Connecting

THREE.

2017-11-16T20:53:00.000-08:00

Have you ever been alone, just sitting and thinking, spending very precious time contemplating on how all would end while you are just alone, say, in the porch, or perhaps by the window, where you just look at the blank space in the distance? Death is something even us old folks can only think about ... we probably cannot actually know and experience it. We can wonder ... would it be lonely when that happens?

In times like this, one would perhaps think of the medical people who have been working so hard to keep us alive. It's the medical doctors that I have in mind right now. Many of them, when they deal with old people would be guided by their hypocratic oath ... to save lives ... to keep a patient alive whatever it takes ... etc., etc. Sometimes, this is no longer in consideration of how the old person thinks about it. In many cases, doctors succeed in saving lives, in prolonging lives, but usually of a different quality.

I recall what I told the two doctors who were looking after my late mother, Nana, when in the hospital they asked me what should be done when a medical situation happens. I took control immediately. I told the doctors, "if she stops breathing, let nature take its course. Do not revive. Even if you can revive her, she will not regain her previous quality of life which she is entitled to whatever happens. I take all the responsibilities relating to this."

In any case, what does the extension of life means? It's really more old age and less quality life.

An Idea Out Of Frustration

2017-10-11T01:00:00.000-07:00

I'm neither pro-administration nor pro-opposition, and am not bothered by it one bit. I just observe independently and I don't contribute to public policy. I'm retired, a septuagenarian, and largely not listened to nor read. In other words, I express my ideas probably largely for myself as only a very few people read my blog. Those who read me must do so to understand what I'm saying, but those reading me to prepare to rebut all what I say are not welcome to my blog.

Not that there have been no killings in the past, but since the start of the drug war by the government there has been an increasing number of deaths in the hands of the police, and vigilantes, and not unlikely other criminal elements trying to take advantage of the situation to get rid of competitors in the drug business. If we look at the data, it's bad, really bad. The problem is that on the basis of media reports this country looks more like a nation of criminals and the government is not even trying to counter such public image. And, of course, the opposition is enjoying, to the hilt, its "freedom of speech" to accuse everybody in government, particularly President Duterte, of wrong doing without even producing an iota of evidence. How could they? ... Well, this is all politics.

And we all say, "it's a free country."

Well, I don't like what's happening in our country, so I am complaining. I'm not only complaining, but I am also proposing to at least partially solve the problem. Of course I do expect people to agree or disagree with my idea. If you agree with the idea, say your piece and perhaps even suggest how we could improve the idea being proposed. If you don't agree, say your piece just the same then shut up. If you're a Troll, you're not welcome. Keep out of the way.

Now, here's what I'd like to say. Don't kill the criminals, specially those arrested for drug-related crimes. Herd them to an island. What kind of an island? I have an idea and I'm giving an example of that island. The island I'm referring to is Di'nem Island, part of the island-municipality of Itbayat in Batanes. I'm not offering Di'nem because I can't do that. I'm just giving this as an example. Why is this a good example? Well, look at the basic characteristics of the island. Let me say here that the Itbayatens, the natives of Itbayat, would probably not agree with this idea, too. This idea may make sense or it may not make any sense at all. Just read on.

The National Government should negotiate with (NOT IMPOSE ON) the Provincial Government of Batanes and the Municipal Government of Itbayat to use the island of Di'nem (also known as Diogo Island, Isla Diego, Rodonta) as a prison island, much like the island of Alcatraz in the US. The island is an uninhabited volcanic island (Philvocs says it's extinct). Di'nem is a small round island about 513 meters high, 1.21 km in diameter, 5.6 km southeast of Itbayat. The island does not have beeches, only cliffs around the entire island. It has a steep westerm side that drops some 50-200 meters straight to the sea. Its eastern side hosts four islets, the largest of which is about 0.8 km eastwards to the Pacific Ocean. The whole Di'nem Island is surrounded by deep and dangerous sea with very powerful undercurrent. Put mildly, the island is inaccessible and inhospitable

Of course, if you keep prisoners on this island, the Philippine Coast Guard must maintain constant sea patrol around it, and while doing that the PCG ships could also watch out for Taiwanese poachers that abound in the area. The island would definitely be more inhospitable and unfriendly compared to the island of Alcatraz in the US. Prisoners on the island would not drown during tsunamis because even a huge tsunami would probably reach only a tenth of the height of the island cliffs. They will have to co-habitate the island with poisonous reptiles, wild animals, and insects, though. Would prisoners be able to escape? They most certainly could try and the sharks in the area would probably have feasts as well. If the sharks would not be active, no one would survive the powerful undercurrent pushing toward the Pacific Ocean.

There are pluses and minuses to this idea. There are thousands of uninhabited (in fact, even unnamed) islands all over the Philippines to consider. My sense is that the National Government would probably prefer an island close to the seat of government, in which case Di'nem would certainly have to be excluded. But the question at this time is: is our society ready for this idea, or am I too inhuman to even think of it?

2017-08-28T18:15:00.004-07:00

For those interested, not necessarily believers or non-believers, here's a very brief and probably incomplete description of the different generational groupings according to some social researchers and demographers. I tried to generate this information, but I'm not a social researcher. Neither am I a demographer. So, I may have errors here.

GENERATION NAME	BIRTH RANGE	ALSO KNOWN AS	NATURE/CHARACTERISTICS
Lost Generation	1883-1900	World War I Gen	The generation that came of age (they were in their teens and tweens) during World War I. They didn’t vanish but simply were disoriented, wandering, directionless due mainly to the great confusion and aimlessness among survivors of World War I until the post-war years.
GI Generation	1901-1927	World War II Gen	Sometimes referred to as the Great Generation in the US who came of age during the Great Depression and went on to fight in WWII. This generation fought not for fame or money but because “it was the right thing to do.” In Australia, this generation was also known as the Federation Generation. The “GI” term is a military term referring to “Government Issue” or “General Issue.”
Silent Generation	1928-1954	Lucky Few Gen	First generation in the US that was smaller than the generation preceding it. Having been born in the Great Depression and war years, they came of age in the relatively prosperous 1950s and 1960s. They did things not because someone told them, but because they believed “it was the right thing to do.” Many who were born between 1943 and 1960 were also Baby Boomers, but possibly elected to stick with the Silent Generation precisely because of differences in characteristics
Baby Boomers	1943-1960	Rock-in-Roll Gen	Associated with the rejection/redefinition of traditional values. As a group, they tended to think of themselves as Special Generation, very different from those that came before them. They comprise a large proportion of those born during and immediately after WWII.
Generation X	1961-1981	MTV Generation	Sometimes they were called “baby boomers” but did not like such label. “X” refers to a condition of an unknown variable or to a desire not to be defined. Sometimes they were referred to as the MTV Generation (with reference to the popularity of a music video channel in the US). Gen X was relatively small generation between the Baby Boomers and the Millennials.
Oregon Trail Generation	Late 1970s-Early 1980s	Bridge Gen bet Gen X and Millennials	Named after the video game Oregon Trail, Apple II version. Sometimes they are called “The Lucky Ones.” They share traits with Xennials or Catalano generations. Xennials are “a micro-generation that serve as a bridge between the disaffection of Gen X and the blithe optimism of Millennials.” Generally, those born from the late 1970s to the early 1980s did not feel they fit into the different definitions of Gen X and Millennials.
Millennials	1976-1996	Gen Y, Echo Boomers	The Millennials are often children of Baby Boomers. generally marked by increased use of and familiarity with communications, media, and digital technologies. One look at what has been published about the generational groups tell us that the Millennials are the ones most talked about. They’re the largest generation; older Millennials are now occupying decision posts in both government and private industry, and the younger Millennials are completing their basic education. Some demographers estimate that in the next five to 10 years more than 90% of those in positions of decision making in our society will be Millennials. They are bound to influence society greatly. A cursory look at the younger people in the workforce would indicate that, at this time (2017), the Millennials would rather not do things the way older generations used to. John Newton, the Australian social researchers, summarized the characteristics of Gen Y with the following points: 1) e3veryone’s a winner; 2) life was never meant to be hard; 3) out of range is out of the question; 4) why do we do it that way?; and 5) appearances can be deceiving. This generation, according to Newton, is desperate for leadership, to connect with other generations particularly the older ones to whom they look up to for leadership.
Generation Z	Mid-1990s to Mid-2000s.	Centennials, iGeneration, Plurals, Homeland Gen, Post-Millennials.	Widespread use of Internet from a young age; they’re comfortable with technology and social media. They are predominantly children of Generation X. More risk-averse than other generations. First generation to have the Internet readily available to them. They are predominantly children of Gen X but they also have parents who are Millennials. Compared with Millennials, the Gen Z is more conservative, more money-oriented, more entrepreneurial, and more pragmatic.
Alpha Generation	Born from 2010-2015	Transformative Gen	Compared to other generations ahead of it, the Alphas will be more entrepreneurial, more tech savvy, they’ll shop online, they will be influenced by their Gen X and Gen Y parents, and they will be more self-sufficient, better educated, and better prepared for big challenges. As of last year (2016), in the US, there were some 22M Millennial parents with 9,000 Alpha babies born to them daily. Social Researcher and Demographer McCrindle estimated that there were 2.5M members of Gen Alpha born each week world-wide.

The Cherokee Prayer

2017-06-13T18:43:00.000-07:00

THE CHEROKEE PRAYER

(to the tune of Amazing Grace)

Introductory instrumental with these verses:

My spirit will wander these lands, now and forever more

Hold on to what is good, even if it’s a handful of earth

Hold on to what you believe, even if it’s a tree that stands alone by itself

Hold on to what you must do, even if it’s a long way from here

Hold on to your life, even if it’s easier to let go

Hold on to my hand, even if someday I’ll be gone away from you.

(Sing in Cherokee language and to the tune of Amazing Grace):

Oh Great Spirit whose voice I hear in the winds

And whose breath gives life in all the world, hear me

I am small and weak, I need strength and wisdom

Let me walk in beauty, and make my eyes ever behold

The red and purple sunset

Make my hands respect the things you have made

And my ears sharp to hear your voice

Make me wise so that I may understand

The things you have taught my people

Let me learn the lessons you have hidden in every leaf and rock.

I seek strength, not to be greater than my brother

But to fight my greatest enemy, myself …

Make me always ready to come to you

With clean hands and straight eyes

So when life fades, as the fading sunset

My spirit may come to you without shame.

TWO

2017-02-21T18:56:00.000-08:00

This is my second post on this subject matter, and I'm just thinking aloud.

Feeling low? Feeling a bit depressed? Or simply suffering from self-pity? I find if difficult to differentiate these three especially when I'm a bit down. At my age, this is a clear reminder that can only mean my time to move on is rather close, which is quite easy to understand. May be I've stayed in this world a bit longer than I had to. To the question, how do I wish it to happen? I have a very simple answer: I want it quick, if it cannot be avoided. You see I'm afraid of dying so I'm ruling out a long-drawn sickness, or even being pinned down for hours or days between two beams under the rubble of a building after an earthquake. I don't like that a bit because I'm claustrophobic, and I could die under the rubble. I think I deserve better than that. Anyway, I prefer a quick one. Now, how would this thing happen? It's hard to say.

May be how I die is not my decision to make, but then again may be I could influence the decision, albeit with great effort, of course. And this thing called influence could be cumulative effect. Question is, have I done enough good in the past to tilt the balance in may favor? I'd say, yes, but this may not be subject to self-evaluation so I'm not sure which way it would go especially if my evaluator holds some negative dossier on me which is not entirely impossible given what technology can do today. That could turn out to be an embarrassment for myself, my family, and loved ones. Not a good option. Involved in an accident and I die instantaneously? How horrible could that be!? How the heck would I know how I died? Bad option. Commit suicide with a gun? Suppose I miss the spot that could insure my swift death? Very clumsy. Terrible option.

For a reasonable man that I claim to be, I think all the options mentioned are bad and really unacceptable. May be dying is not an option itself? That's the funny part. At some point in one's life, death is the only thing that must happen.

###

Sample Batanes Plants

2017-01-27T04:24:00.002-08:00

Of course, these are not the only plant species in Batanes, but it's a good starting list that could come in handy for ecotourists who visit Batanes. It is my understanding that Batanes is now always in the bucket list of tourists, and there are more tourists visiting the place than could be well handled by the resources there. Anyway, familiarity with the common plant species in the province and knowing how to conserve them would help retain the natural beauty of the place.

This matrix was supposed to be part of a brochure for ecotourists and tourist guides in Batanes, but since I was not able to complete the plan I just had to provide this information based on the study of Madulid and Agoo (2006). I would have loved to prepare a more complete brochure, being a frustrated biologist, but it was completely difficult to get appropriate funding for at last a mini-scientific exploration of the province to produce a more complete Brochure of Batanes Biodiversity. Do enjoy this material.

Sample Batanes Plants

(SOURCE: Madulid, Domingo A. and Esperanza Maribel G. Agoo. 2006. A Pictorial Guide to the Noteworthy Plants of Batanes Islands. Manila: UNESCO National Commission of the Philippines, Science and Technology Committee, and National Museum of the Philippines.)

