No to FIELDS of hybrid rice

Hybrid does not necessarily mean more and better.

During this time when a global food crisis is upon us and the world’s impoverished population has to deal with food scarcity, a variety of solutions have been thrust upon us. But questions regarding the soundness of some of these solutions have to be raised.

The presidential fiat on the implementation of FIELDS has to face questions coming from civil society groups, among them, Centro Saka, concerned and alarmed over the aggressive promotion of hybrid rice. Centro Saka is a policy research and advocacy non-government organization. It is the secretariat to the National Rice Farmers Council, a loose coalition of small farmers organization nationwide formed in 2003 during the National Rice Farmers Summit.



FIELDS stands for fertilizers, irrigation and other infrastructure, extension and education, loans, dryers and post-harvest facilities and seeds.

While the multi-billion additional funding for rice and several other crops is a welcome development, Centro Saka disagrees with how the government plans to spend it. The FIELDS package shows that the government intends to increase the hectarage devoted to hybrid rice production, with an allocation of P2.7 billion until 2010.

“We find this difficult to understand given the poor performance of the hybrid rice program and the many issues that have been raised against it over the years,” said Centro Saka executive director Omi Royandoyan and National Rice Farmers Council president Jimmy Tadeo.

Cetro Saka says that as it is currently designed, the P43.7 billion package of intervention measures will merely perpetuate the misguided strategies that have turned the Philippines into the world’s biggest rice importer. In subsidizing hybrid rice, the Philippines would be subsidizing big seed companies like SL-Agrictech, including multinationals like Bayer and Monsanto, when the money could be used to support our own rice farmers. The design of the FIELDS interventions will actually make the rice program dependent on private companies with no accountability to the public.

Centro Saka says it straight: “Equally disturbing is hybrid rice's heavy reliance on chemical-based inputs to reach optimum yields. With the sky-rocketing prices of inorganic fertilizers which now stand at P1,700, hybrid rice production will only force rice farmers deeper into indebtedness, even as the big fertilizer companies reap windfalls of profit. All of this plus the damage to the environment that chemical-based farming, as shown in numerous studies, will certainly cause.”

When will we ever learn? Centro Saka asks. The present crisis is clear evidence that the old strategy of putting all eggs in one basket, i.e., dumping the lion’s share of resources into the expensive and flawed hybrid rice program was a huge mistake. In fact, Cetro Saka adds, the contribution of the hybrid rice, which has received billions of pesos in government support, pales in comparison with the over 50 percent contribution of good seeds which has been receiving practically no support from government. And yet all this talk of increasing funding for rice hybridization.

The government’s only rationale for insisting on hybrid rice is the supposed higher yield advantage when compared with traditional and other inbred varieties. But this is not really the case. In the field, farmer-selected and bred seeds have been shown to be comparative if not superior to hybrid rice which has an average yield of less than 7 metric tons per hectare.

Read this: “According to some studies, yields from good seeds and certified seeds can reach a maximum of 9 mt/ha and 10 mt/ha respectively. Using the latest rice hectarage of 4,272,000 hectares, we can assume that the country can produce as much as 38,448,000 million metric tons of palay or 29,904,000 metric tons of milled rice using only good seeds. This is even assuming a low milling recovery of only 60 percent.”

Here’s more. “Actual field experience with farmer developed varieties also show that yields of up to 7 mt/ha. are achievable using organic farming practices. This compares favorably to the less than 6 mt/ha. average yield for hybrid rice. Rice farmers who employed the system of rice intensification managed to produced yields reaching as high as 9 mt/ha. Moreover, the small rice farmers have been reporting milling recovery rates of 70 percent which is much higher than that registered by hybrid rice. What is even more notable is that the small rice farmers were able to achieve this level of production without government support. Strangely, government has not tapped the expertise of these organic rice farmers.”

