ANY motorist will easily notice the street billboards of Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas, candidate for congressman, that blaze with the word “Uswag.” It prompts us into thinking, “Have we Ilonggos really prospered?”

In fairness to the mayor, he and the Chinoys who surround him at the inner sanctum of City Hall – nay, city mall – have certainly enriched themselves in his nine-year reign; and they hope to prosper even more when they get to the House.

But Jerry’s battle cry is also obvious for what’s missing. In past elections, it used to be “Uswag Iloilo! Trabaho para sa masa.”

Indeed, he has employed hundreds of contractual auxiliary police whose monthly pay is so below minimum that they have to do “kotong” to feed their family.

At least they’re better off than the “casuals” recommended by King Raul, who have become casualties.

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ANNOUNCING the 38th Iloilo Paraw Regatta Invitational Rapid Chess Tournament on February 20-21, 2010. It will be held at the Iririmaw Hall of the Breakthrough Restaurant in Sto. Niño Sur, Arevalo, Iloilo City.

Interested parties may register at the Freedom Grandstand Chess Center with NM Cesar Mariano or at the Office of Councilor Jose Espinosa III, chair, Iloilo City Sports Council. Registration fee is P75.00.

Prizes at stake are: 1st – P5,000; 2nd – P3,000; 3rd – P2,000; 4th – P1,000; and 5th – P700.

Special prizes at P300 each are also at stake for Best Female, Best Senior, Best 16-under, Best 12-under and Best 8-under.

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I am never a fan of Farmville. I know it would eat a lot of my limited time if I get hooked to it, just how mIRC made me a chat addict in the late 90s. My Facebook life is limited only to posting my thoughts, commenting on my friend’s posts and chatting.

I know a lot of people who are addicted to Farmville and they admit spending a lot of energies tending their respective farms. I never realized that farming is so attractive to Filipinos. If they can only channel their Farmville addiction to actually working in the farms to produce agricultural products, then we would be assured of food sufficiency.

Our country is facing a food crisis and its agriculture sector is now on a decline – particularly rice production – as brought about by various reasons, ranging from the conversion of rice lands to climate change. Last year, according to agriculture officials, the country’s farm sector posted a lower-than-expected production growth rate of 0.37 percent as strong typhoons significantly slashed the output of farmers and fisherfolk from October to December.

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CHARGES against four members of Parliament in Britain for falsely claiming parliamentary expenses are rocking the foundations of the United Kingdom’s political system.

The political storm over the “dishonest claims” of the MPs involved three from the ruling Labor Party and one from the Tory Party.

The storm erupted at the same time that the Philippine Senate (an institution that has great pretensions as a bulwark of democracy) is split over a report of its top committee finding that one of its senior members, Manuel Villar, is guilty of unethical conduct in relation to the C-5 road extension project.

The Senate committee of the whole, which includes 22 senators, has recommended the censure of Villar for transactions of his real estate companies associated with the project.

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I AM taking temporary leave from this weekly column, in line with the policy and rules on campaigning being implemented by the Commission on Elections (Comelec). And so this will be my last piece before voters go to the polls to choose the next president of the Philippines.

I am presenting the challenges that the new Chief Executive of the land will face beginning in the second half of 2010, particularly with respect to the economy.

True, the prospects for growth for the Philippine economy are a lot brighter this year than in 2009, when it closed below 1 percent in terms of gross domestic product (GDP).

Standard & Poor’s (S&P) has projected that the Philippine economy will grow by 3.7 percent this year, a significant jump from the drowsy 0.9-percent growth last year, and higher than the government’s target of 2.6-percent to 3.6-percent growth.

S&P cites sustained growth in domestic consumption, fueled by remittances from overseas Filipinos, as one of the country’s strengths, which offset the impact of the decline in exports.

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The recent Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey reflects the fast-narrowing gap between Noynoy Aquino and Manny Villar as, in fact, another survey conducted by the Manila Standard-Today newspaper has revealed an even much-closer result between the two presidential contenders.

