Rainy Days

It has been raining for a few days this January 2009 and it seems that the year has opened with calamity. The floods that are experienced in Cagayan de Oro City has been very destructive. Nature has damaged the homes of 7,000 families living near the Cagayan de Oro River. The local government of the city has pin pointed the bad weather condition brought about by a low pressure area is responsible for the flash floods that damaged properties. It is a combination of the force of nature and the destructiveness of men that made this calamity a greater weapon of mass destruction. For decades the forest trees surrounding the city has been a victim of illegal logging. This activity has been flourishing anywhere in the Philippines without objection from our national government why? … It is because some owners of the logging firms are the law makers themselves. They cannot afford to hurt their comrades and make their source of living stop. I think this destructive cycle will never end. In the end many people are affected by the wrong doing of a small number of rich and powerful people. Life is unfair and it will only stop if we can get this greedy people to wake up and help solve the problem.

Integrity

For the past few days the headlines of National and local news networks has been centered on the drug bribery scandal between PDEA and the DOJ. The situation has blown in a massive proportion that high ranking officers of the AFP and the DOJ has been accusing each other of their wrong doing. Among the people that are part of this grand circus one man stands out. He is a marine officer that is loyal to his sworn duty to serve and protect the people and the constitution. Major Marcelino is a model soldier and a true citizen of our country. He has shown to us how to live life fairly and that how important is honesty for him. On the lifestyle checks conducted by the media it is said that this officer is living a simple and meager life compared to other officers with the same rank. It is a common fact that with his rank and in this country he must live like a “king”. He chose to live life fairly for the reason that he still believes that there is a chance to reform our country if we are serious about it. It is a sign for us Filipinos that if we do what Major Marcelino does maybe, we can help make our country a better place.

Alabang Boys

Last December 26, 2008, A buy bust operation was conducted by the PDEA (Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency) to capture 3 men that is reportedly selling drugs in Alabang. The 3 young men are siblings of rich and well connected families that have the capacity to influence some government officials. After a few days in the detention cell a resolution was reached that is ordering the PDEA to release the “Alabang boys” due to technicalities. It is truly amazing how this people in our judicial branch of the government abuse their authority that was given to them by the people. They were entrusted with this authority to make sure the interest and welfare of the country towards righteousness is protected. How sad it is that even our justice system has been corrupted by few individuals that offer millions of pesos just to overturn a case that is seemingly impossible to win. The situation is getting worse everyday and the ordinary person that has no money has nowhere to run. I hope that our government will change because we are now in a quicksand that is slowly swallowing us towards our death.

Abuse of Authority

The recent headlines on news papers today shows us how a big political clan from Maguindanao mauls the family of 56 year old man on a golf course somewhere in Luzon. The alleged perpetrators of the crime are a town mayor, his body guards and the secretary of Agrarian Reform Department. It is quiet disturbing to see how high ranking officials and elected officials of our government abuse the mandate they were given by the people. These people are not supposed to be in the seat of government because they could not even manage to be humble and professional with their dealings toward ordinary citizens. In my opinion this is why our beloved Philippines do not have the capability to “leap towards progress” but instead our country is now very far away from progress. It is due to officials such as these people that we are likened to some countries in Africa. The warlords of the African continent take control using force while our government officials take control through elections and executive appointments at least the African warlords are not hypocrite people as they show their true color and intentions. Comparing to our sheep like government officials who acts like a saint but performs like the devil. If the government of the Philippines will continue to make mistakes appointing the same public officials in the future our country will always in poverty and hunger. The time is near this 2010 to make the right choice and to remove these abusive people from power.

Spaghetti

Whenever I was sick during my childhood days my mother would comfort and tell me that she will cook my favorite food. As a child I feel very excited and happy to hear that I will be eating spaghetti when my mother arrives from the office. That is how spaghetti has been part of my life every since. I can survive with spaghetti everyday even for a week or more. I don't know why I love spaghetti. I think it is because the food is complete. The pasta is a source of carbohydrates needed for energy and the beef is a source of protein. One plate full of spaghetti can more or less fill a very hungry stomach. I am also happy that my buddy is trying to perfect her spaghetti cooking skills in that way she can cook for me whenever I crave for my favorite food.

Commitments 2009

The year 2009 is a big challenge for me and my plantation. Our top management has given us the go ahead signal to further increase our planted area with the premise of producing the same number of boxes per hectare per year. For me this is quiet difficult due to the reason that export quality bananas are very hard to grow with no chemicals and every new employee hired must be trained and constantly monitored. The number of coaches and support personnel in my plantation stays the same while the number of field employees increases by an average of 22% every year. I am expecting with the current number of hectares we are developing our direct field employee will outnumber a supervisor with a ratio of (1: 73). I hope that our team can still be very competitive next year and still achieve the same productivity and maintain our cost per hectare.

Year 2009

The year 2009 is fast approaching and the world is clueless of what will happen with the current economic slowdown the major economies are experiencing. The forecast for the Philippine economy is that the effects of the slowdown will hit us hard by 2nd or 3rd quarter next year. It is quiet alarming for workers in the textile and automobile industry as it is expected that these industries are going to be hit of the first wave. It is also sad that while other economies in the world are working hard to avert the crisis our government is still boasting that we can survive this problem. It is just a signal to us that our leaders are not willing to lead us through the wilderness but are just positioning themselves for the 2010 elections. For a small country like us that relies on our trading partners it is quiet impossible that we can go through smoothly against the storm. I think that we must be prepared for any eventuality that might come our way. We must continue to work hard and improve our productivity and make sure that the companies we are working for give their money's worth.