LOCAL NAME	SCIENTIFIC NAME	FAMILY CATEGORY	DISTRIBUTION	HABITAT	USED BY LOCALS AS
Agagay	Coix lacryma-jobi L.	Culms	Phil, pantropic	Lowland grasslands	Ornamental plants; dried fruits used for handicrafts
Ahem	Melanolepis multiglandulosa (Reinw.) Reibb.f. & Zoll.	Tree	Phil, Taiwan, South Thailand, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea	Lowland forests, wooded thickets	Leaves applied on forehead to relieve headaches; wrapper for cooked food.
Ainyas	Semecarpus cuneiformis Blco	Tree	Phil, Ryuku Islands, Celebes	Lowland forests. Thickets forming boundaries of farms	Sap is poisonous, causes severe irritation on skin
Akus	Allium sativum L.	Herb	Believed originated from Central Asia	Cultivated	Spice plant; juice rubbed on skin to cure skin diseases
Anoyoy (hanoyoy)	Wedelia biflora C.B.Clarke	Herb	Phil, India, Southwestern Pacific Islands	Grasslands, littoral cliffs sandy beeches	Weed, ground cover
Apdeng	Mallotus philippinensis (L.) Muell.-Ang.	Tree	Phil, India, Australia	Secondary forests	Firewood
Arius	Podocarpus costalis Presl.	Tree	Philippines (Batanes, Babuyan, Cagayan, Polilio); Taiwan (Lan Yu, Orchid Island)	Wooded cliffs; coastal areas, cultivated in backyards, roadsides	Known as “Batanes Tree” or the Provincial Tree of Batanes; highly ornamental; highly sought after as bonsai material; fruits are edible
Away	Flagella indica L.	Vine	Phil, Tanzania, Mozambique, West Pacific	Lowland primary forests, secondary forests, thickets	Tying material for roof thatches, fences
Bayawas	Psidium guajava L.	Shrub	Pantropic, Introduced to the Philippines from tropical America	Open grasslands, wooded thickets	Fruit is edible; ground young leaves used as antiseptic for wounds.
Camigin	Cerbera manghas L.	Tree	Phil, Tanzania, Southwestern Pacific Islands	Common along beaches and littoral thickets	Ornamental tree
Cavugao	Citrus sp.	Tree	Batanes endemic	Cultivated in backyards in Itbayat	Fruit juice is sour, used as condiment for cooking
Chawi, Chayi	Pometia pinnata J.R.Forst.&G.Forst.	Tree	Phil, China, Southwestern Pacific Islands	Wooded thickets	Fruits are edible; shade tree, lumber, trunk used as keel of tataya.
Dapiyaw	Adonidia merrillii Becc.	Palm tree	Native of Palawan, now spread worldwide	Cultivated in gardens and backyards	Leaves trap rainwater and collected in jars
Dino	Morinda citrifolia L.	Tree	Phil, China, Australia	Coastal areas, secondary forests, lowland grasslands	Medicine for rheumatic and inflamed joints; to relieve chest and stomach pains
Dudoy (eroplano)	Gynura elliptica Yae & Hayata	Herb	Batanes. Taiwan (now found in other parts of the Philippines	Lowland grasslands	Common weed
Dukay	Dioscorea esculenta (Lour.) Burk.	Vine	Phil, India, Papua New Guinea	Cultivated in fields	Major rootcrop in Batanes
Dukban	Citrus hybrid Considered to be a cross between Citrus maxima and C. medica.	Shrub	Known only in Batanes	Wooded thickets, cultivated in farms, gardens, backyards	Fruit is a delicacy, eaten raw or pickled in vinegar.
Gagad, agagad	Alpinia zerumbet (Pers.) B.L.Burtt & R.M.Smith	Herb	Phil, China, Taiwan (Lan Yu)	Lowland grasslands	Ornamental plant; insect repellant
Galaya	Citrus sp.	Shrub			Native lemon, also known in other parts of the country as dayap
Hanot, vayu	Hibiscus tiliaceus L. subsp. tiliaceus Talipariti tiliaceum (L.) Fryxell.	Tree	Phil, Mexico, South America, Africa, Pacific	Common in beaches or coastal areas	Bark used for ropes; stem used for fences, posts
Hantak	Stercula ceramica R.Br.	Tree	Pantropic	Lowland forests, wooded thickets	Fruits are edible; also used to expel worms and heal wounds
Hayaw	Cardiospermum halicacabum L.	Herb	Pantropic	Lowland grasslands, along roadsides	Common weed
Homahom	Asplenium nidus L.	Fern	Phil, Africa, Australia	Lowland forest	Young leaves eaten as salad; ornamental plant
Kabaka-baka	Centella asiatica (L.) Urban	Herb	Phil, pantropic	Lowland grassland, l.ittoral cliffs	Leaves are crushed and applied to heal wounds.
Kalamansi	Citrus sp.	Tree
Kamalasayrin	Caesalpina crista L.	Vine	Phil, China, New Caledonia	Back of beach forests, wooded thickets near sea shores	Seeds used for ornaments
Kamanavang	Scaevola taccada (Gaertn.) Roxb.	Shrub	Phil, Africa, southwestern Pacific Islands	Common along beaches	Small shade plant along beaches
Kamaya	Diospyros discolor Willd.	Tree	Phil, Indonesia	Lowland forests. Wooded thickets, also planted in backyards	Blackwood used for furniture, lumber, fruit is edible
Kanarem	Diospyros maritime Bl.	Tree	Phil, Ryuku Islands, Solomon Islands	Lowland forests, wooded thickets, areas near beaches	Ornamental plant; fruit is food for tattus.
Karorotong	Argemone mexicana L.	Herb	Native of tropical America, now spread throughout the tropics	Grasslands	Yellowish sap applied to wounds
Katawa	Ricinus communis L.	Shrub	Phil, Tropical and Subtropical areas	Secondary forests	Oil from fruit is cure for headaches, sprains, abdominal and chest pains
Kawayan	Bambusa vulgaris Schrader ex Wendl.	Culms	Phil, pantropic	Wooded thickets	Culms used for house construction, handicrafts
Kuhasi	Commelina benghalensis L.	Herb	Phil, Africa, Micronesia	Wet ground, abandoned fields	Leaves for external medicinal use
Loria (Batanes saba)	Musa paradisiacal L. cultivar	Herb	Batanes	Planted in farms, backyards	Fruit is edible; blossom for vegetable, corms for vegetable
Manichit	Tabernamontana pandacaqui Poir.	Shrub	Phil, pantropic	Open waste places, thickets	Fencing plants separating farms
Naha	Zingiber officinale Rosc.	Herb	Phil, China, India, cultivated elsewhere	Cultivated fields	Rhizome for condiment in cooking; medicine against colds; to induce perspiration.
Nangka	Artucarpos heterophyllus Lamk.	Tree	Phil, native of India	Planted in farms, gardens, backyards	Fruit is edible; young fruit cooked as vegetable
Narapan	Osmoxylon pectinatum (Merr.) Philip.	Tree	Batanes & Northern Luzon, Taiwan	Lowland primary forests, secondary forests	Ornamental plant
Natu	Palaquium formosanum Hayata	Tree	Philippines, Taiwan	Lowland forests	Wood used as lumber; fruits are edible.
Nito	Lygodium flexuosum (L.) Sw	Vine	Phil, Indo-China, Australia	Lowland forests	Medicine for irregular ear discharges; material for handicrafts; tying material
Nyinyi	Donax canniformis (Fort.f.) K.Schum.	Herb	Phil, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea	Lowland forests, wooded thickets	Raw materials for handicrafts
Onas	Saccharum officinarum L.	Culm	Phil, pantropic	Cultivated in fields	Juice made into syrup, fermented to wine and vinegar, leaves fed to cows and carabaos
Pait, tapait	Begonia fenicis Merr.	Herb	Batanes, Taiwan	Lowland forests, littoral cliffs	Ornamental plant, may be eaten as salad, stem is sour
Palupo	Pemphis acidula J.R.Forst. & G.Forst.	Shrub	Phil, Tropical Africa, Australia	Rocky coastal areas, forested cliffs, wooded thickets	Ornamental
Pawali	Syzygium sp. Closely resembles Syzygium taiwanianicum Chang & Miau from Lan Yu	Tree	Endemic in Itbayat Island	Planted in backyards and roadsides in Itbayat	Fruit is edible
Payen	Ardisia confertiflora Merr.	Tree	Endemic to Batanes, Babuyan, Mindoro	Lowland forests. Wooded thickets	Fruits are edible, ornamental tree, Leaves used as poultice for swelling toes and fingers.
Rayi	Paederia foetida L.	Vine	Phil, India, Malaya	Secondary forests	Leaves rubbed on body to cure fatigue or pain; vine is for tying material
Riwas	Drypetes falcata (Merr.) Pax & K.Hoffm.	Tree	Batanes & Babuyan (endemic)	Lowland forests, wooded thickets	Ornamental plant, lumber
Sahbang	Erythrina variegate L.	Tree	Phil, Africa, Fiji	Coastal areas, wooded thickets	Ornamental tree
Samoh	Piper betle L.	Vine	Phil, India. Malay Peninsula	Cultivated in gardens and fields	Leaves applied to red patches on skin; leaves as ingredient in masticatory together with beetle nut.
Savidug	Terminalia catappa L.	Tree	Phil, Madagascar, Southwestern Pacific	Common along beaches, secondary forests	Shade tree, lumber for house construction
Siempre viva	Kalanchoe pinnata (Lamk.) Pers.	Herb	Phil (introduced)	Cultivated in gardens	Leaves applied on the head to reduce headache
Sudi	Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott	Herb	Originated from Southeast Asia, now pantropic	Planted in farms and gardens	Major root crop, also cooked as vegetable
Suha	Citrus maxima (Burn.) Merr.	Tree	Phil, native of the Old World	Cultivated in farms, gardens, backyards	Fruit is edible.
Tadayeb	Saccharum spontaneum L.	Culms	Phil, Western Asia, Papua New Guinea	Lowland grasslands	Weeds, leaves sometimes used as thatched roof material
Tadivachib	Epipremnum pinnatum (L.) Engl. Ex Engl & Kraus	Herb	Phil, China Solomon Islands	Lowland forests, in clearings, clinging on coconut or tree trunks	Ornamental plant
Tamidok	Diplazium esculentum (Retz.) Sw	Fern	Phil, China, New Guinea	Lowland forest, edge of forest clearings	Salad or cooked as vegetable
Tanghad	Themeda gigantean (Cav.) Hack.	Herb	Phil, pantropic	Common in open fields, dry & steep slopes at low to medium altitude	Leaves sometimes used for roof thatch.
Tanyud	Morus alba (L.) Roxb.	Tree	Native to China, cultivated & naturalized elsewhere	Secondary forests, wooded thickets	Leaves as medicine for rheumatism and joint pains; ripe fruit are edible
Tavadaday	Cyathea lepifera (J. Sm.) Copel.	Fern	Philippines	Lowland forests	Ornamental plant
Tipdus, Tubho	Odontosoria chinensis (L.) J.Sm.	Fern	Phil, Africa, Malesia	Thickets or exposed areas, low to medium altitude	Tea
Tipuho	Artocarpus treculianus Elm.	Tree	Endemic to Philippines	Farms gardens; along roadsides, secondary forests, edge of forests	Fruit is edible as vegetable, leaves as substitutes for plates, wood used for tatayas, lumber for houses, sap cooked and cured as latex to catch birds, shade tree.
Tubhus	Pittosporum moluccanum (Lamk.) Miq.	Shrub	Phil, Taiwan, Australia	Wooded thickets	Ornamental plant
Tungaw	Clerodendum inerme (L.) Gaertn.	Shrub	Phil, China, Southwestern Pacific Islands	Lowland forests, wooded thickets	Ornamental plant
Tutupdis	Gelonium aequoreum Hance	Tree	Batanes (Ivuhos Is.), Taiwan (Lan Yu)	Thickets, open coastal areas	Ornamental plant.
Uhango	Pandamus odoratissimus L.f. Pandamus odorifer (Forssk.) Kuntze	Shrub	Phil, China, Australia	Along beaches, lowland grasslands	Fruits edible; leaves used for handicrafts
Uhango nu kurang	Dracaena angustifolia Roxb.	Shrub	Phil, India, Australia	Lowland forests	Ornamental plant
Unknown local name	Angiopteris palmiformis (Cav.) C.Chr.	Fern	Phil, Indo-China, Taiwan, Marianas	Lowland forests, along streams and rivers	Ornamental plant
Unknown local name	Hoya spp.	Vine	Batanes	Clinging on wayside trees and secondary vegetation	Ornamental plant
Unknown local name	Curculigo captulata (Lour.) Kantze Molineria capitulate (Lour.)	Herb Herb	Phil, China, Australia	Lowland forests	Ornamental plant
Unknown local name	Senna alata (L.) Roxb.	Shrub	Phil; native to tropical countries	Wooded thickets, cultivated areas	Medicine for skin diseases
Unknown local name	Abelmosehus moschatus (L.) Medic.	Shrub	Phil, China, Fiji	Wooded thickets	Ornamental plant
Unknown local name	Hibiscus mutabilis L.	Tree	Phil, China, Taiwan, cultivated elsewhere	Wooded thickets	Ornamental plant
Unknown local name	Phalaenopsis aphrodite Reichb.f.	Orchid	Phil, China. Taiwan	Lowland forests	Ornamental plant
Unknown local name	Peucedanum japonicum Thumb.	Herb	Batanes, China, Ryuku Islands	Littoral cliffs	Plant is said to be medicinal.
Uvi	Dioscorea alata L.	Vine	Tropical and subtropical Asia	Cultivated in fields	Major root crop in Batanes
Vadino	Ipomoea pes-caprae (L.) R.Br.	Vine	Phil, pantropic	Common among beach areas	Leaves for healing wounds
Vadite	Ficus microcarpa L.f.	Tree	Phil, China, New Caledonia	Lowland forests, littoral cliffs	Ornamental tree, fruits eaten by birds, shoots are edible
Vadite (Tapah in Itbayat)	Ficus benjamina L.	Tree	Phil, China, Solomon Islands	Lowland forests, wooded thickets	Ornamental tree
Vakong	Crinum asiaticum L.	Herb	Phil, Mauritius, Samoa	Sandy coastal or beach areas, lowland grasslands	Medicinal, ornamental plant
Valayvalayan	Radermachera fenicis Merr.	Tree	Phil, Thailand, Moluccas	Wooded thickets, secondary forests, planted in backyards	Ornamental plant
Valit	Calamus batanensis (Becc.) Baja-Lapis	Vine	Batanes endemic	Lowland forests, wooded thickets	Fruits are edible, vine for handicrafts; tying material
Valo	Thespesia populnea (L.) Soland. ex Correa	Tree	Phil, pantropic	Wooded thickets	Stems for posts and fences; leaves to cure wounds; fruits and leaves applied to skin to cure allergies and rashes.
Vanakawoy	Callicarpa formosana Rolfe var. formosana	Shrub	Batanes, Taiwan	Lowland forests	Used for hedgerows
Vanatchi	Macaranga tanarius (L.) Muell.-Ang.	Tree	Phil, Andaman Islands, Australia	Secondary forests	Leaves cure boils
Vanayi	Murraya paniculata (L.) Jack	Shrub	Phil, China, Australia	Lowland forests, thickets, gardens	Hardwood used for handles of metal tools; ornamental plant
Varatinok	Citrus sp.	Tree	Batanes endemic	Lowland forests, thickets, gardens	Good for lemonade. Juice extracted for treating meat much like using kalamansi except that varatino's taste is much more elegant.
Varok	Zanthoxylum integrifoliolum (Merr.) Merr.	Tree	Phil, Taiwan (Lan Yu)	Lowland forests, cultivated areas	Fruits are edible; spongy material gathered from roots used as sealant for tataya.
Vatinglao	Diospyros ferrea (Willd.) Bakh.	Tree	Philippines, West Africa, India, Burma, Thailand, Vietnam, Malesia, Australia, Ryuku Islands, Taiwan, Lan Yu	Lowland forests, wooded thickets	Lumber, bark may be mixed with sugar cane juice to enhance taste of fermented alcoholic beverage.
Vayakbak	Syzygium sp.	Tree	Batanes endemic	Lowland forests, wooded thickets, planted along roads, in backyards	Used for hedgerows; trunk for lumber, firewood. Fruits are edible (sometimes called Batanes makopa).
Vayasuvas	Freycinetia formosana Hemsl.	Shrub	Phil (Batanes), Japan (Ryuku), Taiwan (Tan Yu and Lutao)	Lowland forests	Aerial roots used as handicraft materials, tying material
Vayit	Cycas edentate de Laub.	Tree	Phil, Andaman Islands, Timor	Exposed forested cliffs, along beaches	Ornamental plant
Vinay	Antidesma bunius (L.) Spreng.	Tree	Phil, China, Australia	Backyards and open lots, lowland forests	Fruits edible, ornamental plant
Viyawo	Miscanthus floridulus (Labill.) Warb. ex Schum. & Laut.	Culms	Phil, China, Fiji	Summit of Mt. Iraya, roadsides, hillsides	Used as roofing material, inflorescence used as broom, used as hedgerows
Vodadin, vodalin	Leea guineensis G.Don	Tree	Phil, Africa, Irian jaya	Lowland forests, wooded thickets	Medicinal
Vonyitan	Lilium philippinense Baker	Herb	Phil, Taiwan (Tan Yu) In the Philippines, confined to Batanes, Benguet, Bontoc, Mt. :Provinces.	Open grasslands	Ornamental
Voyavoy	Phoenix loureiroi Kunth.var. loureiroi Phoenix hanceana var. philipinensis	Palm Tree	Batanes, China In the Philippines, this palm is found only in Batanes, now threatened	Lowland grasslands	Ornamental plant; leaves used for vakul, kanayi, brooms. Ripe fruits are edible.
Vua	Areca catechu L. var. catechu	Palm tree with oblong fruits	Philippines	Cultivated in fields and wooded thickets	Nut is chewed as nganga; used as medicine to relieve headaches; trunks used as house floorings
Vua	Areca catechu L. var. batanensis Becc	Palm tree with rounded fruits	Batanes endemic	Lowland forests, wooded thickets	Same use as A. catechu var catechu
Vuchid	Imperata cylindrica (L.) Beauv. Var. major	Grass	Phil, pantropic	Grassland	Weed; roofing material, boiled roots used as medicinal beverage
Vula	Alocasia macrorrhizos (L.) G.Don	Herb	Phil, Malaysia, Solomon Islands	Edges of lowland forests	Ornamental plant
Vutalao	Calophyllum inophyllum L.	Tree	Phil, Africa, Southwestern Pacific Islands	Lowland forests, wooded thickets	Lumber for boats
Vuton	Barringtonia asiatica (L.) Kurz.	Tree	Phil, Africa, Southwestern Pacific Islands	Common along beaches	Shade tree, lumber for boat planks
Wakay	Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.	Vine	Pantropic, Introduced to the Philippines from Mexico by Spaniards	Cultivated in farms	Major root crop of Batanes. Leaves as vegetable.
Waling-waling	Vanda lamellata Lindl.	Orchid	Phil, Taiwan, Borneo	Lowland forests, cliffs facing the sea in Itbayat	Ornamental plant
Yabnoy	Ficus septica Burm.f.	Tree	Phil, Ryuku, Southwestern Pacific Islands	Lowland forests, wooded thickets, littoral cliffs	Shade tree on roadsides

Bring this along when you visit Batanes. It could be a good reference.

