TCR Volume 2 Issue No 19 by The CenSEI Report

Strategic Analysis and Research by the

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CENTER FOR STRATEGY, ENTERPRISE & INTELLIGENCE

T H E

I felt someone touching my hair as if trying to attach something; it felt like small alligator clips, which were probably connected to an electric power source and were placed on my head. [It] numbed my hands and arms, disabled me from walking, made my eyes and face feel heavy, made me sleepy, and made both my thighs twitch ~ Dr. Alexis Montes, one of eight ‘Morong 43’ alleged communist rebels accusing military officers and men of torture in their suit against them and former Commander-in-Chief Gloria Arroyo

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Volume 2 - Number 19 • May 14-20, 2012

Their claim that there was torture, that’s not true ~ Morong 43 member Jenilyn Pizarro, now married to a soldier she met in detention camp

4 The Battle To Ban Plastic Bags Heats Up

BUSINESS

As environmental groups link up with local governments to push for a law against plastic bags, the plastic-bag manufacturers mount a PR campaign. Will Congress and the public bite? • Pera o bayong?: The woven-grass native bag is making a comeback • BYOB: Countries where you may have to bring your own bag to the shops

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10 Twelve Years to a Smarter Filipino

Adding kindergarten and two more years of high school, the government is rolling out the 12-year basic education program to bring our youth to the learning level of the world • Implementing K-12: Getting tens of millions of public schoolers and their parents and teachers on the same page

18 Are We Losing the War on Hunger?

After dropping in the quarter right after President Benigno Aquino III assumed office, hunger incidence has risen in every quarter except one. The government seems to be looking mainly to monthly stipends for the poor to put food on the table across the land. It won’t be enough

26 The World’s Water In Peril

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The water we drink, bathe in, and irrigate our crops with, may also become the resource we fight over, poison and pollute, and run out of • Trickle or treat: How Singapore and other water-scarce places stay liquid • Droplets and bullets: Where wars would be waged over water

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34 Guess Who’s Reading What We Share Online When you send and post information on the Internet, there’s more than a big chance your friends and colleagues won’t be the only ones to see it • A researcher’s dream: The Web is a treasure trove of data on social trends and human behavior • Is ‘big data’ overrated? A Wharton professor isn’t too impressed with all the number crunching

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You can access online research via the Internet by clicking phrases in blue

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Center for Strategy, Enterprise & Intelligence provides expertise in strategy and management, enterprise development, intelligence, Internet and media. For subscriptions, research, and advisory services, please e-mail report@censeisolutions.com or call/fax +63-2-5311182. Links to online material on public websites are current as of the week prior to the publication date, but might be removed without warning. Publishers of linked content should e-mail us or contact us by fax if they do not wish their websites to be linked to our material in the future.

Tap into the World’s Enriching and Empowering Variety With the ongoing spat with China over Scarborough Shoal, now even affecting local tour operators, hoteliers and banana exporters, it’s understandable that some Filipinos of late may be a bit wary of the world out there. This despite the millions of our countrymen and women working, living, studying and growing up abroad. For the editors, writers, analysts and consultants of the Center for Strategy, Enterprise and Intelligence, however, the world we encounter online day in, day out, in the course of producing The CenSEI Report, cannot but be not just a most valuable knowledge resource, but also a planet-wide community of fellow sojourners, able to share instructive experiences and make common cause on many issues and events. As more and more Netizens who do research online or find and make friends via social media, the Internet is an endless ocean of people, places and encounters with much to resonate or contrast with our own lives, lands and loves. And that is of immense value for The CenSEI Report and our constant endeavor to strategize, analyze and otherwise understand and deal with concerns, challenges and points of contention in international, national, commercial and technological affairs. This week the online world offers insights from across the globe in our reports on the Department of Education’s K-12 program, the rising hunger in the country, and the controversy over plastic shopping bags. For Pia Rufino’s basic education story in Nation, knowing what other countries offer their learners provides the competitive imperative for investing in three more years of schooling for our youth. In the other Nation story on hunger, extensive data and intensive analyses from global institutions like the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, Asian Development Bank, and World Bank provide cross-border validation to the arguments of CenSEI Managing Director Ricardo Saludo. Then those who may suspect political bias in his perspective as a former Arroyo administration Cabinet Secretary, would be set right by the findings of overseas experts and institutions. Meanwhile, the Business article on plastic bags, researched and written by Victoria Fritz, gains from the information on efforts around the globe to also curb or ban the polluting items. At the same time, there are different approaches in various states, which signals to us in the Philippines that we too must find our own way of serving both nature and commerce, cleanliness and convenience. Thus, the world of differences show that while values can be absolute, how they are affirmed in a given nation can be tailored to its needs and aspirations. In sum, for The CenSEI Report, the online world enriches and empowers us to be world-class in our own way.

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August 2011, The CenSEI Report reported that a number of local government units had instituted restrictions on the use of plastic bags and polystyrene (Styrofoam) containers, including Muntinglupa as the first city to enact such restrictions in Metro Manila.

Plastic Bags Ban: An Update More areas act to reduce or ban the use of plastic bags and polystyrene containers

At the time of that report, other towns and cities implementing their own restrictions included: Pasig City; Batangas City; Carmona and Imus in Cavite; Sta. Barbara in Iloilo; Bi単an and Los Banos in Laguna; Burgos in Pangasinan; Lucban and Infanta in Quezon, and; Antipolo City in Rizal. Various towns in Nueva Ecija signed a resolution that would ban the use of plastic bags, and promised to convene their respective municipal councils to pass local ordinances in keeping with the resolution. Subsequently, more areas have followed suit: Calapan City in Oriental Mindoro in January completely banned the use of plastic bags, after banning their use from Friday to Sunday in 2011. The order came after the city government observed that most plastic bags used by consumers eventually ended up in waterways, parks, beaches and streets.

By Victoria Fritz

STRATEGY POINTS A spreading initiative among local government units to reduce or ban the use of plastic bags and styrofoam containers, along with pending bills in the Senate and House of Representatives to regulate them, have prompted the plastic-bag manufacturers to go on a public-relations offensive

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In an April 1 commentary by Sonia Mendoza of the Mother Earth Foundation, published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, it was reported that other cities and municipalities have enacted ordinances to reduce or prohibit the use of plastic bags, including: the cities of Las Pi単as, Makati, and Pasay in Metro Manila; Calamba City, Calauan, Luisiana, Paete, Kalayaan, and Sta. Cruz in Laguna; Bacolod City in Negros Occidental; Burgos in Pangasinan, and; Odiongan in Romblon.

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Plastic bags ban: An update

She also reported that Subic Bay Freeport is the latest addition to the list of places considering reducing or banning the use of plastic bags and Styrofoam containers. Other places instituting similar restrictions include the province of Bulacan, and the city of Santa Rosa in Laguna. Meanwhile, Quezon City recently passed an ordinance banning the use of plastic bags in its City Hall and other government establishments, and heavily promoting the use of reusable/recyclable bags in the private establishments.

department and retail stores, and other similarestablishments, with corresponding penalties for violators. The other version, proposed by Sen. Miriam Santiago, is Senate Bill 3001, which will also be called the Total Plastic Bag Ban Act of 2011, bans plastic carrier bags of all types, making no distinction between biodegradable and nonbiodegradable plastic bags. This more encompassing law enjoys the support of environmental groups such as the EcoWaste Coalition.

And in January this year, the Metro Manila Development Authority said it expects all 17 local governments in the region to implement bans on plastic bags by 2013, as reported on the Interaksyon news portal of TV5.

Plastics industry goes on counteroffensive. Since then, the plastics manufacturing industry has gone on a public relations counter-offensive, mounting a media campaign to inform the public of what it considers to be the advantages of plastic bags.

Pending legislation. In August last year, the House approved House Bill 4840, regulating the use of plastic bags. This bill does not ban plastic bags, but encourages collection and recycling, calling to mind the problems involved in recycling earlier mentioned. However, it calls for the gradual phase-out of non-biodegradable plastic bags within three years of effectivity of the measure.

The Philippines Plastics Industry Association (PPIA), through its spokesperson Crispian Lao, said that plastic is not the problem, as related in the May 8 Philippine Daily Inquirer opinion column of Rina Jimenez David. Lao said a ban on plastics is short-sighted and impractical. The PPIA itself had said the same thing in an April 1 column under its own name, also published in the Inquirer.

The Senate has two proposed versions. The Censei Report piece in August mentions this bill filed by Senator Loren Legarda in April 2011. Senate Bill 2759 (the Total Plastic Ban Act of 2011), which if passed, will prohibit the use of non-biodegradable plastic bags by supermarkets, groceries, public markets, restaurants, fast food chains,

For example, waxed cartons used for food would take “just as long to degrade as a Styrofoam container,” since the wax lining needs to be separated from the cardboard. He also claimed that plain paper does not degrade that easily, since paper bags have been found intact in decades-old landfills. For food packaging, plastic is safer, Lao added.

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6 He proposed that the solution is proper disposal (in waste bins, not on the streets) waste segregation and collection, and recycling. The Department of Science and Technology has partnered with the plastics industry in developing “melting ovens” that facilitate the recycling process. Polystyrene can be melted and broken down into pellets. The association has also partnered with waste recovery firms, communities and schools, with trash collectors, community members and students to collect and clean plastic containers, including PET bottles. These are then bought by recycling centers.

Progressive Bag Alliance was founded in 2005 by a group of American plastic bag manufacturers. The study shows that it takes less energy to make a polyethylene bag than a paper or compostable bag. It also takes up less space in the landfill.

They are cheaper and more environmentfriendly to manufacture, and are more durable. A study commissioned by the Progressive Bag Alliance and conducted by Boustead and Associates proves this in a life cycle analysis (as shown in the executive summary) of paper versus compostable versus polyethylene bags. The

In a Philippine Star news item, Lao added that plastic is safe for food packaging, while paper might not be. He continued that plastics are recyclable, pointing out the hazards of using brown paper bags and even newspapers as food wraps since they contain possibly unsafe chemicals. As for recycled paper, their origins are uncertain.