So Centro Saka argues that by simply providing farmers with good quality seeds, specifically the traditional and farmer-developed varieties, promoting organic rice farming and constructing additional irrigation facilities, government could set the country on the road to self-sufficiency in food production. So it is best for government to abandon its current policy of relying on hybrid rice and importing rice as solutions to the food crisis. Instead, government should pursue the implementation of the Rice Master Plan that the small rice farmers have long been advocating.

That’s more than just food for thought.

Popes apologizing

This is not the first time that a Pope has apologized for the sins of commission, omission and indifference of the Roman Catholic Church. History brings to light so many of these faults and there is no way a powerful and huge religious institution could sweep these under the altar. The only good way is to face up, say sorry and do something concrete to correct the mistake if that is possible.

The late and much-loved Pope John Paul II did a lot of apologizing for many faults that are now written into history. And he and the Church were the better for it.

One of the things JPII’s successor Pope Benedict XVI did during his recent six-day US visit was to apologize to victims of sexual abuse. The Pope did this personally by meeting with many of the victims—women and men who were sexually molested, many in their youth, by members of the US clergy. It was a moving and emotional private meeting which the Pope himself had requested.



Although these crimes were private in nature, these will be written into US church history and legal history.

“For 24 remarkable minutes,” the news report said, “the shepherd of the world’s 1 billion Catholics met with a handful of victims of the worst scandal to ever to tarnish the US church. In a chapel Thursday, Pope Benedict XVI prayed with weeping victims of clergy sex abuse, an extraordinary gesture from a pontiff who has made atoning for the great shame the US church the cornerstone of his first papal trip to America. Three victims told CNN they were deeply moved by the way Benedict apologized, listened to and comforted them.”

Well over 4,000 priests have been accused of molesting minors in the US since 1950, reports said, and the church has paid out more than $2 billion, much of it in just the last six years. Dioceses have been forced into bankruptcy because of the costs.

The media have to take some credit for exposing the abuses that Benedict XVI called a cause for “deep shame” and “enormous pain”. And no doubt a few bishops had to be discredited for covering up for their erring priests. It was like they were rubbing salt on lacerations.

If and when Benedict XVI comes to the Philippines he might have to make a similar apology. Or did he apologize to victims all over the world?

In 2003, the Association of Major Religious Superiors of Women in the Philippines (AMRSWP) did a survey, with the approval of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), on sexual abuse committed by the clergy here. I happened to have first crack at the survey results, thanks to the intrepid nuns who did the survey, and the Inquirer ran a two-part series on the findings.

Several cases involving a couple of bishops here got splashed in the media and ran for a season, with the women themselves providing the details. They were, if you ask me, badly handled by both accusers and accused and their handlers. They became grist for scandal sheets. And what became of all of them?

JPII, charismatic that he was, was the Pope who bravely stepped into the historical minefield and tackled explosive issues that needed apologies. The book “When a Pope Asks Forgiveness: The Mea Culpas of John Paul II” contains impressive research and texts of JPII’s “mea culpa” addresses till 1997. (The book was reprinted in the Philippines by Pauline Publishing.) Written by veteran Italian journalist and Vatican correspondent Luigi Accatolli, the book contains surprising discoveries the writer made while researching on JPII’s speeches. He unearthed a “hidden theme” of JPII’s papacy.

Accatolli’s discovery: JPII had publicly admitted Church culpability 94 times on many issues ranging from the Inquisition, to Galileo, the Jews, cultural oppression of natives and women, etc. The sex abuse issue was not rearing its head so glaringly at that time (not that JPII had not known about it) so, I think, papal mea culpa was not in the offing. That task fell on Benedict XVI.

Accatolli quotes renowned theologian Han Urs von Balthazar’s list of some principal errors of the past that JPII apologized for. “Forcible baptisms, inquisitions and auto-da-fe’s, the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre, the conquest of new worlds with fire and sword as if the release of brutal exploitation were also the way of the religion of the cross and of love; unasked for and utterly absurd meddling in problems of developing natural science; proscriptions and excommunications by a spiritual authority which behaves as if it were political, and even demands recognition as such.”

