DOF targets sale of more gov’t assets, mining rights

The government is planning to sell more of its assets this year, the Department of Finance (DOF) said.

“Last year we already sold I think something like PHP1.5 billion assets, and then for this year, we’re aiming to sell more,” Finance undersecretary for privatization and corporate affairs group Catherine Fong said in a briefing late Friday.

Fong said they are mostly looking at real estate properties.

“There’s still a lot under the ownership of government under the Privatization Management Office (PMO) that we’re intending to roll out faster. We’re aiming for higher than last year. Definitely double that or at least higher,” Fong added.

She said they are aiming just for PMO properties, adding however that there are still a lot of government assets for disposition.

Fong said they want to auction the 2.2 hectare Mile Long property in Makati City.

“Then we’re hoping to sell this year or next year some min-

In the award-winning 1967 movie, The Graduate, the character portrayed by newcomer Dustin Hoffman (who received a well-deserved Oscar nomination for Best Actor) asked some advice on career direction. “Plastics, my boy. Plastics,” he was told.

Businesses all over the world are heeding the advice. Unknowingly, no one knew at the time the other side of plastics, which are non-biodegradable. This means they don’t decay and become absorbed by the environment. Once discarded, plastic is likely to end up in oceans after being washed down in rivers, flushed down in toilets, or windblown from dumps.

Estimates from the United Nations said there is now 100 million tons of plastic waste in the oceans, with the vast majority coming from land-based sources. The implications of that are still not well known but there is growing and alarming evidence that it has begun to disrupt ecosystems and find its way throughout the food chain, including into humans.

Plastics “is in our air, our water, our food, our excrement,” Nina Butler, the chief executive officer of More Recycling, a research and consulting company that works with the plastic industry on recycling, was quoted as saying by the media. “It’s very, very pervasive.”

The so-called “sachet economy” in the Philippines has contributed to the proliferation of plastics. Products sold in single-use sachets include instant coffee, shampoo, cooking oil, food seasoning, and toothpaste.

“Because they are easy to sell – ribbons of single-use products hang from neighbourhood stores even in the most remote communities – large multinational manufacturing companies continue to market them,” the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) observes.

According to one research group, the Philippines discards 60 billion plastic sachets each year. That’s about one sachet per person per day on a per capita basis.

“The greatest environmental challenges facing the world.” That was how British Prime Minister Theresa May described those single-use plastic items like plastic bags, straws, and coffee stirrers.

“We have to confront this material and our use of it, because so much of it is single-use dispos- able plastic and this is a material that doesn’t go away. It doesn’t return to the planet the way other materials do,” Sherri Mason, chair of geology and environmental sciences at the State University of New York at Fredonia, told Associated Press.

Plastics are materials made to last forever. “Disposed plastic materials can remain in the environment for up to 2,000 years and longer,” said Barry E. DiGregorio in an article.

Plastics are also hazardous to human health. Two broad classes of plastic-related chemicals are of critical concern for human health: bisphenol-A and additives used in the synthesis of plastics, which are known as phthalates.

Exposure to these two chemicals, said a study conducted by the Arizona State University Biodesign Institute, is linked to cancer, birth defects, impaired immunity, endocrine disruption and other ailments.

A new report from the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) is giving a respite from what doomsayers claim as a lost cause.

If only governments and companies make deep policy and market shifts using existing technologies, the world could “successfully” cut plastic pollution by a full 80% by 2040.

“Turning off the Tap: How the world can end plastic pollution and create a circular economy” is a solution-focused analysis of concrete practices, market shifts, and policies that can inform governments thinking and business action.

The UNEP report lays out a roadmap to dramatically reduce the risks brought about by plastic pollution “through adopting a circular approach that keeps plastics out of ecosystems, out of our bodies and in the economy,” said UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen in a press release.

These can be achieved only “if we follow this roadmap, including in negotiations on the plastic pollution deal, we can deliver major economic, social and environmental wins,” the UNEP head pointed out.

To reduce plastic pollution by 80% globally by 2040, the report suggests first eliminating problematic and unnecessary plastics to reduce the size of the problem.

Subsequently, the report calls for three market shifts – reuse, recycle and reorient and diversity products.

It said that promoting reuse options, including refillable bottles, bulk dispensers, deposit-return-schemes, and packaging take-back schemes, among others, can reduce 30% of plastic pollution by 2040.

“To realize its potential, governments must help build a stronger business case for reusables,” UNEP said.

The UN agency also believed plastic pollution can further be reduced by additional 20% if only recycling becomes a more stable and profitable venture.

“Removing fossil fuels subsidies, enforcing design guidelines to enhance recyclability, and other measures would increase the share of economically recyclable plastics from 21% to 50%,” it said.

On reorient and diversify, UNEP stated: “Careful replacement of products such as plastic wrappers, sachets and takeaway items with products made from alternative materials (such as paper or compostable materials) can deliver an additional 17% decrease in plastic pollution.”

from General Santos Extension.