However, according to Mother Earth Foundation, a non-government organization focusing on ecological solid waste management, the best alternative would still be to use a reusable shopping bag, such as the “bayong” of old, which has an indefinite lifespan.

The bayong: Ready for reviving? In May 2009, a Bayong Exhibit was held Product Development and Design Center of the Philippines, as reported in the Philippine Star. The point person for the exhibit, Margie Pastrana, described how the traditional “bayong” is made from buri leaves in the VIsayas, and from pandan in Luzon. The exhibit aimed to raise awareness that the bayong is a viable alternative to plastic shopping bags. The form and make has been updated, and now has different meanings to different people, the exhibit literature explained. The bayong can serve alternately as “symbol of the cognizant consumer, a permanent fixation for the intelligent fashionista, and a memento of an exotic place or unique tradition for a tourist.” Other materials used for the bayong were rattan split, abaca rope, seagrass and buri. On display was a “compartmentalized bayong” for wet and dry goods, made from pandan. View here different types of bayong featured during the Bayong Launch at SM City Cebu in June 2009.

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Plastic bags ban: An update

Lao said authorities in the country have not yet issued any standard that would qualify recycled paper as food grade. The PPIA has partnered with the National Solid Waste Management Commission to conduct technical studies on the repercussion of plastic products on the environment, doing life-cycle analysis similar to what the American Progressive Bag Alliance has commissioned, as reported in the Inquirer last November.

among other things. So the decrease in jobs might not be indicative of the entire plastics industry, but only the portion of each company that produce plastic bags. As for small companies that manufacture only plastic bags, no information is available online.

The PPIA reported that the plasticbag bans have pared consumption by about 25% in 2011

As the study is ongoing, the Philippine Plastics Industry Association has asked the Senate to wait for the results of the study results before passing a law banning the use of plastic bags in the country. The PPIA estimates that 175,000 people are working in the plastic manufacturing industry. In a May BusinessWorld story, the PPIA reported that the plastic-bag bans have pared consumption by about 25% in 2011. Weaker demand has also led to a 20-30% drop in terms of both income and jobs generated by the industry, the association said, without citing amounts. The CenSEI Report could not find online sources to indicate or estimate how many workers are directly involved in the production of plastic shopping or carrier bags in particular. However, a simple inspection of the Yellow Pages telephone directory shows that large companies who manufacture plastic bags also make plastic bottles, liquid containers (for shampoo, soap, etc.), and various food containers,

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Looking at recycling plastic bags. Though plastic in certain forms is recyclable, recycling plastic bags in particular is so expensive that only 5.2% is recycled, according to a study conducted in the United States, as reported in reuseit.com. Recycling plastic bags is not efficient, so recyclers would rather focus on more viable materials â&#x20AC;&#x201C; e.g., soda and milk bottles -- that can be recycled. It costs $4,000 to process and recycle 1 ton of plastic bags, which can then be sold on the commodities market for $32. This finding led to the banning of plastic grocery bags in San Francisco in 2007. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the recycling rate for a category of plastics that included bags, sacks and wraps was almost 12%. The question is, what happens to the nearly 90% left? In the Philippines, there are no figures available online for plastic-bag recycling rates. There is no known plastic-bag recycling plant in the country, with an online search yielding nothing on the topic. Reuse rather than recycle. Based on the news releases cited above, the plastic-

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Plastic bags ban: An update

bag manufacturers have pointed out the efficiency of using plastic bags over paper and even biodegradable bags. They have also stated that they are setting up a system of collecting the plastic bags with the help of other government and non-government groups, with the aim of recycling them. However, there is no way of ensuring that no plastic bags will end up in our waterways and drains, since it only takes a few pieces to clog them and exacerbate flood conditions.

Also, official figures from the U.S. EPA cite dismally low recycling figures for the United States, 12% at best. There are no figures available for the Philippines. Green groups have then urged consumers to go back to the bayong, or to use other reusable shopping bags with indefinite lifespans. In the long run, until recycling actually makes economic sense to large-scale recyclers, reusing bags until they give way might still be the better solution all around.

Other countries saying no to plastic bags As reported in the BBC in March, Italy became the first European country to ban non-biodegradable plastic bags, which it did in 2011. For their part, Rwanda and Somalia have banned plastic bags altogether, while Tanzania has banned ultra-thin plastic bags. United Arab Emirates has banned all plastic bags except for oxo-biodegradables. The following countries have banned one-use or very thin plastic bags: China, South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, and Bangladesh. (In Bangladesh's case, it was found that the bags had clogged up the drainage system, exacerbating deadly floods.) Meantime, other European countries have imposed a tax on shopping or carrier plastic bags, including the Republic of Ireland, whose 0.22-euro tax (roughly equivalent to $0.28 at current exchange rates) has prompted a 95% reduction in the demand for plastic bags; Belgium; Germany; Spain; Norway; the Netherlands, and; Wales. Northern Ireland will do the same next year. As reported in the U.K.â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Daily Mail, the European Union is considering a Europe-wide ban. The Union is looking at proposals to make shoppers pay for single-use carrier bags, and it could become law within two years.

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NEWS ON THE NET Business

BDO takeover seen as best solution to EIB problem A top Export and Industry Bank (EIB) official has said that the best commercial solution to rehabilitating the troubled bank is to negotiate and have all assets and liabilities transferred to Banco De Oro (BDO) Unibank Inc. – heralded as EIB's only "white knight." If the government handles the liquidation of the bank, it will have to pay over 50,000 depositors. Not all the depositors are insured – meaning thousands of them will end up with only P500,000 each. On the other hand, if a deal with BDO is realized, losses for both depositors and the government would be greatly minimized. The Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC) was appointed by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas as the EIB receiver last month, when the bank admitted that it would not be able to service maturing deposits. The government deposit insurer has since received a proposal from BDO in line with its current bid to acquire EIB. The proposal, however, includes "the resolution or settlement of certain legal issues" as a condition for the transaction to be completed. For its part, the PDIC has released a statement saying that it is coming up with terms of reference for all interested parties. The agency further explained that its immediate concern is to take stock of the deposit liabilities of EIB, and arrange payouts for all valid insured deposits as soon as possible.

Tantocos sell 50% stake of Rustan’s Supercenters Rustan's Supercenters Inc. (RSCI), operator of high-end local grocery chains Shopwise and Rustan's Supermarkets, has sold a 50% stake to Dairy Farm International Holdings Ltd. -- a Pan-Asia retailing group affiliated with Hong Kong-based Jardine Matheson conglomerate. The Tantoco family announced last week that the previously privately held RSCI had taken in the new shareholder, though the financial particulars of the deal remained undisclosed. The ownership of the other 50% of the company remains with the Tantocos; Bienvenido Tantoco III will continue to sit at the helm as chief executive officer and president of RSCI. According to the company's website, RSCI was founded in 1970. It currently operates 20 branches in Metro Manila and two in Cebu. In a statement released by RSCI, it was revealed that the partnership with Dairy Farm is expected to further strengthen the company’s position as one of the Philippines’ leading retailers. RSCI is only one of the Tantoco family's companies. The Tantocos retain ownership of Rustan Commercial Corp., which handles

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the familiar upscale chain of department stores associated with the Rustan's brand name. Rustan Coffee Corp., a licensee of Seattle-based Starbucks Coffee International, is also still run by the family.

Multiply.com moves HQ to Jakarta, names new CEO Online shopping hub Multiply.com has announced that it is set to relocate its corporate headquarters to Jakarta, Indonesia from Boca Raton, Florida. Along with physically moving to a different continent, the Internet company is also working with a brand new CEO -- Stefan Magdalinski, a industry veteran with 15 years experience in e-commerce. Multiply.com, an online mall at the forefront of Internet shopping, has gained a wide following in Asian countries including Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines. Local broadcast giant ABS-CBN even acquired a minority stake in Multiply. com in 2008. Jack Madrid – formerly of MTV Philippines, iAyala Corportation and Dell – has just this year left his post as country manager of Yahoo Philippines to work for Multiply. com in the same capacity. This hiring move by Multiply.com is in line with building up its presence in the Philippines, since the locality is home to many of its subscribers. With 5.5 million users and 120,000 sellers, Multiply.com is considered the Philippines' largest online social shopping destination.

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Getting in sync with the rest of the world

The Philippines aims to roll out its K-to-12 program while dealing with unresolved problems in the education sector By Pia Rufino

STRATEGY POINTS When the Philippines shifts from a 10- to a 12year basic education cycle this coming school year, it will be the last country in Asia to do so, leaving two other countries in Africa as the last hold-outs Some Filipino workers are not recognized as professionals because our basic education cycle lacks two years Current gaps in basic education – shortages of classrooms, teachers, and educational materials — still need to be addressed, along with the demands of the transition to K-to-12

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the school year that starts this June, Grade 1 pupils will be taught using mother- tongue languages, and firstyear high school students will be given technical and vocational courses, and will be the first batch to finish high school in six years, under the Kindergarten-to-12th grade (K-to-12) education program launched by the government in April. The K-to-12 model will overhaul the current 10-year basic education cycle — six years of elementary and four years of high school — by adding two years of senior high school, to align our school system with the global 12-year standard,

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LENGTH OF BASIC, PRE-UNIVERSITY EDUCATION IN SOUTHEAST ASIAN COUNTRIES Country

Brunei Cambodia Indonesia Laos Malaysia Myanmar Philippines Singapore Thailand Timor-Leste Vietnam

Years of Elementary Education

6 6 6 5 6 5 6 6 6 6 5

Years of Secondary Education Lower Upper PostSecondary/ PreUniversity Education 2 3 2/3 3 3 3 3 4 3 3 2 2/3 4 2 4 4 2/3 3 3 3 3 4 3 -

Total Basic and PreUniversity Educartion

13/14 12 12 12 13/14 11 10 12/13 12 12 12

Source: Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization Regional Center for Educational Innovation and Technology, as cited in “K to 12: The Key to Quality Education?”, Policy Brief of Senate Economic Planning Office, June 2011, p. 3.

among other pressing reasons, as discussed in the Policy Brief published by the Senate Economic Planning Office in June 2011. According to the policy brief, the move is expected to help the country catch up with the rest of the world in terms of updating curriculum since, prior to the announcement, the Philippines was the only country in Asia and one of only three countries — together with Djibouti and Angola of Africa — that still had a 10-year basic education cycle. Other countries even have 1 3 or 14 years of basic and pre-university education, it added. (See table above)

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For a recent precedent, in 2008, Mongolia expanded its education cycle to 12 years in order to conform to “the common practice of general secondary education in the world,” according to Secondary Education Regional Information Base: Country Profile by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) published in 2009. Due to the transition, curriculum reform, renewal of textbooks, increase in instructional materials, introduction of Internet services and computers and ICTbased training, and re-training of teachers needed to be undertaken, according to the report.