Von Balthazar, says Accatolli, proposes three steps to take: no defense can be given; it is necessary to make a full confession; it would not be right to throw stones “when no one is alive to stand up and plead for justification.” JPII had observed these in his mea culpas and even went beyond.

It was Paul VI who first asked for forgiveness from the separated brethren during the Second Vatican Council. His successors, JPII and Benedict XVI, would make asking for forgiveness a feature of their papacy. Asks Accatolli: “Who among the Popes had ever asked for forgiveness before Paul VI?”

In an interreligious day of prayer at Assisi in 1986, JPII told the delegations: “We Catholics have not always been bearers of peace.” But even as he asked for forgiveness for the church JPII also pleaded for forgiveness of and reconciliation with those who had harmed the church. He did so in 1996 when armed Muslims in Algeria slit the throats of seven Trappist monks they had held for days. JPII displayed “courage of forgiveness” in the face of extremism.

9/11 2001 is not a different story and JPII lived to see the day of terror. Benedict XVI was recently there at Ground Zero, praying.

What color is your rice?

White or brown or red in the time of rice crisis?

Make mine violet. This is the rice I’ve been eating for some time. I wish I could call it wild. It’s an indigenous Philippine variety that is organically grown in Cagayan by farmers affiliated with the Foundation for the Care of Creation. It’s cheaper and more nutritious than the blah commercial white polished (P33 to P35 per kilo) that’s grown with chemical pesticides and stripped of the nutritious outer fibrous layer.

This violet rice (this is not the glutinous type used for desserts) is nutritious, delicious and only P30 per kilo for now. But it’s in short supply because, I understand, it’s not all that cheap to grow and transport. And the locals, I am told, don’t really go for it.

This great variety ought to be preserved and if there is a demand for it there might be more next, next harvest time. The so-called fair trade marketing groups should get interested and partner with the farmers who have good, safe, nutritious rice to sell.

I still caught that era when brown, unpolished rice was deemed inferior—because cheaper—by many and very white rice was considered the staple of the haves. Well, a few decades later, things went the other way. Brown unpolished became the choice of the discriminating and diet-conscious. It was more expensive and hard to find. Dark-colored was in, like dark brown unrefined muscovado sugar as against bleached refined sugar that has been stripped of all its “impurities” and the rest of its goodness. Fiber was in and was brought back into breads.



I read somewhere that vitamin B1-rich brown or whole grain rice has a shorter shelf life because the germ in whole grain rice spoils fast. And so in the 1800s the Germans invented a milling machine that stripped the grain of its bran and germ. White rice came to be.

The European colonizers in Asia went for the white instead of the cheap brown unpolished of the poor natives. White was the food of the whites. And what did they get? Beriberi. At first they blamed it on a bacterium. It was actually Vitamin B1 (or thiamin) deficiency.

In the late 1800s the Dutch colonizers in Indonesia suffered a beriberi epidemic. (The Americans in the Philippines also had beriberi woes.) The story goes that Dr. Christian Eijkmann who ran a clinic in the jungles of Java keep a flock of chickens that were fed brown rice. But when chicken feed went low they had to be fed white rice. The chickens began to show symptoms similar to the beriberi patients.

By some enlightenment, someone made a connection and conclusion. The chickens got back their brown rice and got well. Eijkmann concluded that beriberi must have been caused by a vitamin deficiency and not by a bacterium but the doctor was laughed out of his clinic and sent home.

In 1911 polish researcher Casimir Funk working in London was able to isolate a substance from rice bran which cured beriberi in pigeon. And the rest is history.

Tikitiki, an extract to cure beriberi, is from rice bran. It reversed infant mortality in the Philippines in the early 1900s.

Beriberi symptoms are mostly neurological and include fatigue, irritation, poor memory, sleep disturbances, abdominal discomfort, nerve problems like burning sensations and cramps, swelling and fluid retention. (My thesis in college was on undernutrition and the nervous system!) Beriberi could lead to heart failure.