What New Year is to Me

2016-12-29T14:48:00.000-08:00

I have always wondered if there is any meaningful difference between December 31 (last day of the "old" year and January 1 (first day of the "new" year), the two days that straddle New Year's Eve. The New Year period, of course, includes the last week of December and the first week of January.

When I was a little boy, my mother, uncles, aunts, lolos, and lolas. and older siblings always reminded me that New Year's Day is the first day that I should practice what I have resolved to do for the next year as per my new year's resolution. Of course, when one is young and a bit restless, the meaning of the new year's resolution is largely incoherent in spite of good intentions.

When I was a bit older, school, church, and family always combined their forces to remind us, youngsters, that the New Year symbolized the beginning of a new life that we all had to cultivate so that we would live in prosperity the next year; and life the year after would be governed by another set of new year's resolutions. That didn't work well either. We always slid back to normal life right on New Year's Day. As it turned out, our New Year's Resolution was simply a dream at the dawn of New Year's Day.

When I became a young adult, New Year's Day became less important and less meaningful. We forgot largely what it was all about. But we did learn about social issues and social evils. We even began questioning a lot of contemporary norms. We learned a lot of these but we were short of the real solutions to real social problems. As young adults, apparently our job was to identify what we would call social issues and complain about them even as we didn't offer appropriate solutions.

As professionals, we added experience to our stock knowledge and tried to solve social problems. Strangely. in spite of applying what we learned from school, from being government workers, from being members of the NGO community, from being elected local and national officials, from being high level government officials, from being followers of our respective religions, from having been members of the international bureaucracy, and in spite of international aid, we have failed big time in solving our problems.

We sure have learned a lot. We have learned to be global thinkers, and we have identified all the social issues besetting our only country. And we have failed spectacularly.

###

Five on my Bucket List for 2017

2016-12-25T20:10:00.004-08:00

Many would refer to this exercise as writing a New Year’s Resolution, but I’d simply call it listing of the possibilities for me. I wish to call them my bucket list for 2017. Not all of them are completely within my own power to undertake and complete, but let’s just say they are my expectations that I will try to work hard to achieve.

One. Stay alive and healthy. I hope to have a healthier life in 2017. On this matter, I’d like to quote Woody Allen. He once said, “I’m not afraid of death. I just don’t want to be there when it happens.”

Bottom line is, I wish that I would not only be alive but must be able to function as I did, say, a couple of decades ago. I sure hope that would be enough for me to do the things I still feel I need to do.

Two. I hope to be able to continue doing the things that I did in 2016 that provided me with some resources to continue living my life. It is important to me to be able to provide for my needs as an ageing man, including that for my partner in life. It is absolutely very important to me that I know and feel I'm still useful to myself and to those I love.

Three. I hope that more friends will have access to my forthcoming book titled, Agcom-Devcom Crossover, A Participant-Observer’s Journey. I certainly would enjoy being invited to various HEIs to talk about the book and about the Devcom academic program at UPOU.

Four. It is definitely my hope to be able to put into writing other things that I have not been able to do these past few years. It certainly would be useful to be able to write about my experience as Chancellor of UPOU. Up until now, I haven’t been able to write my memoirs. Is this worth pursuing? I wonder. But I guess I would need a URA for this.

Five. I hope I would gain more time to research and write about my life in Batanes. More importantly, I would like to write about the farming system in Itbayat, Batanes. This would entail some funding. I hope I will be able to discover how this project idea could be pursued and completed.

2016-12-16T19:58:00.001-08:00

Christmas 2016

Published by Lex and Jegs Librero

Why This Newsletter?

More than a decade ago, a family newsletter titled similarly ceased publication. It was a case of “we just dropped it because the editor (which was Lex) started having too many things to attend to.” Since then, there have been major changes in the family, like Lex had become widower and got married again after some years, and King himself got his own family. Over the years, friends have been asking where that “Newsletter” is. Besides, we have not been able to share with friends what had been happening in our lives. Hence, we are reviving the “newsletter.”

The basic difference with this “newsletter” is that it shall now focus on the major activities of Lex and Jegs, although we would mention special things about the Libreros and the Garcias (Jegs’ family side) every now and then.

We don’t have to elaborate on this. Just take a peep into our lives up to the point we can permit you to do so.

###

Lex Slowed Down on Activities

For 2016, Lex reports having completed the manuscript of his latest book titled Agcom-Devcom Crossover, A Participant-Observer’s Journey, an account of his professional growth and development in the field of agricultural communications and development communication. The book has just been submitted to the UPOU as an output of his project as Professor Emeritus. He hopes that this book would be useful to students of development communication not only at UPOU and UPLB, but in other universities and higher education institutions as well. Of course in previous years, he had various publications and research projects.

This year, he has slowed down having retired some 8 years ago (he’s now 73).

He continued to serve as President of the UP Open University Foundation, Inc., a position he was elected to under two years ago due to the requirement that the Chancellor could not legally serve such position concurrently with the Chancellorship. He took over from then UPOU Chancellor Gigi Alfonso. Lex was awarded in 2008 by UP the honorific title of Professor Emeritus, a lifetime title from the University of the Philippines System.

Beginning this year, Lex has been appointed Chief Editor of the International Journal on Open e-Learning (IJODeL), the official online academic publication of the UPOU.

Of course, as Professor Emeritus, Lex continues to serve as adviser or member of the academic advisory committees of graduate students at UPOU, on top of teaching one doctorate course per semester.

Lex is also serving as volunteer writer for BUHAY, the revived newsletter (online and printed) of the UPLB Alumni Association.

###

Multiple Achievements for Jegs

One, in June, Jegs received officially her PhD degree in environmental science from the UPLB. This newsletter is proud of such achievement. Her dissertation was on ecotourism in Batanes, which she visited four times from 2012 to 2015.

Two, one of her photographs (of a bug) was used in a book titled The Class Lady Bug, A Polka Dot Winner. This book, authored by Luz Enriquez-Lombos, was published in the USA during this year.

Three, in November, Jegs published a book of photographs about Panyesanan, the farm of our late Kuya Flor in Bgy. Rizal, Lipa City. It’s a beautiful coffee-book type publication, which, incidentally, has caught the attention of some friends and have actually started inquiring if they could buy the book. Jegs is doing it step-by-step. She did not do it for commercial purposes initially, but that could be included as one of the objectives now.

Four, in the previous year (2015), Jegs presented a paper in the First National Conference on Integrated Natural Resources Management, held at UPLB. The title of her paper was Biodiversity in Key Ecotourism Sites as Potential Priority Conservation Target in Small Island Settings. This was later accepted for publication in the JESAM Journal, published by the School of Environmental Science and Management (JESAM), titled as From Baseline Data to Improved Biodiversity Knowledge and Conservation: the Ecotourism Trail Experience in Batan Island.

Five, the year before last, she passed the professional Board Exam for Environmental Planners. That made her a licensed environmental planner in the Philippines.

###

Updates on the Extended Family

Jegs assisted Marjo Duritan, our niece, in organizing a get-together of members of the Librero Clan on October 16^th, the 82^nd birthday of our late Kuya Flor, who died on September 24, at 11:16 p.m.

***

Al attended various conferences in Europe and Asia during the year.

Vani (Librero) presented a paper in an international conference on breast-feeding in Vietnam in December.

As a family, they have travelled to Europe and Asia during the year. It’s a good thing that the Apo, Aidan, is experiencing international travel early.

***

Both Jay and Blanche (Garcia) have found work in Pampanga. Jay, however, is trying to seek a new work in Laguna. Basti, their son, is growing up well.

***

Danyelle (Garcia) is doing very well at school, Xavier Nuvali, where she has a scholarship grant. She’s now a young lady, and is growing up an independent teener. It’s nice that every now and then she consults with her Tita Jegs on school matters. Binay is doing well in guiding her daughter grow up.

***

For now, Nonie (Garcia) is very busy with his two pet cats. Of course, he knows that taking care of cats can be expensive and time consuming. He’s obviously enjoying them, though.

***

Sis Nita (Juanillas) and her children have been doing well. Ja, the eldest, is back to school. She’s pursuing her MS at UPLB. Jon, a licensed chemist, is enjoying his work at San Miguel, and has been travelling quite frequently. Kin, a civil engineer, has transferred to the private sector from UPLB. Fatima is working in Kuala Lumpur where she undertook her OJT. Nita, who just retired, is still working part-time with the LSPU, enjoying the perks of being member of the Accrediting Committee of PASUC.

###

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL

One

2016-12-13T17:44:00.000-08:00

I’m starting a series in this blog, each post being identified simply numerically. Hence, this first article is titled ONE. The next one shall be TWO, and so on. Why am I doing this? Well, I shall be writing about a particular topic but most likely it shall not appear in this blog regularly. I shall continue to write about the usual stuff that I have been writing about previously, which is, really nothing specific. But for this series I wish to talk about my random thoughts on my personal views about passing through this dimension. I must confess that much of what I’ll probably blabber about is pseudo-philosophical, and might not even make any sense to many readers.

At the outset, I’d like to clarify where I’m coming from. Many talk about passing through, or simply dying, as a philosophical orientation. As many would say that they’re ready to die anytime, anywhere, any way; that they’re not afraid to die. Well, I’m not that committed to the philosophy. Perhaps you’ll find out later what my own thoughts are about the whole thing.

To the question, are you ready to die?, I’m neither scared nor embarrassed to admit I’m not ready to die. I don’t know when I’ll be ready. May be I will never be. I know I will die anytime, but ready? Heck, I’m scared of the darn thing.

To me, if one says one’s ready to die, that’s up to the fellow … but I consider that as a philosophical orientation. But really ready? That’s not my personal feeling; not my orientation at all. I am scared to die, may be for various reasons that I am not prepared to talk about now. So, don’t push it. Just wait as it unfolds, possibly in future articles in this series.

This is where I’m coming from. I’m scared to die, and may be I’ll stop being scared to die when I’m dead.

Bonding Time for the Librero Clan

2016-10-17T05:24:00.000-07:00

October 16, 2016 was my Kuya’s (Dr. Flor Librero’s) 82^nd birthday, but he could no longer be physically present. He set for a new journey at 11:16 p.m., September 24, 2016. However, to honor him on his 82^nd birthday, Jegs helped our nieces and nephews conceptualize, plan, and implement a clan bonding where said nieces and nephews shared with one another their experiences with Kuya Flor when he was still in this world. What I tried to do was simply relate stories about Kuya’s younger years that his nieces and nephews didn’t know about, as well as provide stories that served to piece together the otherwise incoherent and unrelated stories. Essentially, therefore, we're talking here of the Shepherd of Panyesanan.

This clan bonding was neither a celebration nor mourning, just coming together to talk about brief encounters with the honoree. There were two aspects of this: first, each had a letter that she/he burned after which the ashes were placed in zip lock bag attached to two big balloons that were released into the sky; and second, each had a chance to relate his/her story about his/her experience with Kuya when he was still alive.

Kuya Flor never talked about himself in public, only in very private conversations with specific individuals. Consequently, each individual knew only an aspect of Kuya’s private life, that which may be relevant to the individual and nothing much more. I had the honor of providing the vignettes that served to tie all these experiences together that ultimately resulted in a complete story.

Obviously, we can’t provide that story here and now, but it has been conceptualized as a volume of narratives about brief encounters with Ka Tinong Librero. To be sure, most of the stories related by the nieces and nephews were of recent vintage, stories they have experienced while visiting Panyesanan in Lipa City. My wife, Jegs, sister Nita, and I provided the “missing” links from the past and even in contemporary times focusing on many philosophical aspects of Kuya’s beliefs and private life from our perspectives.

What happened in this clan bonding activity was well beyond Jegs’ and my expectations. We realized that the visits of his nieces and nephews were not only of the “tourist” type. Such visits were more anchored on highly meaningful experiences such as knowing more about Kuya’s philosophy of life, and pieces of advise which may not have meant much then but which have turned out to be extremely meaningful and prophetic. Kuya, myself, and our sister, Nita, may have stuck to our traditional clan value system of a strict hierarchical relationship, but whatever love, concern, happiness, sadness, consideration for others, etc. there may be we all share internally. Only when one passes away that we realize the depth of the emotional ties that have bound us together.

The activities for this clan bonding included burning of letters to Kuya. The ashes were placed in zip lock bag, attached to big balloons, then released into the sky. The second major part of the clan bonding activity was the sharing of experiences with Kuya Tinong by his nieces and nephews.

Word of Thanks From the Family

2016-09-27T01:51:00.000-07:00

To express our heartfelt gratitude to all of you who have condoled with us in the passing away of a loved one, we find no word or phrase deep and meaningful enough. Suffice it to say that, indeed, we are all grateful for your expressions of grief and sympathies with us in this time of extremely difficult and sad moments.

In the context of our traditional clan value system in Itbayat, we call our brothers older than we are as kaka. Hence, I used to call Kuya Flor as Kaka Tinong, but had to upgrade that to Kuya Flor given the circumstances of improved social conditions in Los Baños when I joined him there in 1963. Having known Kuya Flor from my earliest years in Itbayat to times until today, I can say with very high confidence that he was of a different kind. He was, indeed, acknowledged by our clan as one of a different kind of human, clearly different in terms of intellectual capacity compared to other members of our clan. His philosophy of life was, “others first before myself.” But he never spoke of it, he just did it without fanfare, not even a slight mention of it at any time. He always said, “people will know you by your deeds, not by what you talk of.”