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PHASED EXECUTION OF K TO 12 Schematic Implementation Plan of K to 12

Grade 12 Grade11 Grade 10 Grade 9 Grade 8 Grade 7

2011- 20122012 2013

2013- 20142014 2015

School Years 2015- 2016- 2017- 2018- 2019- 2020- 2021- 2022- 20232016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 First senior high school graduates

Implementation of Grade 7K to 12 Curriculum Year 5 Implementation

Grade 6 Grade 5 Grade 4 Grade 3 Grade 2 Grade 1

First batch of K to 12 graduates

Implementation of Grade 1K to 12 Curriculum

Kinder

Phase 1: Laying the Foundations

Phase 2: Modeling and Migration

- Universal Kindergarten - Development of the K12 Program

- Enactment of basic education law - Phased implementation of new curriculum (Grades 1-4, 7-10) - SHS Modeling

Phase 3: Complete Migration

Phase 4: Complete Migration

- Grades 11&12 (HS Years 5 & 6) Implementation - Complete migration to K to 12 curriculum

Source: The K to 12 Basic Education program, Official Gazette

K to 12 will prepare students for work. The proposed K-to-12 program will incorporate specialized courses that will prepare the students for employment, entrepreneurship or middle-level skills development thus benefiting the students who cannot pursue courses after senior high school and those who want to take up technical-vocational courses or entrepreneurial fields, according to the Policy Brief from Senate. The additional two years – Grades 11 and 12 of senior high school – will include

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specialized training in several fields: vocational skills, agriculture, sports, music, and the arts, the Department of Education (DepEd) said in “Frequently Asked Questions on K to 12.” DepEd further said under the new curriculum graduates who underwent vocational training may acquire Technical Education Skills and Development Authority (TESDA) certifications. A school–industry partnership for technical– vocational tracks will also be established so students can get work experience while

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studying and opportunity to be absorbed by company, it added.

the graduate of a four-year high-school system earns in a year.

Education Secretary Armin Luistro told ABS-CBN that the added years will also develop the “maturity of the student” saying that with K to 12, students would finish high school at the employable age of 18 whereas graduate of a 10-year basic education program still has a hard time getting a job because of the lack of experience and knowledge.

K to 12 will help Filipino professionals gain recognition abroad. The additional two years of schooling will also match the length of basic education requirement for jobs abroad. The DepEd said Filipino workers are not recognized as professionals in countries that view ten-year basic education program as insufficient, in its discussion paper on the enhanced K+12 Basic education program released in October 2010.

Additional years of schooling would also increase the earning potential of the graduate, Education Undersecretary for Finance Francis Varela said at the K to 12 Basic Education Program National Summit held at Miriam College in January. Varela said the graduate of a six-year high-school course could earn ₧15,404 more than what

International accreditation agreements such as The Washington Accord only recognize engineering professionals with 12 years of basic education while The Bologna Accord prescribes 12 years of basic education for university entrants and

Implementing K to 12 The K to 12 program includes kindergarten (5 years old), six years of elementary education or Grades 1 to 6 (6-11 years old), four years of junior high or Grades 7 to 10 (12- 15 years old), and two years of senior high or Grades 11 to 12 (16 to 17 years old). K to 12 will cover public and private schools and will be provided for free in public high schools. The implementation of the system is in phases for over a period of six years. The Universal Kindergarten started last school year, and was made mandatory in the incoming school year. A new curriculum for Grade 1 and first-year high-school students will be introduced in the incoming school year (SY) of 20122013. Senior high, on the other hand, will be offered starting SY 2016-2017. The first batch of students to go through K-12 will graduate in March 2018. Under K12, lessons for Kindergarten to Grade 3 will be presented using mother-tongue languages-Tagalog, Kapampangan, Pangasinense, Iloko, Bikol, Cebuano, Hiligaynon, Waray, Tausug, Maguindanaoan, Maranao, and Chabacano. Medium of instruction will be English and Filipino starting in Grade 4. Science will start to be taught only in Grade 3, but its concepts will be integrated in subjects such as Math, Health, and Languages in Grades 1 and 2. Technology and Livelihood Education and technical– vocational specializations will be offered in Grade 7. Meanwhile, the students will choose among academic, technical–vocational, or sports and arts tracks when they reach senior high school.

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14 professionals in European countries, the paper cited. Extending the basic education cycle has been suggested several times before. To consider one, the 2008 report by The Presidential Taskforce on Education (PTFE) created by then-President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in 2007 suggests the benchmarking of the duration of the Philippine education to other countries and identifying specific country requirements for recognition of professionals. In the report entitled The Philippine Main Education Highway: Towards a Knowledge-Based Economy, the PTFE’s suggestion is to look into the possibility of curricular reforms that will introduce a pre-university stage of around two years in order “to match the standard of industry or job needs of other countries.”

The credentials of Filipino professionals are not accepted in countries which view 10-year basic education cycle as insufficient, the 2008 Presidential Task Force on Education reported

“The concern that we have only a 10-year basic curriculum compared to the 12-year international standard was brought up because the credentials of our professionals are not accepted in some countries,” the report explains. (p. 264) Moreover, a 2009 study conducted by the Universal Access to Competitiveness and Trade – an affiliate think-tank of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry -- and the International Labor Organization, stressed the need to develop competency-based curriculum programs that will match the technical skills of graduates with the requirements of the industry.

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According to the study entitled “Assessment of training policies of Commission on Higher Education, TESDA, and Industry to address employment mismatch,” total length of the basic education in the Philippines, as pointed out by the stakeholders, lacks two years. “Engineering graduates in effect lack one year of the total years of education to be recognized globally, be comparable and competitive and even qualify for accreditation in the Association of Southeast Asian Nation Engineers,” it added.

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Meanwhile, for UNESCO, the adoption of a 12-year program for formal basic education is an “urgent task” in the campaign to provide education for all Filipinos by 2015, which was launched in 1990. The UN agency said the Philippines needs to add one year each for elementary and high school, noting that the country has the shortest basic education cycle in the Asia-Pacific region.

K to 12 will address poor quality of education. The DepEd underscored the need to address the country’s poor quality of basic education, as reflected in the low scores in national achievement test and international assessment exams. In the aforementioned discussion paper on K to 12, it noted that the passing rates for Grade 6 and high school in the National Achievement Test in 2009-2010 were 69.21% and 46.38%, respectively. The country’s ranking Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), an assessment of the mathematics and science knowledge of fourth-grade and eighth-grade students

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around the world is also not commendable, according to the paper. In 2008, the Philippines was ranked lowest, even with only the science high schools participating in the Advanced Mathematics category. In his presentation on K to 12 before the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) board of directors in January, Elvin Ivan Uy, K to 12 Program Coordinator of DepED, said this is because many students who finish basic education do not possess sufficient mastery of basic competencies due to lack of instruction time. Uy cited information from the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization Regional Center for Educational Innovation and Technology (SEAMEO-INNOTECH) in saying that Philippine elementary education is comparable in length, duration, and number of core subjects to that of Brunei, Malaysia, and Singapore, but also that a congested curriculum was noted, especially in Mathematics, Languages, and Sciences. To address this, DepEd said K to 12 will decongest academic workload to give students more time to master competencies and skills. No correlation between length of education and quality? However, a 2010 study entitled “Length of School Cycle and the ‘Quality’ of Education” which uses the TIMSS as basis, asserts that there is no correlation between the length of the school cycle and the quality of education, Senator Antonio Trillanes IV cited in Senate Resolution No. 499, which he filed in May. The resolution directs the Senate Committee on Education and other pertinent Senate committees to probe the proposed K to 12 program.

The

The study, conducted by retired UP Professor and former Deputy Minister of Education Abraham Felipe and Fund for Assistance to Private Education Executive Director Carolina Porio, depicts that longer education cycles do not necessarily result in better TIMMS scores. It noted that “some countries with the same or shorter school cycle garnered the highest scores while those implementing the K-to-12 model or more years of schooling got lower scores than the Philippines.” For example, Singapore scored the highest compared with countries with longer highschool cycles, it cited. The study further warns: "if the plan is hastily adopted, pretty soon the problem would be how to cut short a poor quality 12-year cycle.” Basic education input gaps still need to be addressed. In his privilege speech in support of SR No. 499 in June 2011, Trillanes labeled the adaptation of the K-to-12 system a “big, costly and potentially disastrous” experiment that will worsen the existing problems facing the education sector. Based on figures from DepEd cited in the aforementioned Policy Brief from Senate, the country is in short of 152,569 classrooms, 103,599 teachers, 95.6 million books and 13.2 million seats, and an estimated P150 billion will be needed to close these gaps in basic education. With an additional two years of high school, the DepEd estimates that ₧43.7 billion will be needed to provide new classrooms, chairs, textbooks, and water and sanitation facilities, while ₧17.2 billion is needed to hire teachers and for maintenance and other operating expenses. For mandatory