So we should be eating unpolished rice—brown, red, violet, whatever. Get your Vitamin B1 from whole-grain rice. And here’s something disturbing from astute marketers. The rice that’s been milled to pure whiteness is marketed as something to be coveted while the bran that has been removed is marketed separately for the health buffs as health products or made into vitamin pills.

Whoa! Just go whole-grain.

Back to beriberi. “Beriberi, White Rice, and Vitamin B: A Disease, a Cause and a Cure” a book by Kenneth John Carpenter is about the history and treatment of beriberi. Once considered a mysterious disease, beriberi afflicted many in the occupying armed forces in Asia and in prisons. “Beriberi is a story of contested knowledge and erratic scientific pathways. It offers a fascinating chronicle of the development of scientific thought, a history that encompasses public health, science, trace, expanding empires, war, and technology.”

The Philippines and rice figure in this book.

We have a lot to learn from this rice crisis. Not just about the causes—wanton land conversion, wrong priorities, overpopulation, disasters, multinationals that play god, etc.—but also about how we have treated this great staple—rice. Now its giving us food for thought.

I am doing a story on a fair-trade NGO that is helping small farmers with healthy produce (rice among them) through product development, packaging and marketing in the mainstream. (This is for the regular pages.)

Hanging in my kitchen for many years now is a faded mounted poster of “A Recipe for Feeding the World” (from Australian Catholic Relief).

Ingredients:
People’s need for good food.
Land for people, not profit.
Credit for small landholders.
Fair commodity prices.
Fair wages.
Appropriate technology,
Care for the environment.

Method:
Stir well till all problems are dissolved.
Keep ingredients free from war, corruption and agribusiness or the mixture will curdle.
Feed at least 5 billion. (Should now be 6 billion.)

The world in a grain of rice

The first lines of William Blake’s “Auguries of Innocence” play in my head when I think of the so-called rice crisis. The word rice has taken the place of the word sand. “To see the world in a grain of rice, and heaven in a wild flower…”

Many rice crisis seasons ago (when fancy rice was P20/kilo), I wrote a piece on rice that a number of readers responded to because it brought on memories. This season I again often think of rice in all its glory, the many names of rice in the four Philippine languages that I know and the images they bring forth.

Rice harvests conjure up images of the past, of one’s childhood, of summers and fiestas and times of plenty, of peasants and revolutions, of the simple folk, the countryside and its beauty, of hunger, hope and humanity. No wonder Amorsolo celebrated some of these in his paintings.

When a particular thing—food, animal, plant, product—holds an important place in the local culture, it is given many names. These names could refer to its various forms, the different stages in its life, the end products. They could refer to quality, consistency, strength, age, beauty.



We are a rice-devouring people and we have many names for rice. We use many names to refer to rice in its various stages of growth, its forms and outcomes when cooked.

We don't simply say uncooked rice, cooked rice or rice porridge. We don't say unmilled rice or milled rice. We have precise terms for all of these in Filipino and in many languages and dialects. We don't need adjectives. One word is enough.

Here is a list of remembered words (Filipino, Hiligaynon, Bicol, etc.) that refer to rice. As you go through the list, think of their equivalent in your own dialect/language. Think of your own life. What do you remember? Hunger or plenty?

Palay (humay) - the rice plant; palay, humay - unmilled or unhusked rice grains; palay, pasi - stray unhusked rice found in milled rice; bigas, bugas, bagas) - milled rice; binlid, binlod) - small cracked rice; kanin, kan-on, maluto, inapuy - cooked rice; bahaw - day-old cooked rice; tutong, dukut – toasted rice at the bottom of the pot; lugaw - rice porridge; pinipig – flattened rice crispies; ampaw - puffed rice; ipa, upa - rice husk; darak - rice bran; am - rice gruel (without the grain), taken from boiling rice and fed to infants; hugas-bigas - rice water

In Iloilo where I grew up and which is supposed to be the rice bowl in the Visayas, there are even more precise words to refer to “rice forms”. As a half-Bicolano I also know a few rice words used in the Bicol region.

