Opinion

REPUBLIC Act No. 11648, or the act increasing the age for determining statutory rape, received the President’s signature on March 4, 2022. The long-awaited law raises the age of sexual consent from 12 to below 16 years old. “I know this has been long-awaited by many families and child rights advocates, and as a parent to three young kids myself, I was really adamant that we get this out for the President’s signature this Congress,” said Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri, author and co-sponsor of the law. He also co-chaired the Senate bicameral conference committee panel for the bill, along with Sen. Richard Gordon. “At thirteen or fourteen, our kids cannot make informed decisions about sex yet, especially sex with adults, so this is a really important law that will protect o...

GREENPEACE Philippines welcomed the adoption of a resolution mandating the creation of a global treaty to end plastic pollution. The group said the agreement provides a strong warning for plastic polluting companies to immediately align themselves to global ambitions by reducing their plastic production and shifting to reuse and refill models. The group said that the resolution, adopted at the 5th session of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA 5.2) in Nairobi, Kenya last Wednesday, will be instrumental in forging a legally binding agreement that can help developing countries like the Philippines to stand up against corporate polluters. These include oil and chemical companies that produce raw plastic, as well as consumer goods manufacturers whose annual production of millions of tons of ...

BY JUAN PONCE ENRILE SCARCITIES and hoardings of prime commodities were recurrent problems of the Marcos regime in the early years of martial law. The experience I gathered in solving scarcities and hoarding in those days taught me that businessmen were a peculiar breed. They would take whatever risk there was for as long as they could generate profits for themselves. The first case of hoarding I handled in the early days of martial law was the sudden disappearance of sugar in the market. This happened a few weeks after martial law was declared. Malacañang was swamped with frantic telephone calls one morning in October 1972 from irate housewives and other users of sugar as raw material for their products. Their common complaint was the sheer absence of sugar in the market. Alarme...

BY MIKE DEL ROSARIO THE Forestland Management Bureau (FMB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) launched a pilot program to assist people's organizations (POs) to diversify their revenue sources by enhancing consolidation in areas such as guyabano, rambutan, citrus and coffee production. On the other hand, through fostering the preservation and maintenance of biodiversity, soil, water, animal habitats and other natural resources, strategic integration benefits them. Apart from increasing resilience to climate change and the potential for mitigation, another key benefit for agroforestry producers is higher economic resilience since agroforestry provides many income sources throughout the year. The DENR's purpose is to provide an overview of agroforestr...

BY MIKE DEL ROSARIO EARLIER government efforts on forestland development and restoration through reforestation contracts to families and communities resulted in forest depletion and degradation. As the influx of individuals to the forest increased so was damage to the forestlands. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Forestland Management Project (FMP) is being implemented to reverse the harm to the forestland and at the same time helped augment the needs of the people living in the uplands by introducing and providing them access to enterprise development. FMP provided continuous technical and material resources to the households and communities engaged in the economic enterprise of their choice to ensure the viability of the enterprise. The adopted str...

BY JUPER NIÑO CALULOT BIGAYAN GRABBED FROM AZCENTRAL.COM i That virulent threat has crimsoned our shores Scattering gloom yonder distant horizons Noble are those who battle headstrong Nobler still for they soldier on ii Are we meant indeed to tread this course? In this perilous path of the unseen and unknown If this be so then there’s no recourse So fret not oh! dear and just hold on iii If history is written to favor victors Then why are some winners encaved in stones? In some nameless graves as forgotten heroes And still that pyre ignites in a world forlorn iv As weakened warriors lift their swords To salvage kindreds of hundreds and scores That dreaded enemy seeps deeper still To make this world a wartorn hell v But m...

BY MIKE DEL ROSARIO The Community Resource Management Framework-Community Management Plan (CRMF-CMP) was developed to assist Peoples Organizations (POs) in managing the areas covered by Community Based Forest Management Agreements (CBFMAs). The majority of CRMFs in the Forestland Management Project (FMP)-covered areas in the provinces of Quirino and Nueva Vizcaya has been implemented for nearly four years since its inception in 2014, identifying gaps, valuable lessons learned and gains from the previous five-year plan is recommended. In her message, the Regional Executive Director Gwendolyn Bambalan emphasized the importance of strong community relations and organizing that is anchored primarily in the concept of sustainable development objectives such as achieving a balanc...

BY MIKE DEL ROSARIO THE Forest Management Project (FMP) is expected to integrate conservation and development-oriented activities with full participation and capacitation of local communities and several people's organizations (PO). This is in collaboration with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) project management offices and field implement units within the FMP-assisted sub-watershed areas in the provinces of Nueva Vizcaya and Quirino. THE Department of Environment and Natural Resources project management offices and field implement units within the Forest Management Project-assisted sub-watershed areas in the provinces of Nueva Vizcaya and Quirino hold a three-day workshop on technical writing, photo documentation and drone training on June 2-4, 2021. ...