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kindergarten, the government will have to spend P27.1 billion, from SY 2011 to 2015. Higher education budget will address problems – Aquino. In his speech during the launch of K to 12 program in April 24, President Aquino said the ₧238.8-billion 2012 budget allocation for DepEd, which is ₧30 billion higher than that of the previous year, will address the problems in the

education sector. He further said that the government is looking at eventually having the reading materials PC tablet-based. “We are aware that due to the transition phase, there may be delays and there may be sacrifices to be asked of the students and of our schools. There can never be a perfect, universal solution to our problems—but the guarantee we give you is a stronger

HOW MUCH WILL K TO 12 COST? Number in Units

Classrooms

27,019 675,483 5,403,860 81,058 27,019

Chairs

Textbooks Teachers

Water and Sanitation

Amount in ₧

SY 2011

4,643,363,974 5,032,441,894 5,421,519,814 5,810,597,734 6,199,675,654 27,107,599,070 5,421,519,814

SY 2012 SY 2013 SY 2014 SY 2015

Total Budget

Annual Average

ESTIMATED COST OF ADDITIONAL YEARS IN PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL Amount in ₧ 43,671,366,606.08 37,777,998,794.19 2,567,800,910.74 3,325,566,901.15

Capital Cost Classrooms Chairs Water & Sanitation Recurring Costs Teachers Textbooks Maintenance, operating expenses

Number in Units

17,160,922,257.68 15,100,169,445.04 218,752,812.64 1,842,000,000.00

55,510 2,647,217 49,635

138,532 19,854,131

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WORLD TECHNOLOGY

Getting in sync with the rest of the world

education system for the long haul, one that is focused on the future of our nation.” As of January 11, 4,447 classrooms were already constructed while 2,642 were still being constructed, collectively covering 87.16% of the 8,133-classroom target under the 2011 Government Appropriations Act, based on the data from DepEd posted on the Official Gazette.

Meanwhile, between 2010 and 2011, 978 toilets have been repaired and over 1.3 million chairs have already been procured. By SY 2012–2013, the DepEd claims there will be a 1:1 student-to-textbook ratio. To prepare teachers for the K to 12 rollout, DepEd said it has lined up series of training programs for skill enhancement and proficiency in teaching English, Science, and Mathematics for some 1,530 science teachers for Grade 7 or First Year High School nationwide. More comprehensive reforms needed – Angara. In April, Senator Edgardo J. Angara, who chairs the Senate Committee on Science and Technology, said in a statement that more comprehensive reforms, such as improving the curriculum, enhancing teacher-training programs and addressing infrastructure gaps quickly and sustainably, are also needed to address on top of the proposed K to 12 program.

The

According to Angara, "the solutions we need to roll out will have to tackle the complexity of the issues our education system faces. Clearly, it goes beyond adding two more years to the education cycle and increasing public investment in our schools, universities and colleges." Angara, who chairs the Senate Committee on Education, Arts and Culture, was disappointed over figures released by the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) on April 18 (in its Worrisome Trends Towards Deterioration of our Human Capital blog entry on its “Sexy Statistics” page) indicating that the number of college graduates “has not risen fast enough” in the last decade. He cited information from the Philippine Institute for Development Studies in blaming low spending on state-run colleges and universities.

Through a ₧9.8-billion Public-Private Partnership project, which will run next month to June 2013, 9,332 classrooms will be built in 2,262 elementary and secondary schools in three regions with the highest classroom shortages, it added.

Per NSCB statistics, from academic year 2000-2001 to AY 2009-2010, the total number of college graduates increased only at an annual growth rate of 2.9%. Meanwhile, the share of graduates from courses related to Education Science, Teacher Training, Engineering and Technology to the total higher education graduate is declining--from 31.3% in AY 2000-2001 to 22% in AY 2009-2010. According to Angara, who is a former president of the University of the Philippines, "It is good that government has already started the process of reforming education in the country. And while K to 12 is in itself significant, it is only one step among the many that we as a country will need to undertake."

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Are We Losing the War on Hunger? Despite ₱39 billion for the poor, 24 million didn’t eat

By Ricardo Saludo

STRATEGY POINTS

Despite tens of billions of pesos in monthly stipends for the poor, hunger has risen in all quarters but one since September 2010. Clearly, cash aid cannot adequately address all the facets of the hunger problem, from food supply and prices to jobs and income. Even in direct family aid, the complex characteristics of every needy household require multi-pronged measures, not just CCT.

GRUMBLING STOMACHS

Hunger Incidence in the Philippines, July 1998-March 2012

Total Hunger

(Ave. 1998-2012 = 14.3%)

Moderate

(Ave. 1998-2012 = 10.8%)

Severe

(Ave. 1998-2012 = 3.5%)

ESTRADA

ARROYO

AQUINO

23.8%

% of households

18.0%

15 10

5.8%

1998

2001

2004

2010

2012

Graphic based on Social Weather Stations chart

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Are we losing the war on hunger

ack in January, Secretary Corazon Soliman of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) downplayed the Social Weather Stations (SWS) hunger survey conducted last December. Hunger incidence rose for two quarters in a row to 22.5%, or more than 22 million Filipinos if extrapolated nationwide. But Soliman noted that the rise was just one percentage point from the previous survey last September, while selfrated poverty (SRP) fell by seven points in an accompanying SWS poverty report. “The hunger rate did not really move, ”the DSWD head told a media forum. “There are more people who thought that they are not poor [55%]. According to Mahar [Mangahas, SWS president], it’s the biggest drop [in self-rated poverty] for the last five years. People basically think their life is improving.” Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Abigail Valte repeated Secretary Soliman’s line at the time: “... self-rated hunger was statistically identical to the results of the September 2011 survey. Combined with the noticeable decrease in self-rated poverty from 52 to 45 percent based on the SWS fourth quarter survey (December 3-7, 2011), this indicates that policies to promote inclusive growth are beginning to take effect.” That was January. Last week Soliman was again having to explain another surge to a new peak in SWS hunger data compiled on March 10-13. The percentage of respondents saying they missed at least one meal in the first quarter of the year hit a record 23.8%, equivalent to 4.8 million families or about 24 million people.

The

Also at an all-time high since the hunger surveys began in July 1998 was the number of Filipinos suffering severe hunger. Those frequently missing meals numbered 5.4 million in the first quarter of the year: 5.8% of households and equivalent to almost half the population of Metro Manila. (The highest incidence of severe hunger was 6% back in March 2001, but that was equivalent to 4.6 million people then.) Overall hunger incidence was slightly higher than the previous peak reached amid the rice crisis in December 2008. And while last December, self-rated poverty dropped even if hunger rose, this time the March figure jumped by ten percentage points to 55%. That’s 9.4 million more Filipinos saying they are poor. Most worrisome, after dropping in September 2010, hunger incidence has risen in every SWS quarterly survey under the Aquino administration, except last June, despite the tens of billions of pesos in monthly stipends for the poor under the expanded conditional cash transfer program (CCT). From AHMP to CCT. When hunger spiked in March last year, President Benigno Aquino III questioned SWS data, drawing flak from leftists and the opposition. He claimed that the poll failed to reflect supposed job growth (in fact unemployment increased in January 2011) and expanded CCT. Since then, however, the President has been silent about SWS hunger reports, including the last two, released around the start of Chief Justice Renato Corona’s impeachment trial in January, and when it resumed last week.

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20 Left to comment again were Secretary Soliman and spokesperson Valte. Soliman texted The Philippine Star that rising oil prices in Metro Manila and calamities in Mindanao in January might be the culprits. Palace spokesperson Valte also texted media that DSWD “is intensifying our supplementary feeding program and expanding the 4Ps” Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program conditional cash transfers, repeating her line about the December survey.

That single program has largely replaced Arroyo’s multi-pronged Accelerated Hunger Mitigation Program (AHMP). Launched in 2006 and focused on poor Metro Manila barangays and the most food-poor provinces in the Food Insecurity and Vulnerability Information Mapping System framework (FIVIMS), the AHMP combined such initiatives as Food for School rice aid and feeding programs, Tindahan Natin subsidized stores, microfinance and short-term work, vocational training, and agricultural production and transport boosts, including backyard vegetable gardens.

Just a week into the Aquino administration in July 2010, Secretary Soliman announced a review of the Food for School program, citing “anecdotal evidence” and independent studies of alleged leakages. In its 2007 report on FSP and Tindahan Natin, the Philippine Institute of Development Studies (PIDS), under the National Economic and Development Authority, CCT recipients in World Bank video: But they want jobs more YouTube estimated that 24%-62% of Indeed, CCT has become the Aquino subsidized or free rice for the very poor were administration’s stock response to hunger sold or distributed to other households. surges. It now gives poor families — 2.9 million by DSWD’s count —P1,400 monthly By the second week of the new stipend each if they fulfill conditions government, Secretary Soliman said on maternal and family health care FSP and Tindahan Natin would be and child education. Piloted in 2007 by scrapped and replaced with targeted rice then-President Gloria Arroyo with full subsidies and CCT. Budget Secretary implementation starting the following year, Florencio Abad quickly clarified that FSP the program has grown nearly tenfold from would be redesigned, not junked, while 321,010 targeted households in 2008 to this Education Secretary Armin Luistro said in year’s 3 million families at a cost of some August 2010 his department may revive P60 billion this year and last. the program.

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Are we losing the war on hunger

That same month, however, President Aquino affirmed the scrapping. His message on the proposed 2011 budget said, “we terminated and cut programs, such as the Department of Education’s Food for School Program, which can be better administered by the DSWD by means of the proper targeting and identification of beneficiaries.” Beneficiaries are chosen based on the DSWD’s National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction. NHTS was started in 2009 at a cost of more than P1 billion, and had compiled a database covering 10,078,232 households as of April last year. Stipends grow, but so does hunger. However, the continued rise in hunger after nearly two years of boosting CCT cannot but raise doubts about its effectiveness in filling stomachs. From 15.9% of families in the third quarter of 2010, hunger incidence added nearly eight percentage points over the next six quarters, dropping only in mid-2011. Based on the latest population estimate of 94 million last year, the surge in hunger amounts to 7.4 million Filipinos added to food-deprived ranks — 1.23 million

more grumbling stomachs every quarter or 400,000 more a month, on average. Certainly, anyone expecting CCT to solve the hunger problem should check his sums. Even the current expanded program can only cover less than a third of the 10 million-plus indigent families in the NHTS database as of a year ago. At the average per-capita rice consumption of 308 grams a day or 9.8 kilos a month, as estimated by the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics, the average poor family of six would need P1,587 — P187 more than the maximum CCT stipend — to buy the 59 kg it needs monthly at P27/kg, the National Food Authority’s lowest price since December 2010. Even CCT advocates know that its main impact is long-term, through better education and health care for beneficiaries, despite the immediate assistance it gives the poor. Moreover, its effectiveness depends on other initiatives, like having enough schools and clinics for targeted beneficiaries to comply with stipend conditions.