Humay is synonymous with palay but Ilonggos don't use it to refer to unhusked grains found in milled rice. The word for the stray unhusked grains is pasi (pronounce it maragsa).

There are hundreds of names for different rice recipes in different regions. Palitaw in the Tagalog region, tupig in Ilocos, inday-inday in Visayas, pinuso in Bicol, etc. Coconut is rice's tried and tested partner.

I know I’m Filipino/Asian in taste because if you spread out various types of Western pastries and rice-coconut kakanin before me, I’ll zero in on the latter. I can make a mean ginatan.

The rice crisis has brought to the fore the important place this grain occupies not just on our tables but, more importantly, in our culture. We are what we eat, the saying goes. Our bodies are nourished by its carbohydrates and vitamins. So when the price of rice suddenly shoots up, the country is in trouble. There is not just a food crisis, there is something very culturally upsetting.

Marami ka pang bigas na kakainin (You're going to have to eat a lot of rice yet) is a local expression that means one has a long way to go. Rice will get you there yet, in other words. But how if there is not enough of it? During the dark days of martial rule, militant peasants coined the saying—bigas hindi bomba or bigas hindi bala. This was the cry when ricefields became battlefields.

At the base of the socio-economic triangle one often hears this: “Kahit pambili man lang ng bigas…” There’s so much pathos there, you can't translate it into English. Only a special class could make it hit home. Rice is first on the list. Forget the ulam. For the overfed, rice is just one of the items on their market list. But for those who have nothing, rice, and only rice, is what will make them survive the day.

One unforgettable one-liner that I heard a long time ago from farmers with a sense of humor was: “Hindi na kami magsasaka, magsasako na.” (We’re no longer rice farmers, we’re now rice sack dealers.) That’s one pun that gets totally lost in translation because the punch rests on one vowel of a Filipino word. Forget it if you don’t understand Filipino.

The letter O of magsasako might as well be a fat zero, meaning empty. Empty sacks. Where have all the palay gone?

There are many causes of troubled rice yields, rice shortages and vanishing rice varieties. One could blame wanton land conversion, chemical poisoning of the soil, wrong government agricultural priorities, overpopulation, disasters and multinationals who play god. Name it.

Have you heard of SRI? I attended a conference on SRI or System of Rice Intensification three years ago. SRI is a system, not a technology, because it is not set or fixed. It has to be tested and adapted to particular conditions. If practiced skillfully, SRI could increase rice produce by 50 to 100 percent, and in cases where initial production level is low, the increase could go as high as 200 to 300 percent.

SRI experts, please come forward!

Low carbon Holy Week

If we feel drawn to contemplating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ this Holy Week, we might as well also contemplate the crucifixion of Mother Earth. But we must bear in mind that the high point of Christianity is not the crucifixion but the resurrection. The whole of creation, too, must rise in triumph. We cannot leave Earth to grovel and groan behind us.

Theologian and ecologist Sean McDonagh who spent years in the Philippines wrote in his book “The Greening of the Church”: “A Christian theology of creation has much to learn from the attitude of respect which Jesus displayed towards the natural world. There is no support in the New Testament for a throw-away consumer society which destroys the natural world and produces mountains of non-biodegradable garbage or, worse still, produces toxic waste…

“The disciples of Jesus are called upon to live lightly on the earth—‘take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money; and do not have two tunics’ (Luke 9:1-6). Jesus constantly warned about the dangers of attachment to wealth, possession, or power. These in many ways are what is consuming the poor and the planet itself…



“Jesus shows an intimacy and familiarity with a variety of God’s creatures and the processes of nature. He is not driven by an urge to dominate and control the world of nature. Rather he displays an appreciative and contemplative attitude towards creation which is rooted in the Father’s love for all that he has created. ‘Think of the ravens. They do not sow or reap…’”

And so environmental groups are urging all Christian Filipinos to mark this Holy Week with “a willful embrace of low carbon lifestyles for the good of Mother Nature.” Too much carbon dioxide is the main cause of global warming.