I was holding his hands and stroking his forehead in his final gasps and with a slight grip he asked me to tell those he had encounters before, “I did all my best as an individual but I was never perfect. Whatever my shortcomings, please forgive me as I have forgiven those who happen to owe me something.” I’m now relaying that message to all. Kindly respond positively to such message so he can rest in peace.

I repeat, Kuya Flor was a good man, but he was not perfect. When the plusses and the minusses cancel out I am certain that there would still be more than enough plusses left to remind all of us that sometime in the past we have connected with this man so highly generous, so intellectually active, and who was actually ahead of his time.

I think one of his traits that many of us shall find difficult to forget is his willingness, belief, and wish to resolve problems of others because he didn’t like others to have any problem that he could have helped resolve. “I don’t like to leave behind problems,” he did say in his last couple of weeks in this world.

On behalf of his wife, Ate Aida, who is herself having a battle with health problems at the moment, and both the Librero and Recto families, I wish to express our very deep gratitude to all of you who have condoled with us and who are saying prayers for the repose of Kuya’s soul. I am not able to mention the names of everyone, but Kuya loved all the brothers and sisters of Ate Aida and their children and grand children as much as he did his own siblings and their children and grand children.

To all of you who are here now, and those who could not be here and yet have expressed their condolences, thank you from the bottom of our hearts for condoling with us. I wish we were gathered here now for a much happier moment, but then again this is part of our life’s journey in this world.

Kuya is now on his next journey, but I know he is still around us here and has seen everything. So, Kuya we are all happy to feel that you are now proceeding with your journey. Don’t worry about us, you already have solved our problems, and we will be all right.

Kuya, now you will see only a pair of foot prints behind you. Those are the foot prints of the one carrying you.

Kuya, I know I will see you again. Good bye.

Funeraria Paz, Lipa City

27 September 2016

Have You Experienced Saying Good Bye to Your Pet?

2016-08-19T06:25:00.000-07:00

Here’s a very short story I wrote on 31 May 2012. I came across this when I was trying to check on some old flash drives earlier today.

I should have written this piece last Friday (29 May 2012) evening, but at that time I wasn’t ready to write about how Buddy (our pet Labrador) and I parted. He passed away at about 2:00 pm and I had to bury him about 4:00 pm last Friday. King, my son and Buddy’s rightful master, wasn’t around – he’s in Europe for his honeymoon and will be back on June 9^th yet. Buddy’s been sick the past few months but this has been on and off. We’ve always attributed it to his age. For a Labrador, 14 dog years is quite long life since most large breeds like Labradors last usually from 12-15 years. He’s been suffering from arthritis and has had difficulty walking and moving around but always made sure he would be greeting us every morning (upon waking up and tending the small garden at the backyard) and afternoon (when we come home from work) with a wagging tail and happy facial expression. He was always cheerful and playful.

King’s prognosis might be right. It probably didn’t help Buddy psychologically that suddenly there were no people at home and he might have felt alone and lonely. Jegs and I started moving out of the house on May 5^th, and King and Vanie left for Europe on May 24^th. During that time, his health deteriorated quickly. On Friday, May 25^th, a day after King and Vanie left, Buddy visibly became a little lonely but was always alert, always wagging his tail when he saw Jegs and me. Everyday, Jegs was in the house fixing the things we needed to fix before King and Vanie would be back. Jegs observed that on May 27^th, Buddy suddenly had no interest in food. In fact, for two days (28^th and 29^th) he didn’t eat, but took some water when Jegs kind of “force-fed” him with water. Jegs and Buddy had become very close friends, not as pet and master.

On May 28^th, Jegs, on my suggestion, contacted her high school classmate who is now a veterinarian (faculty member of the UPLB College of Veterinary Medicine). Dr. Andrew Bernardo visited Buddy on the 29^th. The moment he saw Buddy, Dr. Bernardo’s face became sad. He told us that Buddy was very sick, and he diagnosed him to also have some parasites from which he might not be able to recover because apparently the parasitic condition has so quickly advanced and in consideration of his age he was just waiting to go. I asked Dr. Bernardo if it was still possible to treat Buddy and he said that his prognosis was that Buddy would be lucky if he lasted two more weeks.

I didn’t like to see Buddy suffer the way he did. I talked to him (Buddy) and he looked at me like he never did before, as if pleading for help. He looked so helpless. I’ll never forget the way he looked at me straight in the eyes. It was then that I asked Dr. Bernardo who was beside me, “Doc, is there a way to end his suffering quickly?” Then I mentioned the term “euthanasia” to which the Vet said, “at this point that’s the most humane thing to do.” But I immediately said, “I can’t make that decision just yet. I need to consult my son.” He said, he’d be prepared to do it any day. During the day, I emailed King and told him about the situation. I got his response the following day 30 May 2012. He said, given all considerations, he agreed that euthanasia was the best option Buddy could be given. So on May 30^th I asked Jegs to contact his veterinarian-friend again and tell him that we’d be ready on May 31^st. I didn’t like the idea of putting Buddy to permanent sleep on the 30^th, which was my birthday. We agreed on the 31^st. Dr. Bernardo said he would be there at 1:30 pm, and he was.

While the Vet was preparing the injections, I was talking to Buddy. I told him, “Buddy, I’m very sorry but you’ll have to go into a long sleep. May be we’ll not see each other again. Al and Vanie are not here right now but Al knows everything that’s going on. I’m sorry that you’ll not see them before you sleep. But this is the best to relieve you of whatever suffering you’re having. Bye, Buddy.” Then I stroked his head. He responded with a weakly-wagging tail and a lonely look in the face. I knew, however, that he understood he was going to sleep permanently.

First, the Vet injected Buddy with a sedative to put him to temporary sleep. When Buddy was asleep, Dr. Bernardo tried to locate Buddy’s veins for the next injection but couldn’t find any because Buddy’s legs had swollen. He hasn’t changed position in the last 48 hours. The Vet couldn’t find Buddy’s veins on the hind legs and the front legs. Ultimately, the Vet asked me, “I need your permission to go straight to the heart” and I said “go ahead.” In a couple of seconds, Buddy had his last two gasps of air. Slowly his head turned upwards and then he was gone. Slowly, the Vet pushed his head downwards. His tongue was very pale, but he looked serene.

###

There Otta be a Law

2016-08-14T17:27:00.002-07:00

What’s your driving behavior? Have you been texting or talking to a friend on your cellphone while driving? Those days are now numbered, not only for you but for everybody else. It’s time to stop such bad habit, else you could be flagged down by the police and cited for violating RA 10913, otherwise known as the Anti-Distracted Driving Act, which became effective August 16^th this year.

All drivers think that they’re good and can handle very well these two things: driving and texting or talking on the phone at the same time. Well, the first time you do it, you could be lucky, even the second, or third time. But you won’t be lucky forever. Sooner or later (I strongly believe, sooner) you can get into a road accident (and this road accident will probably not be only a simulation but real one).

If cited for violation of RA 10913, you’ll pay a fine of P5T (first offense), P10T (second offence), P15T and suspension of Driver’s License for 3 months (third offense), or P20T and revocation of Driver’s License (fourth offense). How will they know you’ve made multiple offenses? I suppose this will be based on a database search under your name. In other countries, police will simply call data center to find what’s in your record, and presto they get the information in a couple of minutes. You probably won’t be able to argue with the police, but you can make your arguments in court. All these are based on the assumption that things would get efficient soon in all of our government system. Ah, that guy Du30, he’s got so many things to do – or worse, we’re all expecting him to do everything himself. But that’s exactly why he has subordinates all over government to do the things he says need to be done. And pronto!

Anyway, in coordination with the Philippine Information Agency (PIA), DepEd, DILG, PNP, and private agencies and organizations, the Department of Transportation shall undertake a massive nation-wide campaign to inform and educate the public about RA 10913 for six months from the effectivity of the Act, which is August 16, 2015. Through this write-up, I’m making my personal contribution to the dissemination of information about RA 10913.

Those caught violating RA 10913 between now and February 15, 2017, the period of the informaion and education campaign, may probably be just cited and reminded that there is already a law against distracted driving. I’m certain that during this information and education campaign period many will be apprehended, but I’m guessing that they’ll just be cited and reminded of the law. However, by February 16, 2017 those caught violating the law will have to pay fines.

Personally, I find this law appropriate. I’m always pissed off by drivers texting or talking to someone else on the phone while driving. This puts the lives of people at risk and I find this repulsive and inexcusable to say the least, especially when there’s no emergency involved. I hope this law will be uniformly and efficiently implemented.

Motor vehicle drivers, good or bad, must always consider pedestrian behavior as driving variable that constantly changes. Always drive defensively. And avoid driving too fast. Such behavior doesn’t exactly fit our roads that are always in traffic gridlock.

###

CESO Eligibility for Doctorate Degree Holders, Anyone?

2016-08-08T08:38:00.001-07:00

Have you heard of Senate Bill 261? This proposed law was filed in the Philippine Senate recently by Sen. Panfilo "Ping" Lacson. His reason? To bring in more competent people in the government service. Sen. Lacson is proposing that there should be a law granting CESO eligibility to doctorate degree holders. In Lacson's bill, the doctorate degree would be equivalent to the entry level of CESO eligibility in the civil service.

To be sure, there are countless PhD degree holders who do not have civil service eligibility but RA 1080 granted these people civil service eligibility. For executive positions, however,, civil service appointments and promotions require CESO eligibility.

I am not against this bill, but I would like to see some sort of procedure to measure the nature, level, and quality of decision making a doctorate degree holder might have prior to being awarded CESO eligibility. Why? I do have friends who say that having earned a doctorate degree doesn't make one a good decision maker. As they say, there are doctorates and there are doctorates, "May mga mamiso, may mga mamera." In various schools in the Philippines, doctorate degrees are awarded even to those not really qualified

The fact that Sen. Lacson filed said bill in the senate, to me is an indication that there are people in government who have looked at this particular situation and see that there is a problem in the availability of good people in higher levels of government service. Why this situation? Well, I also have friends saying that some of those in higher levels of government service are there because they were elected by idiots, or they have another eligibility: "connection."

I hope that when the bill is up for debate in the committees and floor of the senate, the senators would consider issues beyond mere numbers. For example, must we start now to legislate requirements that ought to be determined through intellectual capacities and capabilities such as decision-making?

I will not, however, fight a proposal that I see can enhance the recognition of individuals who have proven themselves to be smart and highly intelligent by being able to hurdle the rigors of earning a doctorate degree. By the way, would the doctorate degree be in the field of management, social science, or technical fields. What are the rubrics that must be understood first?

Anyway, would highly qualified PhDs bite this? Highly qualified PhDs can demand salaries as high as four times the salary of a CESO IV. The issue is "patriotism," though.

First 18 Years of My Life were in Itbayat

2016-05-17T23:46:00.000-07:00

At 73, it's not easy recalling everything that transpired some 55 years ago. But here goes.

Dinem Island, sometimes called Diogo Island, is located between the islands of Batan and Itbayat in Batanes. This island is solid rock, a coral uplift, hence devoid of sand beaches. Instead, it is surrounded with huge boulders against which splashes the hydrological power of the great Pacific Ocean.

Now, a slight reorientation to the left to face the north-north-west, you'll see the faint figure of an island that looks like a caterpillar. That is the island of Itbayat, and its lone municipality is called Mayan.

This island of Itbayat is a coral uplift and surrounded by high rock cliffs ranging in height from a low 30 to a high 100 meters. Down below is 3-10 fathoms of sea (Western Philippine Sea to the west, and Pacific Ocean to the east). On each end of the island is a couple of low mountains. To the south-eastern end is Mt. Riposed, while to the north end is Mt. Karoboban.

At the western end of the island you'll see a small islet called Mavulis, which used to host a huge population of large coconut crabs. On another island, Siyayan, used to live a huge population of sea turtles. In recent years, however, these resources have practically gone because of poachers who have roamed the islets on daily basis.

This falowa plys the Basco-Itbayat route which is about 25 nautical miles of deep and rough channel. This place used to be called the graveyard of Itbayat locals who use to cross this channel on smaller falowa which they row for at least 12-14 continuous hours. Today, these falowas are larger and are run by small diesel marine engines so crossing time has been reduced to 4 hours.

A relatively new seaport is the Veranga Seaport, built by the DPWH 10-15 years ago, as alternative to Chinapoliran and Paganaman Seaports about 10-15 kilometers to the north. The Veranga port has a wider disembarkation platform etched out of solid rock and reaches sea level. Larger falowas and sea vessels can berth right along the rock so that they become very steady while unloading both passengers and cargo.

This is the disembarkation platform of Chinapoliran Seaport. From this point at sea level, you have to walk up 100 meters at a gradient of 35 degrees to reach the rest station, them walk up again for another 100 meters at similar gradient of 35 degrees, then turn slightly rightwards for still another 100 meters at a gradient of 30 degrees. Only then will you find the road to Mayan some two kilometers northwards. If you're lucky, you walk; if not, you carry your luggage to town. There are no passenger vehicles there. If you have friends, perhaps they could provide cow- or carabao-drawn sled for your luggage and perhaps yourself.

The town of Mayan is like a large vat. All the residential houses are on the rim and slopes of the vat. At the bottom are the important public infrastructure like the elementary school, municipal building, church, rural health unit, and the town plaza.

The town is bisected by the national road north to south so that the plaza is halved right at the middle.

Itbayat Island is practically flat.

Coconut Crab Acrobatics 101

2016-05-15T21:38:00.001-07:00

Coconut crabs (Birgus latro) are a delicacy in Batanes, especially on Itbayat Island, and other South Pacific Islands. Ivatans called the coconut crab tattus. The coconut crab is the largest species of the terrestrial hermit crab, the only species of the genus birgus, but related to (as in pinsan) the species of the genus Coenobita.

Coconut is not their main food, so why are they called coconut crabs? They eat fruits, nuts, and any organic mater. People in Itbayat, long time ago, always saw these crabs, especially the large ones, climb coconut trees, get mature nuts, bring them down and crack them open (mainly with their pincers) so they could eat the meat. The people of Itbayat thought coconut was the main food of these crabs, hence they called them coconut crabs. (Got this from older generations years ago when I was a little boy.)

Handling coconut crabs looks and is actually easy. Make sure you take hold of them from their back rather than from the front, and fast, otherwise they can easily clip your fingers and hands with their tough and powerful pincers.

Coconut crabs are much like pit-bulls. They don't let go once they get hold of your fingers. Otherwise, to free your fingers, either you break the crab's pincers, or perhaps lose your fingers, or let go off the crab altogether. You can easily catch it immediately once it lets go off your fingers.

Play with the crab. Let go off the crab on its back and see how it gets upright. Amazing capability.

Female species have whiskers underneath the belly.

Coconut crabs are excellent contortionists and acrobats. They can climb trees and rock, even if they may not run swiftly. They can even turn into ball-like object and roll downhill just to avoid being caught by hands.

That which looks like the crab's head is actually its belly which contains its delicious fats and aligge. Very delicious, and excellent source of cholesterol. What the heck, if you have your coconut crab meal only once a month perhaps that's not too much for an asking. The fat in the crab's belly is good mixed with boiled rice. Try it.

Somersault completed.

###

Challenges in Communicating Climate Change

2016-01-13T16:45:00.001-08:00

Almost at the heels of the Adoption of the Paris Agreement on climate change in November 2015, I recall having addressed this issue in a keynote speech before the 3rd National Agriculture, Fisheries, and Natural Resources Extension Symposium of the Philippine Extension Network, Inc. held at the Heritage Hotel in Manila on October 13-14, 2009.