FAO/FIVIMS FRAMEWORK OF FACTORS AFFECTING FOOD SECURITY NATIONAL, SUBNATIONAL AND COMMUNITY LEVEL Socio-economic, Political, Institutional, Cultural and Natural Environment

HOUSEHOLDS

INDIVIDUALS

Household Livelihood Strategies, Assets & Activities

Food Economy

Food Consumption Energy intake Nutrient intake

(vulnerability context) Population Education Macro-economy including foreign

Import capacity

trade

food stocks, food aid

Policies and laws Natural resources endowment Basic services Market conditions Technology Climate Civil Strife Household characteristics Livelihood systems Social institutions Cultural attitudes and gender

Household Food Access

Food Availability Domestic production

Consumption status Nutritional Status

Care Practices Child care Feeding practices Nutritional knowledge Food Preparation Eating Habits Intra-household food distribution

Stability Weather variability Price fluctuations Political factors Economic factors Access to Food Poverty Purchasing power, income, Transport and market infrastructure

Food Utilisation determined by: Health status

Health and Sanitation Health care practices Hygiene, Sanitation Water quality Food safety & quality

Graphic by Food and Agriculture Organization

The

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22 Hence, a 2006 World Bank Institute paper, “Examining Conditional Cash Transfer Programs,” counsels that CCT is “not a panacea against social exclusion and should form part of comprehensive social and economic policy strategies.” Certainly, as the Food and Agriculture Organization’s FIVIMS framework shows, the challenge of food security is more than just giving the poor money to buy edibles (see page 21).

household budgets of the poor. In its paper, “Food Security and Poverty in Asia and the Pacific: Key Challenges and Policy Issues,” published just before its annual conference last month, the Asian Development Bank outlined major issues to be addressed in ensuring there is enough food on the table in homes across the region. Its key points listed in pages vii-ix are quoted and italicized below:

In October 2010, as the government was pushing to treble CCT, PIDS senior research fellow and former NEDA assistant director general Gilbert Llanto cautioned against rapid rollout before key components are in place: effective targeting, education and health services in CCT areas, and any required counterpart funding from poor municipalities. He had raised similar concerns even when the assistance program had just started in 2008 and was far smaller than it is today.

Food security should be at the heart of any discussion on poverty. Applied to the

MAN VS. Projected Impact o Food Energy Ava Nor Sub-Saharan Africa

South

Middle East

Also in October 2010, Social Watch Philippines, led by longtime governance and social reform advocate Leonor Briones, issued a position paper on CCT also citing the lack of support facilities and community bodies, the program’s inability to “address all the dimensions of poverty and vulnerability,” and the need to provide jobs more than aid. A year ago the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism made its own critique in three articles: “Hype & rush mask gaps in CCT rollout,” “Deficit in education, health services weighs down CCT,” and “CCT debt trap? Future of propoor deal a poser.” A war on many fronts. As the foregoing studies and stories spell out, along with other expert reports, the war on hunger has to be waged on many fronts, not just the

CONTENTS

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Latin America and Caribbean

East

-9

-8

-7

Drastic Biofuel Expansion

-6

-5

Biofuel Expansio

Philippines, major programs to help the poor like CCT must clearly and effectively address hunger. Around the globe but mostly in Asia, rising populations and changing consumption patterns are raising global demand for food. That means food security measures must take account of future increases in consumption, and their impact on supplies

WORLD TECHNOLOGY

Are we losing the war on hunger

and prices. Part of the rising demand has to be biofuels, which now require mammoth amounts of corn, sugarcane and root crops, enough to spike world grain prices in 2008. Rising food prices disproportionately affect the poor and counteract efforts at poverty reduction. Food prices have been increasingly volatile in recent years, suggesting instability in the global food supply chain. Graphs of the rice price inflation rate combined with the SWS hunger data show the two closely parallel,

MOTORCAR f Biofuel Demand on ilability, 2010-2020 th America

h Asia

t and North Africa

tern and Central Africa East Asia and Pacific -4

-3

-2

-1

Source: International Food Production Research Institute, cited in U.N. Standing Committee on Nutrition report, page 91

vividly dramatizing the impact of food costs on empty stomachs. With price gyrations all but unavoidable in coming years, hunger mitigation cannot solely or even mainly depend on CCT. Rather, there must be efforts addressing supplies and prices of rice and other key edibles. Such measures have not been much discussed by the government, except for the President’s oftrepeated remark about rice sufficiency next

The

year, the target originally set under Arroyo’s 2008-2013 FIELDS program. Climate change is a major contributing factor in the battle to provide food security. Science writer Mat McDermott reports in treehugger.com: “Data from the Philippines shows yields declining 10% for every 1°C increase in daily minimum temperatures.” For its part, the International Rice Research Institute in Los Baños, in its article “Coping with Climate Change,” explains: “IRRI crop modeler John Sheehy determined that, as a general rule, for every 75 ppm increase in [carbon dioxide] concentration, rice yields will increase by 0.5 ton per hectare, but yield will decrease by 0.6 ton per hectare for every 1°C increase in temperature.” Hence, even if we become a net rice exporter next year, we may not be so for long if surplus harvests decline as domestic consumption rises and yields fall due to global warming. And it gets worse if efforts to cut greenhouse-gas emissions bump up biofuel demand (see biofuel chart). A vast array of global, regional and national policies is required to promote food security. The ADB highlights five crucial ones, and only one refers to CCT: safety nets and social protection programs, agricultural productivity, rural development, agricultural research, and human capital investment. For its part, the U.N. Economic and Social Commission on Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) cites some of the same issues in the ADB report in its 125-page policy paper, “Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security in Asia and the Pacific,” plus many more: rich-world farm policies and commodity speculation, expanding deserts and shrinking forests, competition for water,

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Are we losing the war on hunger

genetically modified crops, and the need for community-based initiatives.

households, there are far more factors to deal with than the money in their pockets.

This need for a broad mix of initiatives was precisely why the AHMP included a wide variety of measures, from CCT and FSP to FIELDS and Gulayan ng Masa home gardens. Also, the Anti-Hunger Task Force implementing it included 30 agencies coordinated by the National Nutrition Council and the Office of the President, represented by this writer when he was the Cabinet Secretary.

The FAO’s Right To Food Assessment report on the Philippines includes tables setting out the typology or features that shape hunger at the household level (see tables below). From family size and educational level to breadwinner’s occupation and field of work, the characteristics of hungry families point to different ways to help the poor get more food on the table than just a monthly trip to the Land Bank ATM machine.

The typology of hunger. Plainly, to really make headway against hunger now and in the future, the Aquino administration must come up with a more comprehensive and sophisticated response to SWS reports than last week’s SMS pledges to accelerate CCT and give aid to Visayas and Mindanao disaster victims. Indeed, even if one just looks at measures to directly assist

What those other measures are, both at the family, the community, and the national levels, should be the subject of future Palace and Cabinet deliberations, statements and actions in light of hunger incidence surveys. Otherwise, even a tenfold expansion of direct cash assistance to the indigent will do little to stop the quarterly expansion of the citizenry’s hungry ranks.

PROFILES OF DEPRIVATION

Hunger Incidence in Families with Listed Characteristics NUMBER OVERALL Household size

one to two three to four five to six seven to eight nine or more

3.7 6.4 15.3 28.8 37.4

NUMBER OVERALL Young dependents

none one to two three to four five to six seven or more

5.3 9.8 22.3 45.3 56.3

CHARACTERISTIC

OVERALL

15-24 25-35 36-50 51-65 65 and above

7.6 11.5 16.4 12.8 10.2

Age

Male Female

Gender

CHARACTERISTIC

OVERALL

No grade completed Elementary Undergraduate Elementary Graduate High School Undergraduate High School Graduate College Undergraduate College Graduate

32.5 23.8 18.0 13.6 7.6 4.0 1.1

CHARACTERISTIC

OVERALL

Educational attainment

Sector of employment

CHARACTERISTIC

OVERALL

Works for Private Household

12.8

Works for Private Establishment

12.2

Works for Government or Government Corporation

5.8

Self Employed

19.6

Employer

10.5

With Pay (family operated)

13.3

Class of worker

Agriculture

24.6

Without Pay (family operated)

10.7

Mining & Quarrying

22.2

CHARACTERISTIC

OVERALL

Manufacturing

7.5

Electricity, Gas and Water

1.8

1st-poorest

34.9

Construction

12.1

2nd

20.3

Wholesale & Retail Trade

7.4

Transportation & Telecommunications

7.7

3rd

8.7

4th

2.4

Finance

2.4

Services

6.8

5th-richest

0.6

14.6 9.0

Income quintile

Tables from “Right To Food Assessment, Philippines,” Food & Agriculture Organization, page 7

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NEWS ON THE NET Nation

It's official: Erap for Manila mayor Former President Joseph (“Erap”) Estrada confirmed that he is running for the positon of mayor of Manila in the 2013 elections, and that he would serve only one term if elected. As part of his election plan, he has also transferred residence to a 5,000-square meter property in Sta. Mesa, Manila. The property used to be the headquarters of former President Ramon Magsaysay and an ancestral home of the Legarda family. The Commission on Election and other election lawyers reminded Estrada that mere transfer of residence is not enough to qualify him for candidacy and that he needs to establish his physical presence in the community. Under Section 39 of the Local Government Code of the Philippines, qualifications for local elective officials include being a registered voter of the locality where he intends to be elected and a resident therein for at least one (1) year immediately preceding the day of the election.