The EcoWaste Coalition is promoting “a low carbon Holy Week” as Christians commemorate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Many will take the opportunity to go on a holiday, pilgrimage, or attend Holy Week rites in their home towns. But these activities, if not planned well, could add to the earth’s burdens.

Fr. Ben Moraleda of the Kaalagad Katipunang Kristiyano says that “the Holy Week is indeed an opportune time to go slow with crass
consumerism and to delight in simple and eco-friendly choices, which are low in carbon dioxide and good for the purse and the planet.”

“We all need to pitch in to stop the planet from further warming up. By making low carbon choices during the Holy Week and beyond, we cut our emissions, live up to our task as environmental stewards and uphold the sanctity of life,” says Fr. Glenn Melo of the Sustainable Agriculture Apostolate of the Diocese of Tandag.

Fr. Alfredo Albor of the Interfaith Bishops Care for Creation Foundation says: “We crucify Mother Earth when we ruthlessly exploit, pollute and diminish her capacity to sustain life. We resurrect her back to life when we adopt a lifestyle that is outwardly simple, yet inwardly rich and compassionate, and work for her wellbeing and protection.”

The EcoWaste Coalition is providing a list of ways that could lessen the use of fossil fuels and subsequently decrease carbon dioxide
emissions during Holy Week.

1. Aim for “Zero Waste” as you carry out your plans for Holy Week and Easter, ensuring that waste is kept to a minimum at all times through creative reuse, recycling or composting.

2. Reduce car use during the Holy Week in order to give the planet a breather. If you are able, walk, bike or take public transportation when you do the traditional visita iglesia on Holy Thursday.

3. If you must use your car, make sure the engine is tuned up and the tires are properly inflated. Remove unnecessary stuff from the trunk, do not overload, observe correct driving habits, and plan your trips for a cleaner, climate-friendly drive.

4. Abstain from expensive, high carbon holiday sprees and consider sharing the money saved as your Lenten offering to your favorite charities.

5. Do not litter. Keep the church premises, parks, beaches and recreational spots free of plastic bags, cigarette butts and food leftovers. Be mindful of the eco-creed "take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints, kill nothing but time."

6. Cut back on plastic bags by having enough reusable bags for pasalubong and souvenirs from your out-of-town trips and pilgrimages.

7. When you do the Stations of the Cross under the heat of sun, have a handkerchief or a small towel with you so that you limit the use of disposable tissue paper. You save trees that way.

8. Bring your own reusable water jug so that you don’t need to buy water in plastic bottles.

9. Choose reusable and recyclable materials over single-use, throw-away stuff.

10. Keep all Holy Week events and rituals simple but profound and meaningful.

You can add more to the above. If you are not going anywhere, do some meaningful acts of mortification for Mother Earth in your own home. Cut down on your energy consumption by limiting your use of electrical appliances. Segregate your garbage, do composting.

More from “The Greening of the Church”: “The passion and death of Christ call attention to the appalling reality of suffering which humans inflict on each other and on creation. By causing others to suffer we persecute the body of Christ. We are beginning to realize that the parameters of the body of Christ are expanding to include not just Christians or all humans, but the reality of creation…

“Gradually it is beginning to dawn on many people that alleviating poverty, healing nature and preserving the stability of the biosphere is the central task for those who follow in the footsteps of Jesus in today’s world.”

Let us walk Jesus’ walk for Mother Earth and all of creation.

Signs of hope

The search is on again for innovative ideas to address development and poverty challenges as well as local governance. Up to P1 million each in grants is up for grabs for organizations with proposals on this year’s theme, “Building Partnerships for Effective Local Governance.”

I have been a frequent goer to the yearly Panibagong Paraan “marketplace”. It’s a great source not only of innovative ideas, it is also a great source of stories to write—what people think up in order to be of help to their fellow Filipinos. Here you can feel the quiet heroism and daring of those who are working on the ground among real people with real needs.