Without the contextual introduction of the speech, titled, "Challenges in Communicating Climate Change," I'm reprinting the body of that speech here because I find it still completely relevant today.

Challenges in Communicating Climate Change

Felix Librero, PhD

Professor of Devcom and Education

U.P. Open University

Challenge No. 1:

Communicating Climate Change, a Scientific Phenomenon,

to a Largely Unscientific Audience

I did a very quick and crude survey among ordinary Filipinos and found some interesting data. I have suspected this kind of data all along, but I still got surprised when I saw the numbers. I shall compare these with data from the United States based on a poll conducted by Harris International from November 10-17, 2008. As you can see from Table 1, we do have an unscientific Filipino audience.

Table 1. What Filipinos believe in.

The Issue	Believe In (%)	Don’t Believe In (%)	Not Sure (%)
God	100	0	0
Heaven	98	1	1
Angels	93	1	6
Jesus is God or the Son of God	92	2	6
The Resurrection of Jesus Christ	92	4	4
Miracles	90	1	9
Hell	89	5	6
The Devil	87	4	9
The Virgin Birth	85	7	8
Creationism	83	7	10
Survival of the Soul After Death	83	8	9
Ghosts	68	11	21
Witches	43	21	33
Astrology	38	41	27
Darwin’s Theory of Evolution	34	41	25
UFOs	26	26	48

In table 2, we also see an unscientific American audience. However, it would be much easier to educate American audiences about climate change compared to their Filipino counterparts. This is probably one time that we Filipinos should imitate the Americans. Even so, it appears there would still be a long way to go.

Table 2. What Americans believe in.

The Issue	Believe In (%)	Don’t Believe In (%)	Not Sure (%)
God	80	10	9
Miracles	75	14	12
Heaven	73	14	13
Jesus is God or The Son of God	71	17	12
Angels	71	17	12
The Resurrection of Jesus Christ	70	18	13
Survival of the Soul After Death	68	15	17
Hell	62	24	13
The Virgin Birth	61	24	15
The Devil	59	27	14
Darwin’s Theory of Evolution	47	32	22
Ghosts	44	39	17
Creationism	40	31	29
UFOs	36	39	25
Witches	31	54	14
Astrology	31	51	18

Source: Mooney & Kirshenbaum (2009), Unscientific America.

We have here in the Philippines a decidedly “unscientific” audience who ranked Darwin’s theory of evolution 15^th out of 16, and prefer to believe in the presence of ghosts and witches.

Interestingly, few also believe in astrology, and yet, there are hordes of people consulting the palm readers of Quiapo. This could be taken to mean we have in our hands a confused audience, but an audience that probably has a strong belief system that is less than scientifically-oriented. The question now is, how do we communicate scientific phenomena to an unscientific audience? That our science communicators could do much to inform and educate the public about the ill-effects of climate change is a given, but they could also be overwhelmed by the very strong belief systems of their audiences.

Climatic change is a very sophisticated scientific phenomenon, and we must communicate this to a largely unscientific audience. That is a challenge, indeed.

Perhaps our pollsters should consider doing more surveys to find out the magnitude in which Filipinos appreciate scientific knowledge so we can at least try to figure out how we could communicate more effectively and efficiently the topic to the public, and perhaps bother less with who will win the presidency today since the elections would not be held today, anyway.

Let us try to recall past thinking on the topic of climate change. Those of us who have been trying to communicate climate change know that we are dealing with a public that tends to reject the idea that change in climatic conditions is due to human activity. Our public has always been of the belief that any changes in the climate has always been the handiwork of God.

This is hardly the time for a side comment, but I find this difficult to pass. One can always suggest, at least in jest, that those victims of Typhoon Ondoy who are claiming that their insurance companies are not willing to underwrite the cost of repairing their cars damaged by Typhoon Ondoy, may probably have to line up in church for loan because in this country, as provided for by insurance rules, an act of God is not covered by insurance.

In any case, to believe that climate change happens because of the activities of humans is absolutely a different pattern of thinking. It is a major shift in paradigm. And we all know that paradigm shifts always take a long time to gestate.

For example, it has been some 150 years after Darwin published his book, The Origin of the Species, and a large proportion of both the American and Philippine publics remain unable to grapple with the theory of evolution. In America, less than half of the population believes in the theory of evolution, but that means that more than half of Americans do not really believe in it. For Filipinos, the dividing line is also very clear. Only 34% believes in it, while 66% does not.

Here is how Simon Donner, Professor of Geography, University of British Columbia, explains why it is a challenge, indeed, to communicate climate change in a largely “unscientific” world:

From Galileo to Darwin, science is full of examples where new discoveries challenged traditional beliefs. If history is a guide, it can take decades or centuries for the new science to become the new orthodoxy. The battle over public acceptance of natural selection is still being fought 150 years after the publication of Darwin’s The Origin of Species. The potential for human-induced climate change may not belong on a list of the most fundamental scientific discoveries of last 500 years. Like those discoveries, however, it does challenge a belief held by virtually all religions and cultures worldwide for thousands of years. This long view of history needs to be reflected in campaigns to educate the public, who do not have the benefit of years of graduate training in atmospheric science, about the science of climate change.

Challenge No. 2:

Climate Change is not a Breaking News but an Oozing Phenomenon

Science communicators, particularly science journalists, have found it very difficult to report on climate change because it is a phenomenon that is incrementally unfolding and the evidences are only trickling in. In other words, from the point of view of mass media news parlance, the story is not breaking (except in the case of Typhoon Ondoy and other similar cases), it is simply oozing or very slowly flowing. Such was how it was described by Boyce Rensberger, director of the Knight Science Journalism Fellowships at the MIT (Chandler, 2008) during a panel discussion on “disruptive environments” held last year.

Panellists were tackling the theme “communicating climate change: science, advocacy and the media.” Perhaps it is not only a question of how the phenomenon unfolds that is making it difficult for journalists to cover; it is probably partly because the scientists also are finding it difficult to explain why climate change is happening the way it does – oozing, instead of breaking.

An important concept that is always hammered into the heads of aspiring reporters in college is the concept of “breaking news,” which means “it is happening now.” Climate change is happening now, all right, but why does it not carry the same urgency as, say, breaking news about an ongoing bank heist? The big difference is that the bank heist happens in just a few minutes if not seconds, while climate change happens anywhere from decades to millions of years. From the point of view of the public, climate change, unless it translates itself into catastrophic typhoons and floods like Typhoon Ondoy was, appears to be a long, long way into the future and so the urgency is not even perceptively felt. Scientists, however, feel it is an issue that is absolutely urgent and something must be done now. Looking at the long-term trend based on data collected over so many years, experts are seeing a quickening of the rate at which climatic conditions are changing. What they are seeing, based on scientific models and means, is making them more scared. But the public, not knowing the workings of science, does not appreciate this situation and, therefore, does not feel the same level of urgency so it is not significant information that warrants action right away. In other words, as it is considered to be act of God, so shall it be.

Do we have a choice in this situation? It appears we do not have much choice for now. We will have to continue with efforts at informing and educating the public about the significance of our changing climatic conditions. There are ways of doing this, such as focusing on the public’s experience with, say, the El Niño and La Niña phenomena because these are events directly affecting the daily lives of people.

One of the panellists in last year’s discussion at MIT was MIT’s Kerry Emanuel, professor of atmospheric science who attracted worldwide attention when, just a few weeks before Hurricane Katrina slammed into New Orleans last year, he published a paper predicting the increased intensity of hurricanes due to global warming. Emanuel’s comment in the panel discussion rings loud and clear when he said, “when it comes to explaining complex scientific work to the media and the public, scientists are ‘not very well trained’.” Still, Emanuel said, it should be pointed out quite clearly that science, indeed, is built on incremental progress and could be explained only in terms of simplified metaphors, which also invites criticisms from other scientists because metaphors are not exact (Chandler, 2008).

The message is rather clear: climate change is an unfolding phenomenon, and communicating it to the public is always work in progress. Given such a situation, therefore, the communication expert would now have to devise ways and means of making such a content much more understandable to the public and invite appropriate action to mitigate the phenomenon. This is a process of informing and educating people, and everybody knows how slow and painstaking it is to educate people, especially when they refuse to be educated.

Challenge No. 3:

Reframing Climate Change as Communication Message

Framing is a concept focusing on building a storyline that sets “specific stream of thought in motion, communicating why an issue might be a problem, who or what might be responsible for it, and what should be done about it” (Nisbet, 2009). Framing is a technique of focusing the message, and audiences usually rely on frames of messages to make sense of an issue. Journalists use frames to create interesting stories and reports. Framing also means making systematic and critical choices of the nature of information to be communicated giving greater weight to certain considerations and other elements over others.

In the last two decades, research in political communication and sociology has added more knowledge about the communication phenomenon of framing. Research has helped explain how media portrayals of events and issues interact with cultural forces to shape public views of complex policy debates on significant topics like climate change.

With proper framing, climate change could be made highly relevant to public needs and concerns than it otherwise could be under normal situations. For example, there was great opportunity during the Metro-Manila flash floods that accompanied Typhoon Ondoy on September 26, 2009 to explain that there was flood because the rainfall that normally would have fallen in 30 days was poured in six hours. This was a result of global warming, of climate change. Of course, explaining this situation in more understandable ways would mean we need more information to include in our explanation.

According to Nisbet (2009), it should be pointed out that not every individual cares about the environment or would defer to the authority of science. However, if the message about climate change is framed according to certain beliefs without necessarily changing its scientific foundations, then perhaps the public might have another view of it.

Nisbet (2009) suggests that we look at possible frames for the subject matter “climate change.” These frames could include the “economic development frame” which would essentially mean recasting climate change as an opportunity to grow economically. Hence, we could use phrases like “innovative energy technology” or “sustainable economic prosperity.” We could talk about conditions where our agricultural production system was devastated by the typhoon and all rice fields were flattened by wind and water, and all the grains buried under water or mud. Destruction of property was of a magnitude we could hardly describe.

Another frame would be the “morality and ethics” frame which was used in Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth. Why is it, for example, that the developing countries that contribute less than one percent of the gas emissions that cause global warming, have to suffer the brunt of climate change catastrophes? Not only that, they are also expected to spend as much in mitigating climate change.

Another frame has recently emerged. This is called the “public health” frame, which focuses on health implications of climate change. This frame was very clearly present in the aftermath of Typhoon Ondoy, and all other natural catastrophes. The other way of looking at it is that changing climatic conditions affect adversely our biological conditions and cause health disruptions that could range from mild to serious and fatal.

Through appropriate framing of the message, it is possible to create interpretive storylines that can be used to “bring diverse audiences together on common ground, shape personal behaviour, or mobilize collective action” (Nisbet, 2009).

Concluding Statement

So, to review the challenges now, we have to do better in informing and educating our publics about a scientific phenomenon even if such publics may not be scientific in their thinking and actions. We have to seek ways and means of explaining to people that climate change is not a one-time phenomenon that does not come back once it has happened but a continuing phenomenon. Also, we have to make sure that our angles of interpretation, information, as well as education fit into the mind sets of people so that the message sinks in right away and people act immediately accordingly.

Let me conclude with a Chinese saying that has been made gender-sensitive. It runs like this. To be a dignified human, one has to sire an off-spring , write a book, and plant a tree.

My friends, siring an off-spring is probably not a mandatory requirement to stay alive. Many have survived without off-springs, and the world has survived as well. Much less write a book. Most of us, in fact, wouldn’t bother to even think of it and the world will not perish. Planting a tree would perhaps have the most lasting effect on this earth and on mankind. So, isn’t it about time you started celebrating your being alive by planting a tree on your birthdays?

Thank you.

###

References

Donner, Simon. (2009). Communicating climate change in an unscientific world. Retrieved from http://simondonner.blogspot.com/2009/09/communicating-climate-change

Chandler, David. (2008). News that oozes: panellists tackle challenges of communicating climate change. Retrieved from http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/climate-media-tt0416.html

Climate change in Asia: perspective on the future climate regime. Retrieved from http://www.unu.edu/unupress/2008/climateChangeinAsia.html

Carvalho, Anabela. (2008). The challenges of communicating climate change. Retrieved from http://www.lasics.uminho.pt/ojs/index.php/climate_change

Climate change. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change

Retallack, Simon. (2006). Ankelohe and beyond: communicating climate change. Retrieved from http://www.opendemocracy.net

Ward, Bud. (2009). Communicating on climate change. Retrieved from http://www.metcalfinstitute.org/Communicating_ClimateChange.html

Nisbet, Matthew C. (2009). Communicating climate change: why frames matter for public engagement. Retrieved from http://www.environmentmagazine.org/Archives/Back%201Issues/March-April2009/Niwsbet-full.html

Doster, Stephanie. (2009). Meeting the challenges of climatic change head on. Retrieved from http://www.environment.arizona.edu/news/fws_report

Fabusoro, Enjola and F Hoi-Yee. (2009). Challenges of climatic change to pastoral system in rainforest zone of Southwest Nigeria. In Climate Change: Global Risks, Challenges and Decisions. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science 6. Tokyo: IOP Publishing Ltd.

Devcom Journey

2016-01-12T18:01:00.000-08:00

FROM AGRICULTURAL COMMUNICATIONS

TO DEVELOPMENT COMMUNICATION:

A PARTICIPANT-OBSERVER ACCOUNT

Felix Librero, PhD

Professor Emeritus, UPOU

I joined DAIC as a major student in 1965 when I enrolled in my first course, AgCom 10. Then I was employed as DAIC student assistant, collating mimeographed farm news releases, in 1966. I 1967, I was DZLB student assistant, serving as student radio announcer and news writer, and then as Station Supervisor in June 1968, after I graduated from UPCA.

DZLB’s history deserves a separate treatment, but for this account it must be put in context. In 1962, Radio DZLB was conceptualized as an experimental rural broadcasting station for the UP College of Agriculture with the help of Visiting Professor William Ward and Bob Rounsavell, both from Cornell University. To establish the radio station, UPCA was given a grant of US$2,700 from the Agricultural Development Council, Inc., which was then being funded by the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations. DZLB went on its maiden broadcast on 2 August 1964, and the first voice heard over DZLB was that of Thor Orig, an undergraduate student of agricultural communications who was then active in stage plays and other cultural presentations of student fraternities. At that time, Thor Orig was Student Assistant working with DZLB. He had a very good radio voice.

Some of the UPCA graduates who worked full-time with DZLB from 1964 onwards included Filipino pioneers in rural educational broadcasting like Romeo Gecolea, Ponciano de la :Paz, Sabina Fajardo, and Maximo Pabale (from 1964 to 1966), Milagros Tetangco, Alicia Agudo, Antonio Frio, and Pedro Bueno (from 1967-1968), and myself from 1968 onwards.

How I started working full-time at DZLB was a strange story by itself. When I finished my thesis in the Summer of 1968, DZLB’s Station Supervisor, Emma Henry, was planning to resign to pursue her interest in police work. I waited for her to resign so I could apply for the vacated position. When she finally resigned in April that year, the department couldn’t immediately hire her replacement because Emma had taken all her leave credits in cash, which meant the vacant position would be frozen until middle of June 1968. So I decided to work with DZLB on full time basis without compensation from April to June 1968, and I got hired toward end of that year. As I had been student announcer of DZLB earlier, I didn’t require much time to settle down with the chores at DZLB, and I became the one responsible for two regular programs in terms of researching, writing, and announcing said programs. I wrote and delivered the daily news program and hosted a regular thirty-minute program titled Samut-Samot, Inc., which was a music-and-information program. Then, of course, I had to coordinate and assist in the production and broadcast of other radio programs which were being aired in collaboration with other units of the College of Agriculture. For three months, I was doing pretty much standard work in DZLB, although I was also dabbling as some kind of general assistant in the other activities of the Department such as in the production and circulation of the Radio Farm News, a farm and home news service provided by the department to media outlets like radio stations and newspapers in the country.

