Towards building mangrove ecosystems
MANY SCIENTISTS have concluded that mangrove forests could become strong buffers to counter storm surges and rising sea levels, but with a caveat that...
Typhoons and wind patterns
JUST TO be clear, the southwest monsoon also known as “Habagat” is not a typhoon but a seasonal wind pattern.
Knowing that, I wonder why...
Managing our sargassum resources
THERE ARE over 70 species of sargassum in the Philippines, and that could potentially make thousands of seaweed farmers rich, if only the government...
Better disaster response
MANY RADIO and television stations and websites have done a great job in announcing and forwarding information about the Carina typhoon and flood victims...
Battling a mental health epidemic
IT IS ALREADY a well-established fact that the COVID-19 pandemic also triggered what could be called a mental health pandemic.
It does not mean, however,...
What is the real unemployment rate?
ACCORDING to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the unemployment rate in our country as of May 2024 is 4.1%. Can you believe that?
By the...
Metro Manila development planning
THE FIVE functions of the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) are:
1. development planning
2. transport and traffic management
3. solid waste disposal and management
4. flood control...
Microcredits for personal assistants
WHILE it’s good for many employees to have lots of microcredits to their name, what is even better is for them to have a...
Adaptive use of heritage buildings
THE LAW prohibits owners of buildings that are 50 years old or older from demolishing them, for any reason, because of heritage protection laws.
Since...
Rethinking the local development councils
ACCORDING to the law, there are supposed to be Local Development Councils (LDCs) at the barangay, municipal, city, provincial and regional levels.
According to that...