Chief Justice Corona on his anticipated testimony: 'Relax and wait' At the resumption of the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona, his battery of

lawyers revealed that he will be presented before the impeachment court to testify and finally face the issues raised against him. Upon learning this, senatorjudges proposed that he sign either a waiver allowing the scrutiny of his dollar accounts or a signed manifestation of his intention to testify. Also, the impeachment court has issued subpoenas upon the application of the defense team against Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales and four other individuals who filed the latest complaint against the chief magistrate on allegations that he owns $10 million in his bank accounts. Last week, the Ombudsman sent a letter to Corona asking him to answer the allegations in the complaint. Corona's camp has repeatedly denied the allegations against him.

UNA: Only 5 senatorial bets so far The United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) has named five candidates in its senatorial line-up so far: Senator Aquilino Pimentel and Jose de Venecia III from PDPLaban, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile Jr. and JV Ejercito from Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino, and Senator Gregorio Honasan. UNA spokesperson JV Bautista said that lists or names mentioned by personalities outside the UNA secretariat are only speculative, after former Senator Ernesto

The

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Maceda mentioned several names who have not been confirmed to be part of the coalition. UNA is a coalition formed by the joining together of Estrada's Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino and Vice President Jejomar Binay's PDPLaban. The coalition has decided not to join forces with the ruling Liberal Party in order not to confuse the public about whom to select.

₧4.9T national debt: Each Pinoy owes ₧51,675 The National Statistical Coordination Board revealed that the Philippines' foreign and domestic borrowings amount to ₧4.912 trillion as of December 2011. This figure translates into ₧51,675 – ₧29,989 owed by every Filipino citizen in domestic debt and ₧21,686 in foreign debt. The NSCB report also showed that as of December 2011, per capita real GDP was ₧61,719 while per capita debt was ₧31,391. The NSCB’s statistics, as presented in its May 9 “Sexy Statistics” blog entry entitled “Lubog na ba tayo sa Utang?”, compared the debt-service ratios to Gross Domestic Product under different administrations. The debt-service payment ratio was highest during Corazon Aquino’s term, at 10.4%, followed by the ratios during the administrations of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and President Benigno Aquino III, at 9.6% and 7.5%, respectively.

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The World’s Water In Peril

Planet-wide efforts are underway to save this precious resource By Marishka Noelle M. Cabrera

WATER FOOTPRINT Generally, water footprint is an indicator of the amount of freshwater use, whether directly or indirectly, of a consumer or a producer, according to “The Water Footprint Assessment Manual: Setting the Global Standard” by Prof. Arjen Y. Hoekstra of the University of Twente, the Netherlands, and colleagues, Ashok K. Chapagain, Maite M. Aldaya and Mesfin M. Mekonnen. Here are some everyday items and their water footprints

Source: Waterfootprint.org and “The Water Footprint of Food” by Professor Arjen Y. Hoekstra, Twente Water Centre, University of Twente, the Netherlands

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The world’s water in peril

STRATEGY POINTS

Over a billion people all over the world lack access to clean water The world’s water needs can be classified into food and agriculture, energy, industry, human settlements, and ecosystem requirements Coherent policies, collaboration between the public and private sector, and improving demand management can help close the water gap

we anxiously wait for rain in the sweltering heat of summer, governments and organizations across the globe are warning of impending water shortages.

• Food and agriculture, accounting for the majority of water withdrawals globally • Energy, for which the quantities of water used are rarely reported and thus are not widely known

Around the world, water security is threatened. In the Global Risks Report 2012 of the World Economic Forum, water supply crises ranked 5th in terms of likelihood, following severe income disparity, chronic fiscal imbalances, rising greenhouse gas emissions, and cyberattacks. But in terms of impact, crisis in the world’s water supply is second only to major systemic fiscal failure.

• Industry, which covers a broad range of income-generating activities with equally broad impacts on both the quantity and the quality of local water resources and the environment • Human settlements, including water for drinking and household uses such as cooking, cleaning, hygiene, and sanitation

However, the global fight to save water is only just beginning. In the 2012 United Nations World Water Report, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Kimoon says, “[P]ressures on freshwater are rising – from the expanding needs of agriculture, food production and energy consumption to pollution and the weaknesses of water management.” The release of the United Nations World Water Report coincides with the 6th World Water Forum held in Marseille, France this year. The report outlines five major sectors in the global demand for water:

The

• Ecosystems, whose water demands are determined by the water requirements to sustain or restore the benefits for people that societies want ecosystems to supply Still, the seemingly abundant supply cannot meet all of the demand. Over a billion people all over the world have no access to clean water, according to the publication “Water Rights and Wrongs” of the United Nations Development Programme based on the United Nations Human Development Report 2006. Of this staggering figure, 406 million live in East Asia and the Pacific, 229 million from Southeast Asia, 314 million

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28 are affected in sub-Saharan Africa, 38 million from the Middle East, and 49 million are in Latin America and the Caribbean. And perhaps one of the biggest ironies in a water crisis is that the poor pay more for something that should ideally be accessible to all. For instance, the publication says, “If you live in a slum in Manila, you pay more for your water than people living in London.”

service for hundreds of millions of people, devastating loss of wetlands, serious reductions in food production, and skyrocketing food prices that would force declining per capita food consumption in much of the world,” the report warns. To add, the Population Institute says, “If population and consumption trends persist, it is estimated that the demand for water will surpass its availability by 56%, and 1.8 billion people will be living in regions of water scarcity by 2025.”

Meanwhile, the report “Global Water Outlook to 2025: Averting an Impending Crisis” by the International Food Policy Research Institute, IFPRI’s 2020 Vision Initiative, and the International Water Management Institute attempts to predict the water crisis scenario the world could Baseline Water Stress experience in Low (< 10%) 2025. Moderate (10-20%) “The water crisis scenario— predicated on the worsening of a number of already evident trends— would lead to a breakdown in domestic water

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WATER RI

Medium-High (20-40%) High (40-80%) Extremely High (>80%) Arid and Low Water Use (NA) Missing Data (No Data)

The interactive Water Risk Atlas from the World Resources Institute shows users, pa indicators, such as water quantity, water quality, and regulatory and reputational risk

BUSINESS

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The world’s water in peril

Water scarcity is a critical constraint to growth. Towards 2030, policymakers across developing Asia will need to address four “wicked” environmental problems, and among them water management. A working paper from the Asian Development Bank Institute cites the three other environmental issues: air pollution, deforestation, and land degradation. “The depletion and contamination of [water] resources generates large economic costs, not just by increasing the cost of obtaining a direct input to production, but also through damaging

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impacts to environmental systems and human health,” the paper explains. It also warns that water management is not only an environmental concern, but also a “major challenge to economic development, particularly in Asia’s larger economies.” Insights gleaned from a 2010 conference, Water: Crises and Choices – ADB and Partners Conference, organized by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) show that in order to achieve economic growth, cities in Asia “must curb water losses drastically” and “adopt best-in-class water treatment and distribution systems.” ADB Special Senior Advisor Arjun Thapan said at the opening of the conference, “What makes matters worse is that the fragility of our water resources is occurring at a time of Asia's most impressive economic performance ... Paradoxically, it is occurring because of it.”

rticularly companies and investors, areas experiencing water risk based on

Source: World Resources Institute

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Further, ADB Vice President Ursula SchaeferPreuss, speaking at the Seminar on Climate Risk and Resilience:

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30 Securing the Region's Future in Vietnam, suggests taking “dramatic steps to increase the resilience of Asian societies” to be able to manage risks in water, food, and natural disasters. In order to do this, she cites the need to adopt coherent policies and closing the technology and finance gaps as priority tasks. In UN-Water’s “Coping with Water Scarcity,” water is closely linked to poverty reduction “especially in low-income countries that are highly dependent on the rural economy.” Moreover, in the Human Development Report 2011, United Nations Development Programme administrator Helen Clark says, “Investments that improve equity—in access, for example,

to renewable energy, water and sanitation, and reproductive healthcare— could advance both sustainability and human development.” The urgent need to reform water policies. “The need to reform water policies is as urgent as ever, yet governments around the world face significant challenges in managing their water resources effectively,” notes the report “Meeting the Water Reform Challenge” by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). In its executive summary, the OECD identifies “rapid urbanisation coupled with population growth” and “changing economic dynamics”

Dealing with scarcity In a country like Singapore, natural resources are obviously scarce. Yet, this water-stressed nation has managed to meet its water needs through technology and innovation. To start off, Singapore’s Economic Development Board says in its website that the city-state embarked on aggressive public education campaigns that centered on the value of water as a scarce resource. Moreover, Singapore also invested in “cutting-edge water treatment facilities, reclamation and desalination technologies.” As such, the EDB claims, Singapore is a major player in the water reclamation industry and is considered a model city for integrated water management. In a background paper by the World Bank Analytical and Advisory Assistance (AAA) Program, entitled “Dealing with Water Scarcity in Singapore: Institutions, Strategies, and Enforcement,” Singapore has “achieved remarkable progress in water resource management based primarily on urban catchment management and water reuse.” The paper cites political will, institutional integration, integrated land use planning, enforcement of legislation, public education, and application of advanced technology as the success factors. One success story and the “pillar of Singapore’s water sustainability” is NEWater. According to the country’s national water agency, the PUB (Public Utilities Board),NEWater is produced from “treated used water that is further purified using advanced membrane technologies and ultra-violet disinfection, making it ultra-clean and safe to drink.” Likewise, countries like Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates are susceptible to water risk. This is the reason why they turn to desalination and sewage-treatment technologies for their water needs, as shown in a slideshow on the world water crisis from Bloomberg Businessweek.