At the department level, while the department was still operating from the basement of the old library building it had began producing a news service called the Radio Farm News which was distributed to media outlets all over the Philippines. When the department participated in the then special project of the UPCA called Rice Information Cooperative Effort (RICE) in 1965, it co-published with IRRI and the Department of Agriculture the Rice Production Manual, which became the “bible” of farm technicians of the Philippine agricultural extension service.

On October 30, 1968, at the Department level, the term “Information” in the original name of the department, Department of Agricultural Information and Communication (DAIC), was “edited” out and it became Department of Agricultural Communications (DAC). The term “information” was deemed superfluous (Cadiz, 1979). From the cramped basement of the old library building, where most of the initial work in agricultural communications were undertaken by the Los Baños-based pioneers in agricultural journalism, audiovisual communication, and extension publications, DAC transferred (on November 3, 1969) to its new building (where it still stays today) near the main gate, across from the main UPLB Administration Building. DAC shared the building with the Farm and Home Development Office (FHDO), then the extension arm of the UPCA. At the time that DAC transferred to its new building, Dr. Nora Quebral was the department chair (1968-1970). Then Dr. Juan F. Jamias became department chair in 1970-1971, and Dr. Thomas G. Flores, again, in 1971-1972 until he left for the University of Wisconsin to serve as Visiting Professor. During that time, there were only the three of them that had PhDs and practically took turns in heading the department, although Ely Gomez had returned in 1969 from Michigan State University with a PhD in educational media.

Dr. Quebral again became department chair from 1972-1976, during which time many changes in the department occurred. For one, DAC reorganized into three sections, namely: audio-visual communication section, broadcast communication section, and print communication section.

Earlier on in 1969, Glenn Paje came in as student assistant, and the following year Lolita Vega joined the station (from the Department of Entomology where she was Research Assistant) first as research assistant and later as program host, taking over the chores of Alysh Arejola when she left DZLB. Many people joined DZLB for some time when they were starting their professional lives or in the process of enriching their professional lives. Those who did creative work at DZLB included Felimon Barral, Lynn Malilin, Paul Manalo, Epitacia Calatrava, Milagros Sandoval, Noel Cartas, and Myra Beltran, who all joined DZLB during the 1970-1974 period.

On December 9-10, 1971, a symposium with the theme “In Search of Breakthroughs in Agricultural Development” was held at UPLB in honor of Dr. Dioscoro L. Umali, who was then the Deputy Director-General for the Far East of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. In that symposium, Nora Quebral presented her seminal paper titled “Development communication in the agricultural context” wherein she introduced to the public for the first time the term “development communication” (Quebral 1971; 1988). Quebral made it clear in that paper that to her development communication was to be treated as science, so all the tasks associated with communicating development-oriented issues were based on rigorous scientific inquiry. This was a strong argument for undertaking rigorous research in the field of communication even if it was, at that time, limited to agricultural and rural development efforts. It would be safe to assume that Quebral’s enunciation of development communication may have greatly contributed to the intellectual transformation of DAC staffers from a bridled focus on rural and agricultural development efforts to a wider development horizon that “makes possible greater social equality and the larger fulfillment of the human potential.”

It should be borne in mind, however, that when Quebral introduced development communication, initially as a marriage between the twin concepts of development and communication, she did it at a time when the concept of development was pervasive in both the developed and developing world. Dudley Seers’ article titled “The Meaning of Development” which became one of the “bibles” of graduate students at UPLB and the staff of DAC, was published in 1969. Around that time, too, the Club of Rome published its book titled “The Limits to Growth.” There was also Gunnar Myrdal’s “Asian Drama” that came off the press in the middle-sixties. During the second half of the sixties, UPCA was host to visiting professors from Cornell University under the UP-Cornell Program, who became active, together with UPCA professors, in promoting the concept of national development, particularly through socio-economic development programs. It was under this academic ambiance at Los Baños that Quebral introduced the concept of development communication, which fitted perfectly in the efforts of government, the academe, and international aid agencies. It was, so to speak, an idea that has come of age. From the point of view of this writer, that was perfect timing for a perfect idea.

In 1972, the Radio Farm News (RFN) was reconceptualized and split into two services: Development News Service (DNS), and the Development News Digest (DND). The DNS continued to carry crisp news items about research results and other new modern farming developments from UPCA, while the DND, which began circulating in April 1973, carried feature articles about how research results were influencing the farming practices in the Philippine country sides. These news services, including the Rice Production Manual, continued to be published by the department, but such function was transferred in 1980 to the Philippine Council for Agricultural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD).

In the same year, 1972, the Master of Science (agricultural communications) program, which was first offered in 1965, was upgraded to MS (development communication). With this program, a number of graduate students began flocking to Los Baños. The first batch of graduate students in development communication who were from outside of UPCA came in as graduate assistants with teaching functions starting in 1973 included: Patricia Sto. Tomas, Esther Manigque, Rosita Valencia, Madeline Mag-uyon, and Antonio Moran. Having completed their master’s degrees, they ultimately left the department for their respective professional calling (in 1976 Sto. Tomas transferred to the Department of Labor to join the staff of then Secretary Blas Ople; Manigque withdrew in 1978 from the academe to care for her ailing mother and she ultimately in the early 80’s succumb to cancer; Valencia went for her PhD in 1979 and ultimately migrated to the US; Moran joined the UP Mindanao in the mid-80s; and only Mag-uyon (now Suva) has stayed with the department (now College) until today.

Development Journalism and SANDIWA

Agricultural journalism was a popular field of study in the Land Grant colleges of the US in the 60s. It came as no surprise that agricultural journalism was to be one of the focuses of extension education and agricultural communication in Los Baños. In fact, it was agricultural reporting and feature writing that became the first skills undergraduate students in agricultural communications learned with some level of mastery, both for radio and the newspapers. Agricultural journalism was part of print communication which was one of the three major areas in agricultural communications, the two others being community broadcasting and audiovisual communication. Naturally, with the introduction of development communication in the early 70s as the main area of study, agricultural journalism became development journalism. During that time, too, the field of development journalism was also a new area of professional practice being espoused by the Press Foundation of Asia through its news service, DEPthnews, highlighting the areas of development, economics, and population as the new beats in news reporting. DEPthnews was also part of the international network of news services focusing on developmental issues that was being sponsored by UNESCO at that time, which included the Tanjug News Service of Yugoslavia, the Bernama News Service of Malaysia, among others.

A few years earlier in 1967, Elinora Moral, already with a Master of Arts degree in journalism, was recruited Instructor, and Carmencita Navarro, English major graduate from UP, Diliman was recruited as editor. The following year, Navarro transferred to the International Rice Research Institute. Moral became active in agricultural journalism and then development journalism. When the Department of Agricultural Communications transferred to its new building in 1970, the young faculty of the department began conceptualizing a community newspaper that could demonstrate the principles and skills being learned by development journalism students, working seriously to be able to demonstrate their expertise in the media triumvirate of the newspaper, radio, and audiovisual media.

About October of 1971, five faculty and staff (comprised of Elinora Moral, Ponciano dela Paz, Pedro Bueno, Antonio Frio, and Felix Librero) of agricultural journalism and farm broadcasting brainstormed on the possibility of starting a weekly community newspaper as an outlet for farm information in tandem with DZLB. Picking up from the philosophical orientation of development communication, the group decided to coin the name Sandiwa, from the Tagalog terms isang diwa (one soul). Moral became the Editor and I became an active columnist, writing the print version of my Balitang Pambukid (Farm News) radio program. Sandiwa came out with its maiden issue in January 1972. Through the efforts of the young faculty of development communication, SANDIWA’s readership spread to the provinces of Laguna, Batangas, Cavite, and Rizal.

The following year 1973, the PhD in development communication program was approved by the UP Board of Regents. Then, on March 11, 1974, the Bachelor of Science in Development Communication (BSDC) was also approved, thereby completing the three-tiered formal education in development communication in Los Baños, the first such set of programs in development communication worldwide (Cadiz, 1979; Quebral, 1988). Finally, the inevitable had to follow. On March 28, 1974, UP’s Board of Regents approved the renaming of DAC to Department of Development Communication (DDC). Cadiz (1979), reviewing the department’s history, said, “The transformation signified the culmination of the department’s almost 20 years of experience in extension-communication, an experience that brought about a widened understanding of the meaning of development and the crucial role of communication in advancing development” (p. 84). For a young professional who was just introduced to the concept of social development in a Third World setting, the transformations of the 70s were of profound significance.

When Martial Law was declared on September 21, 1972, Radio DZLB voluntarily went off the air. As Radio Station Supervisor, I had to personally supervise the silencing of the radio station to avoid physical closure by the Philippine Constabulary. I personally had to demagnetize all our canned programs on that day (Sunday) and told the technician not to turn on the transmitter anymore. Our Station Manager, then, was Ponciano de la Paz, and he was stranded in Marikina, Rizal. The only radio stations allowed to operate then were the stations belonging to the government network. However, we continued to publish Sandiwa, and, in the Summer of 1973, a huge regional development journalism conference was held in Los Baños in collaboration with the Region IV Office of the Ministry of Public Information. During that conference, the MPI-Region IV made an offer that the Department of Development Communication could not refuse, to take over the publication of Sandiwa. As usual, we of Sandiwa were operating as academics with only the good intensions of development journalism as an academic field of study in mind, so the Department turned over publication of Sandiwa at the start of 1974. We of Sandiwa had our own doubts about this transaction, but we probably silently agreed that if we wanted Sandiwa to continue publishing then it must have some sure funding, which was something UPCA could not provide. Unfortunately, it folded up after only two quarterly issues. In each of those two issues, it was clear that about 70% of content was in direct support of the Martial Law government but was passed as developmental issues, while about 30% was focused on real developmental issues such as those about population, economic development in the country sides, and health and nutrition.

Sandiwa was a very good concept, but it came out when the Martial Law regime was scouting for an appropriate media project to help legitimize its existence. Development journalism, through Sandiwa, was a good promotional strategy for the Martial Law government and became a powerful argument for the critics of development communication who had been claiming that devcom was nothing but government propaganda of the Martial Law government of the Philippines.

Development As Focus for Communication Studies

In the past, informal categorization of areas of specialization in development communication was expressed in terms of the research one undertook for a thesis. In the absence of a better parameter, this may be used as a yardstick to provide a general idea of where graduates of development communication believed they had critical advantage over their peers in mainstream communication.

From 1963 to 1974, the graduates were agricultural communications major and their respective theses would show that they studied mostly the use of extension media and their variations. From 1975 onwards, however, when the BSDC was already offered and the three major areas of community broadcasting, development journalism, and audiovisual communication, the nature of undergraduate theses being undertaken by students started to spread out to concerns not purely agricultural, such as community nutrition, sanitation, family planning, deforestation, and the like (Maslog, 1988). As the graduate program in development communication strengthened, so did efforts in the analysis of the role of communication in the development process. Development models became popular frameworks for the in-depth study and analysis of the role of communication in the planning and implementation of development programs in the country.

Communication as Art/Science: The Debate

Development communication was clearly defined by Quebral (1971) as the “art and science of human communication applied to the speedy transformation of a country and the masses of its people from poverty to a dynamic state of economic growth that makes possible greater social equality and the larger fulfillment of the human potential.” This formal definition has been taken both literally and figuratively by experts in the twin areas of development and communication, sometimes in combination with one another, and frequently independently.

The discussion as to whether Devcom was art or science, even if it was clearly enunciated in the Quebral definition, did not stop. The debate even became more lively with the administrative developments on the Los Baños campus in the early 1970s when Proclamation No. 53 was issued by Malacañng on March 5, 1972 creating the University of the Philippines System, with UPCA becoming the first autonomous campus of the UP System. UPCA became known as the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB). Immediately, the then UPCA was reorganized and many of its departments were elevated into colleges. One of these was the Department of Humanities, which became the College of Arts and Sciences.

Immediately after the reorganization of the UPCA to the UPLB, the then Department of Agricultural Communications, which was still part of the College of Agriculture, submitted its curricular proposal for a four-year BSDC, which was approved in March the following year. It is difficult to pin down on individuals certain events that transpired during the interim period because there are no existing documentary evidences. Suffice it to say, however, that there was a proposal for an AB in Devcom (privately believed by many to have been formulated by two faculty members of the Department of Agricultural Communications) which was being considered by the newly set-up Department of Humanities in the new CAS.

It was not as if there was completely no basis for the idea of offering an AB program in development communication. It should be noted that at UPCA, student organizations (fraternities and sororities) were very active promoters of cultural life through regular and frequent theatrical productions of both Shakespearian and Filipino stage plays. In other words, many students already studying at UPCA were arts-oriented, and their number was steadily increasing. Private conversations with those believed to be proponents of the AB in development communication proposal would point out to this trend as one of the more important bases for proposing to offer an arts-oriented development communication program in Los Baños.

The idea of an AB in Development Communication curriculum, however, was earlier vetoed by the DAC with the belief that devcom should remain as science-oriented curriculum in communication based on the fact that it (devcom) was being developed as a social science rather than plainly arts program. This generated lengthy and passionate debates.

From a dispassionate point of view, however, we have raised the issue that devcom, whether or not it was art or science, was beside the point. The more significant point that was being offered for discussion was the issue of why the need for two separate communication curricula in a small campus like UPLB which was known to be a campus for life sciences rather than social sciences or the arts. This issue reached the discussions in the Social Science Commission created by then UPLB Chancellor Emil Javier to discuss the role of social science in the life of the UPLB as an academic institution. The Commission did not deal squarely with the issue of the two communication curricula at UPLB, but it declared that the social sciences in Los Baños were treated as second class citizen.

The original proposal of an AB in Devcom was renamed AB Communication Arts, which became a banner program of the Department of Humanities in the new CAS. The AB Comarts initially had two major areas: public speaking and expository writing. In the mid-1970s, due to persistent requests from ComArts students, the Department of Development Communication decided to permit Comarts students to cross-enroll in the first four basic courses in devcom: introduction to development communication, fundamentals of development journalism, fundamentals of community broadcasting, and fundamentals of educational communication. This raised the issue of how different these two programs were, which may be viewed from two points: vertical difference in terms of depth, and horizontal difference in terms of breadth. Development communication runs deep in its commitment to development. Here is what Quebral (1988) said in her foreword of her book in 1988:

Development communication has gone by some other tag in the past and may be called differently in the future. Its present name could go out of fashion after a while. Not likely to disappear, though, is the idea that underlies it: that the art of communication, infused by social science principles, can be consciously directed towards improving people’s lives. This is the essence of development communication, regardless of how it is labeled or what else may be imputed to it.

While there may have been some sort of moratorium in the debates as to whether or not devcom was art or science from the late 80s to the present, one still feels the silent disagreements as well as commonality in concern among both the faculty and students of these two curricular programs. Some of the faculty members of the Comarts Program were graduates of devcom in both the bachelor’s and master’s degree levels. Some have even pursued their PhDs in devcom. There is still wisdom in reviewing dispassionately the relationship between the two curricular programs.

