
THE RECENT order of the Cabinet Officer for Regional Development and Security (CORDS) for Western Visayas – Environment secretary Raphael Lotilla – to rigorously...