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as the key factors straining the world’s water resources. Asia, for instance, is undergoing a process of urbanization, population growth, and industrialization, according to ADB Sustainable Infrastructure Division Director Gil-Hong Kim in a podcast from the ADB website. He warns that there may be about a 40% water gap come 2050, and that without addressing agricultural water efficiency, food security will be very difficult to achieve. After all, the World Water Report already cautions, “[T]here are hotspots where the availability of non-renewable groundwater resources has reached critical limits.” “Water for irrigation and food production constitutes one of the greatest pressures on freshwater resources,” the World Water Report says, “Agriculture accounts for around 70% of global freshwater withdrawals (reaching up to 90% in some fast-growing economies).” The ADB official points out that more than 50% of water is being wasted or ineffectively used, which

is why agricultural productivity remains low. He advocates tapping into new, low-cost technology in order to improve irrigation efficiency. Further, the U.N. water report regards climate change as an additional threat to urban water supply by “changing water availability and exacerbating water-related disasters such as floods and droughts.” There is still hope. By 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation will have been halved, if this Millennium Development Goal has been achieved. And according to the 2010 United Nations report on the Millennium Development Goals, “The world is on track to meet the drinking water target, though much remains to be done in some regions.” In its Water Operational Plan 2011-2020, the ADB suggests that in order to address the region’s water challenges, solutions must entail increased efficiencies in water use, expanded wastewater management

Lewis: Water is indispensable for increased agricultural production and productivity, and irrigation is critical for food security. Video from the Asian Development Bank during the Asian Irrigation Forum

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and re-use, and expanded knowledge and capacity development that uses technology and innovation more directly, among others. “To enhance water security and ensure equitable access among a range of users, the region will need to use available water resources more efﬁciently and improve demand management,” the plan recommends. Moreover, the plan advocates a “collaborative approach” between the public and private sectors, and that both private capital and expertise are necessary in closing the water gap.

In addition, the use of public-private partnerships (PPP) to resolve the water crisis in Asia is discussed by Thapan in a podcast from the ADB website. He believes PPPs tend to improve the quality of performance and operational efficiency, and adds that the focus in the past years has been supply-side solutions, when it should now be on the demand side. “A great change has occurred over the last 20 years in terms of the water situation in Asia having become far more acute. And it is now time to get our act together,” rallies Thapan.

The water wars Are wars over water inevitable? “Human societies, when they break down, when they don’t have access to basic commodities, will engage in aggressive behavior to attempt to survive,” says American war correspondent Chris Hedges in a radio interview featured in a blog in Scientific American. He continues, “I think in fact we are entering a time where there will be an increase in conflict, scrambling for deleted resources as groups, including nationstates, attempt to survive.” After all, nations have come into conflict because of water in the past, as shown in the water conflict chronology list taken from Worldwater.org of the U.S.-based Pacific Institute. In a Reuters report, a United States intelligence assessment warns that while a water war is unlikely over the next 10 years, the “the risk of conflict would grow with global water demand likely to outstrip current sustainable supplies by 40 percent by 2030.” "The use of water as a weapon or to further terrorist objectives also will become more likely," the news report also noted. Then again, for every threat, there is opportunity. “Water has also proven to be a productive pathway for confidence-building, cooperation, and arguably, conflict prevention,” a policy brief of the United Nations and Environmental Security notes. The report points out that water “provides one of the few paths for dialogue in otherwise heated bilateral conflicts,” paving the way for regional development negotiations and conflict-prevention strategies.

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U.S. plans 10-month China travel warship deployment agencies suspend to Singapore Philippine tours The U.S. Navy has confirmed that the first of a class of U.S. warships will be deployed to Singapore next year for about ten months – a move that will likely aggravate U.S.-China relations as it could play into China's fears of U.S. involvement in the Asian power's South China Sea disputes, including one with the Philippines. The intention however is to back a current strategic "pivot to the Pacific," mirroring a stepped-up emphasis on the region ordered by President Barack Obama last year, in the form of gradually "rebalancing" U.S. national security planning toward Asia after years of land wars in the Middle East. Littoral combat ships (LCS) are a completely new kind of warship, capable of speeds greater than 40 knots and designed for modular missions – including mine-clearing, anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare. There are two LCS designs; the Singapore-bound USS Freedom is the aptly named first ship of Lockheed Martin Corp.-developed Freedom class. The first-of-class ship had been riddled with safety concerns; such as hull cracks, flooding, and engine problems. However, according to Lockheed, the USS Freedom has been “certified and approved by both the Navy and the American Bureau of Shipbuilding.”

All Philippine tours have been suspended indefinitely, following an order from China's National Tourism Administration because of "strong anti-China sentiment." Furthermore, the Chinese embassy posted an advisory for its citizens in the Philippines to stay off the streets in order to avoid conflict with locals. Last Wednesday Beijing also urged Manila not to "further damage bilateral relations" by holding a planned protest, which pushed through last Friday. Chinese tourists make up about 9% of total arrivals to the Philippines, according to the Philippine Department of Tourism. The Philippines is now bracing itself for the effects of China's travel suspension; China is the fourthlargest source of tourist arrivals to the country, as well as its fastestgrowing market. China and the Philippines have been locked in a standoff in disputed waters at the Scarborough Shoal since the beginning of April. Tensions started to rise when a Philippine naval ship found eight Chinese fishing vessels at the shoal, which both sides claim as their own. Manila has since asked China to settle the issue at the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea.

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Obama affirms support for samesex marriages In an interview with ABC's Robin Roberts last Wednesday, U.S. President Barack Obama said, "It is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married." The historic statement marks the first time a U.S. president has publicly expressed support for gay marriage. The divisive issue has sparked controversy, and has highlighted the varying views of U.S. citizens. Positive reactions from Democrats, gay rights groups and others have been matched with criticisms from conservative camps – such as Republican activists and Christian groups. Analysts are calling the affirmation a calculated risk for Obama, who is running for re-election this year. Just a day before the ABC interview, North Carolina approved a constitutional amendment that defines marriage solely as a union between a man and a woman – becoming the 30th state to effectively adopt a ban on gay marriage. On the very same day the U.S. president announced his stance, the House Armed Service Committee also backed an amendment to bar same-sex marriages or "marriage-like" ceremonies on American military installations.

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The Prying Eyes of Data Miners Are Watching Your Every Move In the ultra-connected world, privacy is not a given â&#x20AC;&#x201C; you'll need to work and fight for it By Tanya L. Mariano

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STRATEGY POINTS The U.S. government is building a $2-billion facility in Utah to spy on civilian communications In the information age, what you share online may end up in unexpected places because of data miners and privacy and security flaws On the bright side, privacy-protection efforts are underway and new protection tools are emerging

o you’ve booked the air tickets online, e-mailed the itinerary to your travel buddies, and posted on Facebook a photo of that quaint hotel you will call home for the weekend. Congratulations! It looks like you’re all set for your summer getaway. It also looks like you’ve exposed yourself and your friends to serious security risks. With personal data as the currency of the digital economy, and with the posting of information online becoming a normal part of everyday life, what you share with contacts on the Web, you might as well have shared with the rest of the world. Uncle Sam wants your data. Citizens of the U.S. should be doubly nervous. Web magazine Tecca reports the four ways the federal government is spying on its citizens, and this includes the construction of a $2-billion data center in Utah, to be completed in September 2013, to spy on civilian communications encompassing mobile, e-mails, and creditcard transactions. The report also warns that the U.S. government “maintains detailed files

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on numerous public, semi-public, and private figures,” and employs software and hardware to rifle through information publicly available on social media sites, and that the House of Representatives is considering a bill, entitled “Protecting Children from Internet Pornographers Act,” which would require commercial Internet service providers to create logs of customers’ names, IP addresses, and bank information. ‘Grabby’ corporations. Of course, no discussion of data mining is complete without mention of the two titans of the technological world: Google and Facebook. Both are known to collect user data in order to provide a more intuitive and personalized online experience (read: smother you with targeted ads). But just how much do they know? In February, Jonathan Mayer, a graduate student at Stanford University, blogged that he had discovered Google bypassing the privacy settings of Apple’s web browser, Safari. The three other companies that he found to be doing this were advertising companies Vibrant

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36 Media, Media Innovation Group, and RollPoint. By default, Safari is configured to block third-party cookies. These four, however, placed traceable cookies by using a special computer code, which allowed them to spy on people’s Internet browsing habits. Google denied collecting personal information through the advertising cookies, and explained that the privacysetting circumvention was accidental. The code was disabled after Google was contacted by The Wall Street Journal, which has published a report on the matter.

information –1,222 pages spanning three years of Facebook activity – from Facebook’s office in Dublin. Schrems was surprised to discover deleted messages, wall posts, e-mail addresses, and friends still visible in his file. Also included in the document were sensitive data such as last known geographic location, including longitude and latitude, and the exact dates and times he logged in.

In its research into Facebook’s privacy management, non-profit consumerprotection organization Consumer Reports cites two Facebook users whose stories reveal that the social network maintains a massive repository of highly sensitive information about their members.

The Boston police investigation into the death of the second user mentioned in the report, Philip Markoff, illustrates how Facebook also knows so much about their American users. In 2010, Markoff committed suicide in jail while awaiting his trial for the murder of masseuse and former call girl Julissa Brisman, dubbed by the media as the “Craigslist Killer” case. The file Facebook released to the police showed Markoff’s wall posts, photos, log-in dates and times, IP addresses, and list of friends.