The Growth Years of Devcom at Los Banos

The 1970s and the 1980s could easily be considered the growth years of devcom in Los Baños. One must recall that Quebral introduced the term “development communication” for the first time in December 1971. In a succession of events after that, the then department of Agricultural Communications was renamed Department of Development Communication in 1973, then the Bachelor of Science in Development Communication and the existing MS in agricultural communications was renamed MS in development communication both in 1974. The PhD in development communication was first offered in 1977 (Librero, 1991).

The BSDC was designed to provide the students the opportunity to (BSDC Brochure as cited by Librero, 1991):

1. acquire a theoretical base in the sciences and applied arts that underlie the study of human communication;

2. learn practical skills in mediated and interpersonal communication;

3. gain a basic grasp of the issues and problems of development in general and of the subject of development area in particular; and

4. apply the concepts, principles and skills of communication to the solution of problems in a developing society.

On the other hand, the MS in development communication program “offers the students advanced training in the principles and practice of purposive communication for development,” while the PhD program “explores in depth and breadth the synergistic relationship between communication and development” (MS in Development Communication and PhD in Development Communication brochures, respectively, as cited by Librero, 1991).

From 1982-1986, the then DDC implemented the first and so far only national R&D program in development communication titled A National Development Communication Research and Research-Based Information Utilization Program of the Philippines with funding from the Philippine Council of Agricultural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD) of which Dr. Felix Librero was Program Leader. Participants in this national program were UPLB, Central Luzon State University (CLSU), Central Mindanao University (CMU), and the Visayas State College of Agriculture (ViSCA), now Leyte State University (LSU). Under this program, the department also initiated and published a low-cost journal called the Devcom Quarterly, which published articles, research reports, and essays from local and foreign authors. Without institutional funding after 1986, however, Devcom Quarterly was ultimately turned over to the Philippine Association of Communication Educators (PACE) to become its official journal following the recommendations in 1987 of a review committee comprised of Drs. Quebral. Jamias, and Crispin Maslog, all senior faculty of the then Institute of Development Communication. As following events proved later, the PACE published only two issues (1988 and 1989) under a different publication name before the publication went out of circulation due to lack of financial resources.

In November 1987, the then Department of Development Communication was elevated to the Institute of Development Communication, still under the UPLB College of Agriculture. During that time, DDC was acknowledged, at least informally, by the Philippine Association of Communication Educators (PACE) as having the strongest faculty of communication in the Philippines, one reason the UP Board of Regents approved its elevation to the IDC. There were 23 members of the DDC/IDC faculty with almost a 50-50 gender distribution and the following proportion in terms of graduate training: 11 in-residence with PhD degrees, 10 in-residence and two affiliate faculty with PhD degrees (Maslog, 1988). All members of the non-teaching staff of IDC at that time have earned at least a master’s degree.

In 1988, the IDC, conceptualized and implemented a summer internship program for its graduating students majoring in community broadcasting. Through the efforts of Felix Librero, then IDC Director, the German Foundation, Freiderick Ebert Stiftung (FES), became involved in this program by providing IDC with partial funding for 1989 to open up the broadcasting internship program to graduating communication students, particularly those majoring in broadcast communication, from other educational institutions in the Philippines.

This was a highly successful program, judging from the number of interns (a total of 15) from other educational institutions (10 schools) all over the Philippines that enrolled, however the Institute could not sustain the financial resources required after the two-year FES funding assistance was completed. The internship program was comprised of 120 hours of guided training in the entire process of community broadcasting with the following components:

1. Review of Concept and History of Radio Broadcasting

2. Overview of Community Broadcasting

3. Radio Program Conceptualization

3.1. Generating a program idea

3.2. Designing various radio program formats

4. Program Production

4.1. Script writing

4.2. Program construction

4.3. Actual program broadcast

5. Program Monitoring and Evaluation

5.1. Conducting a listenership campaign

5.2. Formative evaluation of radio program broadcasts

5.3. Content adjustment based on feedback information

5.4. Summative evaluation of radio program

During the same period, IDC also conceptualized and implemented another program, the publication of the IDC Monograph Series and the IDC Faculty Papers Series, also with initial FES funding. Again, when the funding assistance was completed, these programs could not be sustained given the available budget of IDC at that time. Two issues of the IDC Monograph Series were:

Barroga, Serlie and Ely D. Gomez. The Agenda-Setting Function of Selected Philippine Newspapers in a rural Setting (MS Thesis of Barroga).

Casal, Ma. Stella L.; Centurion, Diosnel, Fr.; and Gomez, Ely D. Communication Roles of the Catholic Church (MS thesis of Casal and Centurion).

The lone issue published under the IDC Faculty Papers Series was:

Jamias, Juan F. Understanding Development Communication Today.

In 1999, the Institute of Development Communication was finally elevated to its current status, the College of Development Communication, with the following objectives (proposal submitted to the BOR, 1998):

1. Provide higher education for students who will pursue careers in development communication practice, teaching and research;

2. Investigate the interrelationships between human development and the processes and structures of communication with emphasis on research that promotes equity, empowerment, environmental sustainability, peace, and human rights; and

3. Undertake training, advisory and action programs that help build up the resources and communication capabilities of people, communities, institutions and other participants in the development process.

It should be noted that when the UP Board of Regents approved the elevation of the IDC to the College of Development Communication (CDC), it had the following academic staff complement: 23 full-time, in-residence (12 with PhDs, 9 with MA/MS, and 2 with BS degree); 9 part-time or Affiliate faculty (7 with PhDs and 2 with MA/MS degrees). The new College also had seven (7) individuals who were considered “under study” as potential teaching staff. Over-all, in 1998, CDC had in its faculty 19 with PhDs, 11 with MA/MS degrees, and 2 with Bachelor’s degrees, for a total of 32 warm bodies that were performing teaching functions, still considered the strongest faculty of communication in any educational institution in the Philippines then.

Perhaps one of the most significant milestones in the life of the CDC so far was when it was designated in 1999 by the Commission on Higher Education of the Philippines as one of two Centers of Excellence in Communication in the Philippines. On top of this, the BSDC is the model curriculum in development communication that is being copied in other tertiary educational institutions throughout the country as well as in other developing countries (CDC Brochure, 2008). Besides, in 2008, the CDC published the maiden issue of the Philippine Journal of Development Communication, becoming effectively a continuation of the research publication efforts of the previous departments starting with the Devcom Quarterly, then to the IDC Monograph and Faculty Papers Series, and finally to the Philippine Journal of Development Communication. Indeed, this publication pattern might be likened to the institutional-structural development pattern of devcom beginning with the OEP, DAIC, DAC, DDC, IDC, and finally to the CDC. In other words, none among the major and minor events in the history of development communication in Los Baños could be treated independently of other events. All are chronologically interrelated when put in appropriate context.

Enrollment Trend in Devcom

Enrollment trend on a decade-basis, from the 1960s to the last decade shows a continuing climb even if there may be slight shifts within the decade. The decade’s enrollment peak was during the school year 2003-2004, when there was the largest undergraduate enrollment of 1,685 during the decade. Graduate enrollment peaked at 136 during the school year 2005-2006. The enrollment trend for the last decade is shown in Table .

Table . Aggregate enrollment, UPLB-CDC, 2001-2010*.

School, Year	Undergraduate	Graduate	Total
2000-2001	1,259	67	1,326
2001-2002	1,467	67	1,534
2002-2003	1,607	91	1,698
2003-2004	1,685	117	1,802
2004-2005	1,644	133	1,777
2005-2006	1,601	136	1,737
2006-2007	1,463	114	1,577
2007-2008	1,350	117	1,467
2008-2009	1,454	99	1,553
2009-2010	1,512	82	1,594

*SOURCE: UPLB-CDC Secretary’s Office.

It may be noted that while the enrollment figures are certainly encouraging, historically there has not been any active student recruitment undertaken by the College of Development Communication. Therefore, one might surmise that promotion of devcom as a field of study has been mainly through word of mouth.

As of 2010, the full-time and part-time faculty complement of the CDC has the following profile:

Table . Full-time faculty members, UPLB-CDC as of 2010 (actual head count).

Name	Academic Rank	Degree	Field	Institution
1. Albia, Joclarise E.	Instructor 6	BS	Devcom	UP Los Baños
2. Balinos, Aiza M.	Instructor 2	BS	Devcom	UP Los Baños
3. Cabrera, Liza A.	Asst. Prof. 1	MS	Devcom	UP Los Baños
4. Canubas, Aletheia G.	Instructor 2	BS	Devcom	UP Los Baños
5. Carpio, Lynette B.	Asst. Prof. 1	MS	Devcom	UP Los Baños
6. Castillo, Hermilea Marie C.	Asst. Prof. 1	MS	Devcom	UP Los Baños
7. Centeno, Edmund G.	Asst. Prof. 2	MS	Devcom	UP Los Baños
8. Chico, Mark Lester D.	Instructor 2	BS	Devcom	UP Los Baños
9. Custodio, Pamela A.	Asst. Prof. 5	PhD	Devcom	UP Los Baños
10. Custodio, Rhodora Ramonette D.	Asst. Prof. 2	MA	Masscom	UP Diliman
11. Dagli, Winifredo B.	Instructor 3	BS	Devcom	UP Los Baños
12. Daya, Rommel A.	Asst. prof. 1	MS	Devcom	UP Los Baños
13. Francisco, Rosa Pilipinas F.	Asst. Prof. 1	MS	Devcom	UP Los Baños
14. Flor, Benjamina Paula G.	Asst. Prof. 6	PhD	Devcom	UP Los Baños
15. Jamias, Serlie B.	Assoc. Prof. 4	PhD	Devcom	Macquarie Univ.
16. Lim, Aldo Gavril T.	Instructor 7	BS	Devcom	UP Los Baños
17. Maligalig, Jon Paul F.	Asst. Prof. 1	MS	Devcom	UP Los Baños
18. Montemayor, Garry Jay S.	Instructor 5	BS	Devcom	UP Los Baños
19. Osalla, Ma. Teresita B.	Asst. Prof. 3	MS	Devcom	UP Los Baños
20. Suva, Madeline M.	Assoc. Prof. 7	PhD	Comm.	U. of Wisconsin
21. Tatlongthari, Rosario V.	Asst. Prof. 1	MS	Devcom	UP Los Baños
22. Tirol, Ma. Stella C.	Assoc. Prof. 2	MS	Devcom	UP Los Baños
23. Torres, Cleofe S.	Professor 2	PhD	Ext. Com.	UP Los Baños
24. Velasco, Ma. Theresa H.	Professor 8	PhD	Devcom	UP Los Baños
25. Villar, Ricarda B.	Instructor 3	BS	Devcom	UP Los Baños

Table 2. Part-time faculty members of UPLB-CDC as of 2010 (actual head count).

Name	Academic Rank	Highest Degree	Field	Institution
1. Cadiz, Ma. Celeste H.	Assoc. Prof.	PhD	Ed. Tech.	Australian National Univ.
2. Campilan, Dindo M.		PhD	Devcom	UP Los Baños
3. Flor, Alexander G.	Professor	PhD	Devcom	UP Los Baños
4. Lapitan, Julian A.
5. Lumanta, Melinda F.	Professor	PhD	Comm	Michigan State University
6. Magor, Noel P.
7. Quebral, Nora C.	Prof. Emeritus	PhD	Comm	University of Illinois

References

Cadiz, Na. Celeste H. (1979). Department of Development Communication. Philippine Agriculturist, Vol. 62, Special Issue, pp. 78-85.

College of Development Communication Brochure. (2008). College, Laguna, Philippines: UPLB College of Development Communication.

Librero, Felix. (1991). Contemporary thinking in development communication as expressed in the academic program: the case of Los Baños. Proceedings of the Seminar on development Communication: Application and Prospects for the Asia-Pacific Region, Asia-Pacific Development Communication Center, Dhurakijpundit University, Bangkok, Thailand, December 16-18, pp. 9-14.

Maslog, Crispin C. (1988). The Institute of Development Communication, University of the Philippines at Los Baños. Paper presented in the 2^nd Meeting of the Research Committee, Press Foundation of Asia Survey of Mass Communication and Journalism Education in Asia, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, August 21-27.

Quebral, Nora C. (1971). Development communication in the agricultural context. Paper presented at the Symposium on the theme :In Search of Breakthroughs in Agricultural Development” held in honor of Dr. Dioscoro L. Umali, December 9-10.

Quebral, Nora C. (1988). Development Communication. College, Laguna, Philippines: UPLB College of Agriculture.

Sison, Obdulia F. (1979). The UPLB College of Agriculture turns seventy: some historical milestones. Philippine Agriculturist, Vol. 62, Special Issue, pp. 1-56.

A Very Significant Date

2015-12-29T22:52:00.000-08:00

29-XII-15

A Very Significant Date

“It was my fault that Lex and Nita did not receive anything from the proceeds of the sale of our properties in Itbayat, Batanes because I told Nana that we would not accept any share from it; that all of it should go to her,” thus said Kuya Flor in his explanation of what he said he was about to do for us, his siblings. To be clear, we did have properties in Itbayat. These comprised of a couple of parcels of agricultural farms in Riaxogay and Kasupitan, as well as a house and lot in the town of Itbayat. These were inherited by our mother from her Ninang, our Lola Cela, who had practically adopted Nana Nitang. These properties, by any means, didn’t make our family well-to-do. In fact, we worked these farms like hell so we could survive the harsh realities of life in Itbayat. If one is not hard worker in Itbayat, one would not survive one minute even with large tracts of land to one’s name. Too, one must understand that in Itbayat, Batanes owning a property means nothing if one isn’t ready to work it. We could have had these farm lots, but if we didn’t work them we wouldn’t have survived. Still, we were lucky we had these farm lots. With hard work, we were able to survive the harshness of island life, dependent only on mother nature and hard work. We had little use for money, by the way, but through hard work (hard labor, really) we did have enough food on the table, even if only kamote tubers and tops.

After completing our studies, we started working and we had practically migrated to Los Banos (my brother finished his studies at UPCA, so did I), and our sister finished her studies in Laguna. When my brother finished his studies, he sent me to school (High School and College), and when I finished college and started working, I sent our sister to school (college). That’s exactly how things had to work for us; that’s the value system we grew up in: those younger than us were our responsibilities. We had fully accepted those responsibilities, we never complained. Instead, we had to be thankful that we were able to get to where we were at.

The time had come to bring our mother to Los Banos to stay with us. We knew we had come to the point where we would begin taking full responsibility for the welfare of our mother, who, as a single parent, raised us all within a demanding value system framework. She had been highly successful, and we have not been able to thank her enough for that. So it was that when she got to Los Banos, we told her in no uncertain terms that we were not going to take any share from the proceeds of the sale of properties in Itbayat, that she owned all of it and may do whatever she wanted to do with her money. She has always lived a frugal life and every now and then, without our knowledge, she would spend for some gifts to her grand children. Unfortunately, Kuya didn’t have any child and I had one. This was perhaps another reason Kuya must have felt it a responsibility to share with us, his siblings, what he has been able to generate through the years. Under the value system we were brought up, we always accepted the decision of those older than were were. So, while I expressed concern and disagreement with Kuya’s decision to share his resources with Nita and myself, I was aware that Kuya has made his decision and so I had to accept that but with some suggestions.

