OPINION

DATA FROM BELOW: RATED PG By Ike Seneres

I was still surprised when I was disenfranchised from voting in the recent election, despite having voted in my usual precinct all these years. As I was told, the COMELEC did a “shaving” procedure (that’s the term that they used), moving some voters to other precincts. I could not see the logic of it, because all my relatives who live in the same neighborhood as mine stayed in the same precinct, including my wife. Whoever did the “shaving” did not seem to realize that logically, spouses should vote in the same precinct.

I do not know how many others were similarly disenfranchised, but it is very clear that the poll body failed in its duty to build and maintain its databases, diligently and properly, that is. No matter how high tech a computer system is, the final reckoning is still in the buildup of the content, because it is the quality of the content that measures the maturity of the data keepers, not the luster of the machines.

As a guest political analyst of UNTV, I was asked about the significance of that election. I said that since the barangay is supposed to be the smallest unit of governance, it should be the milieu where the delivery of public services are objectively planned, delivered, monitored and measured, in terms of data that should feed the municipal, provincial, regional and national databases, assuming that these are diligently built and maintained.

If the government really wants to report truthful and accurate data at the national level, it should gather the data from below, because the aggregate data should only be a sum of its parts. This rule should apply not only to the reporting of the crime rate, the poverty rate and the unemployment rate, but also to the reporting of deliverables in the Medium Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the later being an international commitment.

If the government is not basing its reports on data that is coming from below, where is it getting the information that it brings out? Information is nothing but processed data, and there is no other way of producing it.

For more information about public governance, email: iseneres@yahoo.com

OPINION

CUTTING POVERTY BY HALF: “RATED PG” By Ike Señeres

I was shocked to hear the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) statement that the Philippines is assuring the United Nations that it is going to meet its commitment of cutting poverty in this country by half on or before 2015, in accordance with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Perhaps in the same way that promises are made to be broken, some of our government officials may think that speeches are just meant to be delivered, without caring whether the promises made in these speeches could be met or not.

I do not know how and where the DFA got the basis for the promise that they made to the UN, knowing that there is no credible source right now of anti- poverty data in the Philippines that would tell us where we stand in this massive undertaking.

Depending on who is counting and who is talking, poverty in this country would range anywhere from 30% to 70%, but I believe that the latter is a more realistic estimate. Assuming for the sake of argument that the poverty rate is only 30% it would still represent about 5 million households out of about 16 million households, based on our estimated population of 80 million.

Cutting poverty by half in eight years means liberating 2.5 million households from the poverty line, based on the lower estimate. How is the government going to do that?

Based on the higher estimate that would mean liberating more than 5 million households and I could not imagine how that could be done.

For the government to be responsible about its promises, it should base its projections on empirical and historical data. Where are these data sets and how could we validate these?

In the same way that promises are meant to be broken, lies are not meant to be eaten. Sad to say, along with poverty comes hunger, a real life and death problem for many of our people.

For more information about public governance, email iseneres@yahoo.com

OPINION

Rated PG By Ike Seneres

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYMENT

It is interesting to note that even the American companies that are doing business here in the Philippines are bound by their own laws to comply with Equal Opportunity Employment (EOE). America is several thousand miles away, but the power of their laws reach all the way up to here. In contrast, we do not seem to have EOE laws of our own, and if we do, nobody seems to be minding it.

In my work as Chairman of the Inter-Charity Network (ICN), I am always confronted with the challenge of finding jobs for people who are above 30. That’s right, 30 is not really old, but in this country, workers who are above the “calendar days” are already considered “old”, and therefore above the so called “age limits” here.

Again in contrast, even the local employment agencies that are recruiting for American clients from over here do not impose “age limits”, knowing that it is against American laws. The same is true for those that are recruiting for Canadian companies, indicating that these two countries are far more advanced in their respect for equal opportunity.

Imagine that if workers in their 30’s are already discriminated against, how much more for our senior citizens who are past their 60’s? The truth is, senior citizens are not the only ones discriminated against in this country, because the list also includes handicapped persons, cultural minorities and even women, yes women!

In the darkness of these very discriminatory practices, I have seen the light of day in the now booming business process outsourcing (BPO) industries. I think there is a lot of potential in having outsourced services provided by these marginalized sectors, in cooperation with companies that are committed to the fulfillment of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) objectives. Right now, I have a group of handicapped people who are ready to take on jobs as encoders, after being trained by a foreign foundation. Do we have any takers out there from the CSR programs?

For more information about public governance, email: iseneres@yahoo.com

OPINION

"SUSTAINABLE WASTE MANAGEMENT" RATED PG By Ike Señeres

How could local government units sustain their solid waste management programs? A garbage crisis now looms over Metro Manila after Rizal Province Governor Casimiro Ynares III declared that the newly opened dumpsite in Rodriguez, Rizal is exclusive only for the use of his province.

I hate to sound off tangent, but in this time and age, dumpsites should be banned already because it is a dead end method, because there could never be enough dumpsites that could serve the needs of all localities in the long run.

Sanitary landfills in the real sense of the word are the logical alternatives, but realistically speaking, we seem to be too far from building a real compliant one, based on internationally accepted standards. Just the same, I do not think that there would be enough landfills that could serve the needs of all our localities in the long run.

Believe it or not, there is a more sustainable method that could work in the long run, and it is not even high tech. The Municipality of Los Banos in Laguna has successfully built a materials recovery facility (MRF) that has completely eliminated the need for dumpsites, and of course, landfills too. The secret is to give market value to the recoverable materials and as a result, I am told that local residents are now fighting over the ownership of the garbage in their midst.

Using the MRF as the core method, I worked with the Los Banos team to develop a more comprehensive approach, adding some elements that were missing in the original pilot project. The new approach now includes solutions to the problem of disposing diapers, an element that was missing in that pilot. It also includes ways to dispose kitchen waste, another element that was missing earlier.

As an added advantage, the new approach now includes the production of feeds and fertilizers, to add to the market value of produced outputs. Using the new approach, we could truly claim that we could achieve “Zero Waste”, an ideal that was just a slogan until now. (For more information about public governance, email iseneres@yahoo.com)

OPINION

RATED PG by Ike Señeres


GOVERNMENT COMMUNICATIONS.

How could government agencies communicate securely, economically and efficiently with each other? This appears to be the three main government considerations in communicating with each other, to make it secure, economical and efficient.

As it is now, very few agencies seem to be concerned about their data security, as evidenced by the fact that only a few agencies have their own proprietary encryption. Truth to tell, encryption is the way to secure both data and communications, regardless of how and where messages are sent. Logically speaking therefore, government agencies should invest more in encryption rather than in the bandwidth where messages are transmitted.

Long before Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) became popular in the public mind, the Virtual Private Network (VPN) technology was already available, with no government agency taking advantage of it. To this day, VPN is still available, and still no government agency is using it.

Simply put, VPN enables users to have their own secure network within any other network, commercial or otherwise. To be more specific, users could have their own VPNs within the networks of Smart, Globe, Sun Cellular, BayanTel and PLDT, and it would work securely, as if they have their own.

On the side of economy, users could run VoIP within a VPN, thus eliminating the need to spend for commercial calls within the Plain Old Telephone System (POTS). This is another issue, as the carriers may not like the idea of reducing their POTS revenues. Practically speaking however, the costs of National Direct Dialing (NDD) long distance costs within the POTS has already gone down to ten pesos for unlimited calls, thus making it very economical already.

Considering all the telecom options that are already available, the government should instead come up with a policy that would guide employees which options should be used to save money the best way.