The first, Max Schrems, is a 24-year-old law student from Austria who was able to obtain a detailed copy of his profile

According to the same report, you don’t even have to click on the “Like” button in order to be tracked: “Facebook

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gets a report every time you visit a site with a Facebook ‘Like’ button, even if you never click the button, are not a Facebook user, or are not logged in.”

developer with the Visual Communication Lab at IBM Research’s Center for Social Software (the rings represent levels of sharing, see figure below):

Over the years, Facebook’s default privacy settings have noticeably become less stringent, as illustrated in this infographic from the personal blog of Matt McKeon, a

Third-party apps leak information. And it’s not just Facebook that has access to sensitive information. Third-party apps may expose your and your friends’ data to people

THE EVOLUTION OF FACEBOOK’S DEFAULT PRIVACY SETTING 2005 Wall p os

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Friends

Likes

YOU

2010 ts

Bir

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Wall p os

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Nam

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Likes

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YOU

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Source: Matt McKeon, http://mattmckeon.com/facebook-privacy/

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you never intended to share them with. As part of their “What They Know” investigative series, The Wall Street Journal analyzed the 100 most popular Facebook apps to learn what kind of data they obtain from users, and found that many apps seek information such as a user’s name, profile picture, e-mail address, age, gender, list of friends, sexual preference, religious and political views, and current location. The Journal discovered that the app, MyPad for iPad, sought the most information. View the interactive graphic below to see what kind of data these apps are after. The two-way mirror that is your smartphone. Jonathan Mayer’s discovery

mirrors Singapore-based developer Arun Thampi’s discovery that the iPhone app of social network Path uploaded users’ address book contents to their servers without permission, a security flaw that Path’s CEO has since apologized for and fixed. That incident brought to light privacy concerns over apps available for download from the Apple App Store. Recently, the iOS platform has been in the news again because of another controversial app, the suggestively named “Girls Around Me,” which shows how tiny morsels of personal information made public can be gathered to create an entire profile without your knowledge.

HOW GRABBY ARE YOUR FACEBOOK APPS?

Source: “Selling You on Facebook,” The Wall Street Journal

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From Russian developer i-Free, the app aggregates publicly available data from Facebook, Foursquare, and Google Maps to locate women and link to all kinds of information on their profile, according to online magazine Cult of Mac. Amidst the hullabaloo created by the offending app, Time published an article that warns against combining multiple social-media accounts: “The more social media sites you sign up for, the more information developers have to work with and the harder it is to track how each service interacts with another. Being an early adopter is fun, but new apps often have huge gaps in their privacy policies.” Android apps have also been found to have privacy and security holes.

In a paper presented at the 5th ACM Conference on Security and Privacy in Wireless and Mobile Networks held in Tucson in April, researchers from the North Carolina State University analyzed 100,000 apps from the Google app store and found that nearly 50% could track users’ geographic location and that one in 23 permitted the transmission of that data back to in-app advertisers. Some apps could even access a user’s phone number and call log. This infographic from Redmond Pie compares the privacy and security performance of iOS and Android. In late 2011, the smartphone industry was abuzz after news broke out that CarrierIQ,

THE ANDROID AND IOS SECURITY SHOWDOWN

Source: “Android vs. iOS – How Secure Are They?,” Redmond Pie

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a software created by a California-based analytics firm that came pre-installed in a number of devices manufactured by HTC, Samsung, Apple, and a few others, was keeping tabs on what users did on their smartphones, from battery life to signal strength, to keystrokes and application use. Security researcher Trevor Eckhart discovered the security flaw and blogged about his finding. Apple stopped

supporting CarrierIQ with the release of iOS 5, reports ZDNet. Privacy protection efforts. The good news is, broad initiatives to safeguard user privacy are underway. Just this year, U.S. President Barack Obama unveiled the blueprint for a bill to protect consumer rights online while at

A researcher’s dream: The Internet is a treasure trove of data on human behavior “One way to describe Facebook is as the most extensive data set on human social behavior that ever

was,” writes Technology Review in an article that features an interview with Cameron Marlow, head of

Facebook’s “Data Team,” researchers with backgrounds in computer and social sciences who study the

behavior of its over 845 million users to gain insight into how Facebook can improve its products, but who have also begun publishing their findings in scientific journals.

Facebook is not the only one harnessing online information to uncover trends and study human behavior. Here are a few others doing the same:

• Google uses search data to track flu and dengue trends • Researchers at the Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing have

developed an online test that they say predicts with reasonable precision one’s personality type based on behavior on social networks. Among its findings: “extraversion is positively related to

one’s status republishing proportion and neuroticism is positively related to the proportion of one’s angry blogs.”

• In a paper published in online journal First Monday, two graduates of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology claim they can determine a person’s sexual orientation based on information about

their online contacts. The researchers analyzed 4,080 Facebook profiles from the MIT network and found that the number of self-identified gay friends one has correlates with that person’s sexual orientation. Writes the researchers, “the purpose of this research was to test whether one can predict information that a user keeps private.”

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Is ‘big data’ overrated? A Wharton professor thinks so Majority of the technological world, including business strategy, information technology, and next-

generation enterprises expert Dion Hinchcliffe, are hailing big data as the next big thing, saying that mining the enormous amount of information that is being generated and shared will revolutionize businesses by providing them with such depth of insight into consumer behavior that was never before possible.

A Wharton business school marketing professor, however, begs to differ. In an interview with

Technology Review, Peter Fader, co-director of the Wharton Customer Analytics Initiative at the

University of Pennsylvania, says that more data is not necessarily better. He maintains that while

new technologies provide metrics never before attainable, a key question that needs to be answered

is, “Just how much of that data do we really need?” Says Fader, “…the more data we have, the more false confidence we will have. Not only won’t our hit rate be perfect, it will be surprisingly low.” Fader suggests managing expectations and knowing the limits of your predictions, and

recommends looking to the insurance industry for lessons on how to correctly handle forecasts based on massive data.

the same time ensuring that the Internet remains “an engine for innovation and economic growth.” In March, the Federal Trade Commission also released “Protecting Consumer Privacy in an Era of Rapid Change,” which contains recommendations on how businesses and policy makers can help protect consumers’ private information. This includes giving users more control over their data via a Do Not Track option, which provides users the choice to opt out of tracking practices, and making privacy the default setting rather than an option that users have to jump through hoops for. There are also a number of new tools to protect people when they go online. One is called Collusion, an add-on for the browser

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Mozilla Firefox, which lets you track who is tracking you on the Internet. It was introduced by Mozilla’s Gary Kovacs at a TED event in February. In this interview posted on the TED blog, the developer, Atul Varma, talks about how he was inspired to build the add-on by Eli Pariser’s book, The Filter Bubble, and how he would like to see a revolutionary business model for Web companies that would enable them to remain profitable without having to rely on data collection. Chrome users can use a similar browser extension called Ghostery. Another is Spotflux, a free application that encrypts Internet connections, rendering you invisible until you login to websites where you maintain user accounts. It also removes ads and provides real-time malware detection.

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PrivacyChoice is another new tool that makes it easy for users to learn about and compare the privacy practices of a host of websites, something which previously could only be done by reading the privacy policy of each individual website. PrivacyChoice measures “factors such as whether a Web site shares personal user data with other sites, how long a site retains that data and whether the site confirms that data has been deleted,” and gives a score between 0 and 100 according to how it collects and uses data.

countless nooks and crannies of the World Wide Web have become essential parts of everyday life. Data miners may currently be able to help themselves to your information without your knowledge, but recent efforts to protect Internet users and the growing awareness of the importance of strict security settings promise a brighter future for online privacy protection.

Time to go offline for good? Obviously, staying offline is not an option for most people in today’s information-driven age. Computers, tablets, smartphones, and the

And perhaps Collusion developer Atul Varma’s vision will come true. Maybe the future holds a new way of monetizing the Internet without resorting to data mining. For now, however, all we can do is practice proper online privacy hygiene and accept that what we release to the Web could end up in the hands of strangers.

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U.S. Facebook users use smartphones more than computers, study finds Digital marketing intelligence company comScore has released a new Mobile Metrix 2.0 report which shows that U.S. smartphone users spent about 441 minutes, or 7 hours and 21 minutes, on Facebook last March. In comparison, people who used computers logged in 391 minutes, or 6 hours and 31 minutes. The study underscores the growing role of mobile phones in the industry of social networking – a trend that has not gone unnoticed. In the documents filed for Facebook's IPO, the social networking company noted that, "if users increasingly access mobile products as a substitute for access through personal computers and if we are unable to successfully implement monetization strategies for our mobile users, our financial performance and ability to grow revenue would be negatively affected." Analysts say that this is why Facebook has been making moves to beef up its mobile strategy, in part through the $1 billion Instagram deal – which now may be delayed due to a competition probe by the Federal Trade Commission. Facebook has also recently announced the acquisition of location-based mobile tool Glancee and the forthcoming launch of its own App Center.

specifically designed for car use, and employing laser-projected augmented reality navigation technology.

Google's Eric Schmidt, Larry Page and Sergey Brin in a selfdriving car on January 20, 2011

Google gets first self-driven car license in Nevada Nevada's Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) approved last Monday the first license of its kind to be issued in the U.S., to Google's self-driven cars. According to Google, the autonomous vehicles navigate using lasers, radar sensors, video cameras, and a database of collected information manually driven cars. In an official statement, Nevada DMV director Bruce Breslow called Google autonomous vehicles the "car of the future," and revealed that other car companies have also indicated a desire to develop and test similar vehicles in Nevada. Currently, legislation to regulate self-driven cars is being considered in other U.S. states. Not to be outdone, Volkswagen recently released its concept design for the company's own version of "the car of the future" – a hover craft. Japanese citizens can also experience a taste of the future this coming July with the release of Pioneer's head units –

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Google breached Oracle's Java copyright, U.S. jury finds Internet giant Google was found by a U.S. jury in San Francisco to have infringed on Oracle's copyright on less than a dozen lines of Java code that is currently in the mobile operating system Android. However, the jurors could not agree on whether or not Google's inclusion of those lines constituted "fair use" under copyright law. U.S. District Judge William Alsup denied Oracle's request for a ruling that would have established copyright infringement liability on Google's part. "There has been zero finding of liability on any copyright so far," the judge told lawyers of both parties after the jury had left. "The affirmative defense of fair use is still in play." Initially, Oracle was suing for $1 billion in compensation; the Google-Oracle case was potentially one of the biggest technology lawsuits to date. Due to these recent events, Oracle can now only seek statutory damages, which range from $200 to $150,000. Google, on the other hand, is now asking for the declaration of a mistrial; believing that the jury should have decided on the issue of fair use as well.

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