A footnote to this: earlier on Kuya apparently had talked to Nana about the proceeds of sale of our properties in Itbayat, then Kuya told me about it later. I completely agreed with him.

Anyway, Kuya has decided to give us a share from his share of the proceeds in the sale of Panyesanan. I know that this was not a difficult decision for him because I know his basis, but I’m not so sure about Ate Aida. Of course, the significant point is that they shared the proceeds right down the middle, 50-50, and each one responsible for his/her share. Here, I’m not touching on what Ate Aida intends to do with her share because that’s her business. I’m saying something about Kuya’s share because I’m party to it. I am pleased however, that Kuya listened to me and has retained a larger proportion because he has a lot of expected expenses. I really wouldn’t have made a fuss if he didn’t give me a share at all. And I know my sister Nita thinks the same way. But we accept Kuya’s decision because that’s how we were brought up. And that’s that.

I’ll not talk about amounts here because I consider talking about these unethical and uncalled for. Besides, we’re not talking here of figures anywhere close to that of Bill Gates’ coins. All I wish to share here is what I have decided to do with what I have no matter the amount. First, some I have already decided to allocate for Jegs’ Mom’s health concerns, and I hope Jegs would agree with me that I need some amount (less than what I have allocated for the health benefits of her Mom) to complete the transfer of my son’s inheritance from me. This is part of my responsibility and commitment and I haven’t been able to do this (I still have to discuss this with Jegs. I do hope she agrees with me. I shall not ask any more for myself. The rest would go towards a residential abode or an investment, all of which will end up in the hands of Jegs, anyway.

When I’m gone, which I feel is sooner than later, I’ll not be able to leave much for Jegs, but she would have either a respectable abode, or a small investment package that would provide her enough elbow-room for her financial transactions. We don’t have much right now but she’ll have all what we now have, including a car, which I already have put under her name. The investment package will, sooner or later, be in her name. If we decide to invest in a small house and lot, such holding will be hers when I'm gone. Meantime, I will also live in the place. But this is not for long anymore.

###

2015-11-15T05:33:00.002-08:00

Your Article Appeared in a Predatory Journal? That’s Become a Problem Now

At the UPOU, I’m a member of two committees at the university level: Committee on Professor Emeriti and Committee on the UP Science Productivity System, both requiring stringent criteria that have something to do with scientific output. The Committee on Professor Emeriti is responsible for the evaluation and nomination of retiring faculty members with the rank of Professor 12 to the title of Professor Emeritus. The Professor Emeritus title is for life. The other committee that I’m a member of is responsible for the evaluation of faculty members to determine if they’re qualified to be nominated for the Award UP Scientist I, UP Scientist II, or UP Scientist III; or UP Artist I, UP Artist II, or UP Artist III.

In evaluating the scientific or artistic outputs of the faculty members being considered for the Scientific Productivity Award, the UP Artist Award, and the Professor Emeritus Award, we look carefully at the scientific artistic publication outputs. In other words, we take a look at books, book chapters, or journal articles published by the faculty member concerned in reputable publishers. This has become a problematic matter beginning this year because the UP System has suddenly excluded articles published in what they have labeled predatory journals. Why has this become a problem?

Predatory publication refers to various characteristics like weak review process, guarantees that an article would be published, the author paying a publication fee, and things like these. We used to think of predatory journals as only those that charge publication fees, but there are more issues involved. For example, the criteria that would identify a journal as predatory journal, or a publishing house as predatory publisher, include the following characteristics:

1. Peer review procedure is weak or even non-existent.

2. Board of Editors is comprised of unknown names in the field, or include names of known individuals without their permission, much less agree to become members of the editorial boards.

3. The journal doesn’t have authentic address.

4. The journal has an over-active promotion program, practically forcing individuals, researchers, or authors to submit articles to the journal.

5. The journal is usually not listed or even mentioned in the Journal Citation Report, which is usually through the Library.

6. The journal has a high manuscript acceptance. rate

7. The journal may be short-lived.

8. The journal has an over-flattering characteristic such as high impact factor.

9. The journal charges publication fee.

10. Little or no attention paid to digital preservation.

There are other characteristics, but these are the common ones. Perhaps the most common among these is for authors to pay publication fee. Very many journals do this, and this practice has even been bolstered by the proliferation of open access journals. This phenomenon of open access started big time in 2002. It is estimated that today, the number of open access journals has surpassed the 10,000 mark. The number is probably much larger. There are three models of open access publications (journals).

1. Gold Model, which provides that the author pays for the publication of his article.

2. Green Model, which means that the author shall self-archive all his previous articles published in open access repositories, and possibly make them available on request. In other words, the journal has nothing to do with archiving the article it publishes.

3. Platinum Model, which means that the publication is free for both author and reader, and is funded by an organization, institution, or other individual/s.

To the issue of whether or not the University of the Philippines should exclude any publication from predatory journals in its evaluation of scientific productivity of individual faculty members is really an internal matter. My suggestion, however, is that the policy to exclude articles published in predatory journals from the evaluation of scientific outputs of the individual faculty member being considered for promotion or award should not be applied now. Maybe it could be applied next year, in the next call for promotions. By then, the UP System would have completed its list of journals it considers predatory and any article published in such journals the UP shall not credit under its promotion or scientific productivity programs. It is necessary that the UP has its own criteria for determining whether or not a journal is predatory. Otherwise, it can use the list provided by legitimate societies or associations such as the Directory of Open Access Journals or the Open Access Scholarly Publications Association. The list, regularly updated and published by Jeffrey Beall of Colorado State University, is controversial although used by many universities. One of the criticisms against Beall is that it is apparent he has a bias against open access publications. Beall’s list is commonly referred to as “black list” of journals, while those from DOAJ or OASPA is “white list,” which means they’re not predatory journals.

Just how serious is this problem in the academe? Here are data from Jeffrey Beall.

Year No. of Predatory Publishers

2011 18

2012 23

2013 225

2014 477

2015 693

The number of questionable stand alone journals:

Year No.

2013 126

2014 303

2015 507

If anything, the number of predatory publishers as well as predatory open access journals have been increasing on a yearly basis, but the increase is largest in 2013. In the case of stand alone journals (those that are not part of any organization or institution) Beall also reported that while in 2013 only 126 journals were questionable, this number increased to 507 in 2015.

There’s one point that needs to be discussed by all concerned individuals and institutions. This is particularly important in the case of the University of the Philippines System. Simply because an article was published in a “predatory” journal doesn’t necessarily mean the article per se is not of high quality. Of course, the circumstances under which the article may have been published could be questionable.

Unfortunately, predatory publishing will not stop unless academics stop submitting their articles to these journals. How about, “just leave them?” Well, I wish it were as easy as that.

###

Flashback

2015-09-29T23:15:00.002-07:00

In June 2004, I was invited to talk about the concept of open university at the 3^rd National Research Conference in Education at the University of Santo Tomas. I refined that paper and included it in my book, Distance Education in the Philippines, Issues and Concerns which was published by the UP Open University in 2008. I wish to reproduce here my concluding statement in that paper because the ideas are as valid then as they are today.

Here’s my concluding statement then:

Clearly, open learning, distance education, and the concept of the open university are rather old concepts in other parts of the world. In the Philippines these are relatively new concepts, just beginning to take root in this country. Still, those who feel they are innovative keep on pushing to establish open universities within their organizational set up. They must be recognized for their forward-looking and innovative thinking. However, I hope that they also realize there are wrong premises from which to proceed. Let me clarify what I consider to be wrong premises:

1. It is wrong to claim that you have an open university simply because you have announced so; and that you are offering one or a couple of courses, or even degree programs. It is only in the Philippines where a unit of a university offers a course or a program and calls it open university. It is also only in the Philippines where a university is subsumed under a college, as in the case of an open university under a state college. Sometimes you have an open college under a school in a college. I have been wondering where we are getting these ideas.

Let us abide by accepted international norms so we can be competitive worldwide.

2. It is wrong to claim that we have well-prepared instructional modules for our distance students when all we have is a pamphlet, not designed for independent learning, and probably mimeographed years ago. We are short-changing our students who pay good money for their education. We may think that education is a business enterprise, and probably that may even be acceptable, but knowledge can hardly be bought.

If you want to offer open learning and distance education courses and even programs, train first your human resources and build up your expertise and non-human resources before you begin admitting students. It should not be the other way around.

3. It is wrong to enroll students in distance courses and do not provide them appropriate support services so that they can gain from the courses they enrolled in. That, to me, is cheating, pure and simple.

If you want to offer courses in the distance mode, always provide for an efficient and effective student support services. That is the heart of distance education.

4. It is wrong for institutions of higher learning to offer academic degree programs in the distance education mode when their own conventional programs are not even good enough. What makes them think that they can deliver quality education in the distance mode when they cannot even do so in the conventional mode? Distance education is not easy. It is also very expensive to prepare good instructional materials designed for distance education delivery.

If you want to offer courses in the distance mode, do an excellent job on your conventional programs first. You can not hope to be good in distance education if you are not good in your conventional programs. Pour enough resources into conceptualization, planning, course development, support services, and evaluation procedures. Follow accepted standards of excellence and quality.

5. It is wrong to offer programs in the distance mode when you do not have sufficient manpower, expertise, and resources to deliver them. The moment you begin offering your courses you have a psychological contract with your students that will require you to continue offering the courses until the students complete their programs and earn their academic degrees. If you are not ready to abide by that psychological contract, then don’t start it.

Develop a human resource pool who have acceptable levels of expertise in the theory, philosophy, and practice of open learning and distance education. It is not enough to have one trained individual on your faculty, or to have simply visited the UK Open University. Open learning and distance education are commitments that go way beyond mere compilation of lecture notes for distribution to students. It is a calling, a philosophy, a way of life, a professional commitment and sometimes a sacrifice.

###

UPOU Helps Conserve Culture Through Wood Carving

2015-07-12T21:58:00.000-07:00

Ongoing at the new UPOU Community Hub Bldg. (8-15 July 2015) is a Wood-Carving Workshop, Wood Carving Competition and Artists’ Forum where 15 wood carvers (7 from Ifugao, 5 from Besi in Guagua, Pampanga, and 3 from Paete in Laguna) are actively participating. This is part of the series of activities in celebration of the 20^th Anniversary of UPOU and UPOU’s celebration of World Wood Day.

Theme of this workshop is “Wood and Humanity” and it highlights the crucial role of wood in ensuring a sustainable future.

The most important aspect of this Project is the Wood Carving Competition, which shall be held on July 15^th at the CCDL (Centennial Center for Distance Learning) at the UPOU Campus in Los Baños.

The Project, aptly titled Artists’ Workshop and Forum, has brought together the dwindling number of Filipino Wood Carvers to work with a couple of Chinese Master Wood Carvers from the IWCS. According to Prof. Habito, Project Leader, the winner for this year’s competition shall be sponsored by the IWCS for a European tour to observe and study woodcarving techniques in other countries in Europe.

The Exhibit of the products or outputs of the workshop shall be at the Centennial Center for Distance Learning (CCDL), UPOU Campus in Los Baños. It should be pointed out as well that the wood used by the wood carvers come from the huge trunks and branches of acacia trees uprooted by Typhoon Glenda on the campus of UPLB.

Incidentally, UPOU’s 19^th Graduation Ceremonies shall be held on 25 July 2015, 5:00 pm, at the UPOU Grounds. UPOU shall officially announce the graduation of 378 individuals who have completed all the requirements for graduation from 24 degree programs (FMDS, 10; FEd, 9; FICS, 5).

UPLB Graduation Crossing Over to a New Dimension

2015-07-02T22:58:00.004-07:00

Finally, after more than 40 years, UPLB is finally crossing over to a new dimension in its perennially perspiration-soaked or rain-soaked graduation ceremonies. At UPLB, graduation ceremonies begin at 2:00 pm and usually finish at 7-8 pm. And the graduates have to literally sweat it out under the heat of the afternoon sun, which, by the way, they have to face frontally as well.

Historically, UPLB graduates always either are soaked with their own perspiration or in a downpour. For sometime now, there has always been talk about shifting to morning ceremonies, but this has not been agreed upon. Except perhaps in the case of UP Mindanao, where the graduation ceremonies are held at dawn, graduation ceremonies at UP campuses are normally held in the afternoon or evening.

This year, the UPLB Graduation Ceremonies enters a new dimension – that of what I will call “sheltered graduation.” The entire graduation ceremonies ground, in front of the DL Umali Auditorium – which is also called the DLU Freedom Park, is covered with huge roof. This time, both the UPLB Administrators and faculty and the graduates will be sitting under the same roof.

I believe we have Chancellor Fernando C. Sanchez, Jr. to thank for. Previous UPLB Graduations never had the DLU Freedom Park covered with plasticized roofing material during graduation ceremonies. Previous graduates either had to literally sweat it out under the sweltering heat of an afternoon sun or be soaked in a huge downpour.

To repeat, the UPLB Administration has installed a steel-framed roof protection in this year’s graduation ceremonies. This is the beginning of a new dimension in the graduation ceremonies of the University.

Up until 1968, UPCA graduates had to join the graduation ceremonies at UP Diliman. I was a member of Class 1968, the last class to participate in the graduation ceremonies in Diliman. Then, the first graduation ceremonies at UPLB, I believe, were held in 1972 at the steps of the old Library (which, today, is the Department of Humanities). For four years there were no graduation ceremonies (those were the height of activism at UP).

In the interim, after the completion of the Centennial Field House, I have wondered why graduations have not been held in that Field House (there was one held there sometime back, if I’m not mistaken).

Back to this year’s graduation ceremonies. This is a feat to beat in next year’s graduation ceremonies. At the very least, many would expect the same, if not better, preparation for the UPLB Graduation Ceremonies next year.

###

UPOU Soon to Launch Green Building

2015-06-24T19:51:00.000-07:00

I mentioned in one of my FB posts in 2014 that UPOU was going to construct its first green building. In fact, I posted a picture of the start of construction. Today, I wish to inform the followers of this blog and my FB Posts, that said building shall be launched during the Graduation Ceremonies of UPOU in July 2015. Well, that’s my belief, but I haven’t heard of an official launch yet. Let me tell you a few little things about this building.

The UPOU Community Hub Building.

The main entrance to the Hub.

The building is called the UP Open Unive3rsity Community Hub. My own perception is that this has reference to one of the important functions of the UPOU, as an open educational institution, to provide a facility and space where community residents could exchange with UOU academics ideas worth pursuing through individual educational efforts. The UPOU provides a meaningful description of this concept called ODeL or Open Distance Electronic Learning, which is at the heart of UPOU operations, and for which the UPOU has provided this facility.

At the background is UPOU's Billboard.

View from the rear. Thisw portion will be a lagoon, I understand.

View from inside through main doors.

The roof enables light to shine through and would help reduce use of electricity for lighting/

This is one sample of the discussion spaces at the UPOU Community Hub.

This facility shall house UPOU’s Learning Center in Laguna, UPOU Information Office (where souvenir items shall be available for sale at very low cost), the UPOU Library, perhaps a seminar hall, and discussion hallways. Too, there are four spaces for food concessionaires who may be interested to provide food items like snacks and pasalubongs. Take note that this building is almost right across from the SouthSupermaket in Los Banos, and entry through it doesn’t permit entry into the UPOU Compound and IRRI field. You enter through the main entrance, and exit through the same way.

This facility may be open to the public in July during UPOU's Graduation Ceremonies. See you there.