If you want to take a break from soul-polluting politics, go to the mall for this event. It will surely take away some of your cynicism, bitterness, hopelessness and fatigue. Eat healthy afterwards.



Ninety nine finalists from over 500 entries from all over the country will showcase their ideas at the Megatrade Halls 2 and 3 at SM Megamall on April 9 and 10. This will be a great time to exchange ideas, visions and strategies, and, most of all, share hope.

Visit the booths, seek out the key persons, ask questions, compare notes, take home informative reading materials.

Most of the participants/finalists are not new kids on the block, many are veterans in the field of development and civic work. The winning prize of P1 million (there will be many winners) is not much but it can at least finance new projects, new thrusts. For newcomers from civil society and local government units, there is no reason for them to feel intimidated when they are among giants in the development field. Thinking out of the box is one of the winning factors. Can it be done? What are the benefits? Is it sustainable?

The proposed projects should adhere to this year’s theme and work toward the following: improve transparency and accountability in governance; broaden and improve quality of citizen participation in governance; strengthen collaboration among stakeholders; and improve responsiveness and efficiency of public services.

Many years ago, non-government organizations would have almost nothing to do with local governance. The two sectors were worlds apart and looked at each other with suspicion.

This year’s “development marketplace” will be a venue for sharing not only among the finalists but with the public as well. Knowledge, skills, best practices on multi-sectoral partnerships in governance will be shared through roundtable discussions, workshops and presentations by past Panibagong Paraan winners.

Since this year’s theme revolves around local governance, local officials even at the barangay level should go and be amazed by how much could be done at the local level. In fact, many say, ignore the national, the endless bickering, politicking and grandstanding. There is hope at the local level.

Proposed projects fall under any of the following categories: governance and administration, delivery of basic social services (health, nutrition, education, housing, energy), economic development, environmental management, disaster risk reduction and rehabilitation, plus several special categories such as population, migration, etc.

Panibagong Paraan is a joint project of the World Bank, AusAID-PACAP, the British Embassy, League of Corporate Foundations, Peace and Equity Foundation, Dept. of Interior and Local Government-Local Government Academy, Canadian International Development Agency, the Philippine Center for Population and Development, Energy Foundation, Asia Foundation, USAID, ADB, Code-NGO and the Phil. Rural Reconstruction Movement.

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Two convictions. The Cebu Regional Trial Court found John Lloyd Ortiz guilty of the attempted 2004 murder of Cirse “Choy” Torrabla.

According to the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines Judge Estela Alam Singco issued the 29-page decision on March 31, sentencing Ortiz to up to 12 years in jail.

Ortiz pleaded not guilty to a charge of shooting Torrabla several times while he was driving past the dyAR radio station in Cebu City. Torrabla, who now has a program at the dyLA station in Cebu City, was seriously injured.

As many as 91 murders of journalists and media workers have been recorded by the NUJP in the past 20 years. Only four perpetrators have been convicted and only eight investigations are active.

Now, three years after the 2005 murder of Mindanao columnist Marlene Esperat, the hired killers are serving life terms in prison. The masterminds have eluded arrest.

According to MindaNews Cotabato City police chief Willie Dangane said that the warrants for the arrest of alleged masterminds Osmena Montaner, finance officer of the Department of Agriculture regional office and Estrella Sabay, regional accountant, had been served in their residences in the city afternoon of February 22 but the two suspects had fled.

According to MindaNews, Montaner and Sabay were named masterminds in the killing of Esperat by former military intelligence agent Rowie Biruar, who helped plan the assassination but later turned state witness.

Through Barua's testimony, the three other hired killers, Randy Grecia, Gerry Cabayag and Estanislao Bismanos, were sentenced to life imprisonment by Cebu City RTC Judge Eric Menchavez in 2006.

Esperat, a DA chemist who exposed corrupt practices in the regional office, was gunned down in 2005 while having dinner with her two young sons at their residence. Esperat wrote a column for a local weekly, Midland Review.