In the Pulse Asia survey, however, it’s now practically even, after Villar has gone up in the ratings while Noynoy has slowed down. In view of these developments, will Noynoy still insist that these surveys are bought from shady sources along the infamous Claro M. Recto Avenue strip? In the latest SWS survey, said to have been commissioned by the business community, the results indicate that Noynoy Aquino’s lead has narrowed down to 7 percent. However in the Manila Standard-Today survey, Noynoy’s lead has slipped down to just 2 percent. The Pulse Asia results showed a faltering lead by the Liberal Party contender. Considering the margin of error allowable in such surveys, this is practically a dead heat of a race. With these developments I can imagine the growing panic within the ranks of the yellow army of the Liberal Party.

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ONE of the key insights I gained from my study mission in Ontario and Manitoba, Canada, three years ago, was the value of thinking and acting like a region. This is a development mindset advocated by the Canadian Urban Institute (CUI), a non-government organization based in Toronto committed to enhancing the quality of life in urban centers across Canada and also in some other parts of the world, the Philippines among those.

The “thinking like a region, acting like a region” framework is akin to the integrated area development paradigm, which stresses the interconnectedness of adjacent jurisdictions, and the value added when those that administer these jurisdictions and their respective communities pool resources together for the achievement of development goals and objectives which largely cut across territories.

Poverty alleviation, job generation, investment promotion, ecological solid waste management are examples of these shared concerns. Given limitations in resources, particularly monetary, there is wisdom for local government units to get their acts together and draw up collective responses addressing those shared concerns.

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Last February 4, 2010, we received a report that the Commission on Audit (COA) conducted an audit at the City Treasurer’s Office (CTO) of Catherine Tingson. No disbursement whatsoever for the whole day. Thank God, COA interfered on time probably knowing that if there is smoke there is fire!

As told, Mrs. Luz Leonora, cash division chief, is suspect as one of the responsible people in the delay of the casual employees’ salary. It is said that before paying them, the money is first used for the business of the bosses up there at the mall. This is what the earlier claim hinted at.

On how true, the lady has yet to say. But it creates a suspicion that was a deliberate delay to compel the casuals to sell their pending receivables to stooges of city officials who are ready to buy it under the condition of a certain percentage deduction. It is really true, vultures breed during crisis.

A P50 slashed from the salary of a casual could already be a meager meal for his poor family. If one-half of the 3,000 casual employees are forced to sell their salaries due to the urgent need for money, it is a P75,000 income every fifteen days for crooks at the mall. This injustice en masse’ is a crime that cries to God for punishment!

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STARTING Wednesday, the duel between Senators Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III and Manuel Villar for the lead in the presidential race hit a crucial point. In the Pulse Asia survey from Jan. 22 to 26, Villar caught up with Aquino’s lead for the first time since the latter announced his presidential bid in September.

The survey showed both contenders running neck-and-neck, with Aquino being picked by 37 percent of the respondents as their choice for president, and Villar by 35 percent. Given the margin of error of plus or minus 2 percent, the two are considered to have come to a statistical tie.

Compared with the December 2009 survey, Villar’s support improved by 12 percentage points while preference for Aquino declined by 8 points.

His critics attribute Aquino’s decline to his relative administrative inexperience in government and his failure to spell out his program (he did it a few times with forums, including the one sponsored by the Makati Business Club) in public gatherings where he only pledged that he would never steal, if elected. He has underlined the theme that the main election issue is honesty and integrity in government, highlighting his contrast with Villar, who has not postured as a paragon of honesty in the light of the Senate investigation of the controversial transactions affecting his real estate enterprises.

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Let me repeat what I wrote in this space many months ago (“Pension now for poor older people” 3/19/09) in relation to poor Filipino senior citizens: The Philippines is the only country in Asia that has no social pension for poor, older people. I am referring to the ones not formally employed when they were younger and thus did not have social security or insurance that they could draw from in their older years.

Countries like Bangladesh, Nepal, India and Vietnam have some kind of social pension for the elderly poor, says Ed Gerlock, advocacy officer of the Coalition of Services of the Elderly (COSE), a non-government organization that focuses mainly on the elderly poor.

Now comes the much-awaited expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2009 (SBN 3561) which was passed by the House of Representatives and by the Senate on third reading on Jan. 27, 2010. It is titled “An act granting additional benefits and privileges to senior citizens, further amending RA 7432.”

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