Marawi City - After the release of the results of the 2022 bar examinations, Marawi City will again be flooded with huge congratulatory tarpaulins for its new lawyers.

When I visited Marawi last February, I was really amazed on the proliferation of eye-catching tarpaulins as high as a person , in houses, buildings, commercial or residential, even along highways, confirming its status as the City of Streamers. One can seldom see houses and buildings with no tarpaulins.

The results of the November 2022 bar exams were released last April 14, 2023 where 3,992 successful examinees comprise 43.47% of 9,183 takers.

Last year’s bar exam was the second to be held digitally and across multiple testing sites across the country. Laptops were allowed in taking the exams, gone are the traditional hand-writing of essays.

The Mindanao State University (MSU) College of Law noted in its Facebook account that there are 81 new MSU lawyers , 19 from its main campus in Marawi City, 29 from Iligan Extension, and 33

The interplay of streamers and culture was discussed In a 2015 research paper by Monara Hamiydah Maruhom of Marawi State University entitled “The Maranao Streamers and Tarpaulins as Tools of Communication: An Ethnographic Study”.

The study noted that symbol is one of the important things that a particular group of people share the same culture.

The Maranao folk are popularly noted for being verbal as evidenced by the different types of streamers, billboards and tarpaulins hanged and posted all over the City of Marawi and the Province of Lanao del Sur, where they are dominant.

Approximately 90 percent of the Maranao families use streamers/tarpaulins on special occasions as part of their culture to honor people.

For the Maranao folk, the study stressed, it is like nothing happens if the achievements of their kins and comrades are not made known in public through streamers or tarpaulins.

For instance, if somebody is to be enthroned as a Sultan, the public must be informed at least two weeks before the occasion by hanging streamers and posting tarpaulins otherwise his enthronement is considered illegitimate or null.

Likewise, if someone passed a certain board examination, greetings through this medium is everywhere, otherwise, rumors will spread all over the place that he did not pass the said examination. Streamers and tarpaulins are very important media in confirming any kind of achievements among the Maranao folk.

The messages in the streamers, tarpaulins, billboards, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and websites “all speak and reflect his sacrifices and achievements that need to be conveyed to his community of one brotherhood, united in blood, aspirations and in one faith which he tenaciously hold on, practice and will defend no matter what at all cost.”

The study underscored that “ the Maranao, his ethnic identity which is further strengthened by his faith in Islam makes him survive against all odds just like any order Filipinos who cross new boundaries to attain the ‘impossi- ble dream’ ”.

Of the top 30 of the 2022 bar exam, eleven were from University of the Philippines (UP) including the five top-notchers led by its valedictorian Czar Matthew Dayday with a score of 88.8083 percent. UP is also one of the top 3 performing school with an overall passing rate of 94.27 percent, and a 95.02 percent passing rate among first-time takers.

Among the group of biggest schools or those with over 100 takers, ADMU had the highest passing rate at 96.74 percent, followed by San Beda at 96.67 percent, UP at 94.27 percent, USC at 91.43 percent, and the University of Santo Tomas at 78.09 percent.

The previous batch 20202021 yielded 8,241 out of 11,402 (72.28 percent) aspiring lawyers who passed.

The highest passing rate was the 1954 Bar, where 75.17 percent passed.

The lowest was in 1999 with 16.59 percent with a total number of 660 successful examinees. My bar buddy and former solicitor general Florin Hilbay was the topnotcher. Marawi landed in headlines due to the so-called “ Marawi siege” that was a five-month-long armed conflict in Marawi that started on May 23, 2017, between Philippine government security forces against militants affiliated with the Islamic State , including the Maute and Abu Sayyaf Salafi jihadist groups.

The estimated casualties reported were as 978 militants killed; 12 militants captured; 168 government forces killed; 1,400+ government forces wounded and 87 civilians dead.

The battle left the city in ruins with 95 percent of the structures within Ground Zero ( 4 square kilometres) of the main battle area to be heavily damaged or completely collapsed.

May the tarps be reminders that lawyers are expected to uphold the ethical and moral values that are essential to the fabric that holds society together.

(Peyups is the moniker of University of the Philippines. Atty. Dennis R. Gorecho heads the seafarers’ division of the Sapalo Velez Bundang Bulilan law offices. For comments, e-mail info@sapalovelez.com, or call 09175025808 or 09088665786.)

Iloilo City is famous for its colorful Dinagyang Festival, the UNESCO World Heritage site, agesold Miagao Church, the irresistible La Paz Batchoy, and the delectable pancit molo.

The City of Love is also known for its friendly people and modern establishments, particularly hotels that definitely give visitors a fantastic vibe.

I, along with another media practitioner from Davao City and influencers from Cebu City, raised a toast on May 5, 2023, for Courtyard by Marriott’s monthlong anniversary celebration with the theme “Hugyaw: Singko Fiesta.”

The celebration, which was held at the grand ballroom, had a fiesta vibe and was opened with a modern dance interpretation of Ryan Cayabyab’s Limang