Invite to all Philippine 2016 elections aspirants

In Indonesia as in many countries around the world, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) undertakes indepth studies about political campaigns. One significant work of NDI is the Political Campaign Planning Manual shown below (click the image below to download pdf document.)

NDI is based at 455 Massachusetts Ave, NW, 8th Floor, Washington, DC 20001-2621. It has field offices in many countries around the world. See the list of field offices here.

In the Philippines, a number of centers and institutes - both private and public involve themselves in the study of political campaigns and winning in elections.

Due to the highly partisan as well as feudal-patronage system-based politics and political campaigns in the Philippines, the more cerebral and similarly inclined approaches to drawing voters often does not apply in this country.

However, even given the same kind of structure in such countries as Malaysia, Indonesia and many other Asian countries, technologies and techniques in campaigns that do away with unsightly practices like employing guns, goons and gold also have a chance of delivering votes as evidenced by the victory of many unknowns in the stable of aspirants to significant political posts from Councilor, Congressman, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Vice Governor, Governor, among others proves that honest-to-goodness campaigns can also successfully make candidates win.

There is hope that Philippine elections will become better and that with improved performance on the part of the country's security and law enforcement sector, the regulatory agencies and other quarters that help keep the level of vigilance, peace and stability during poll time high, many desirable candidates will attain to positions where they can pursue policies and true reforms in the country.

It is hoped that this will also be true for all the other neighboring states in Asia, and those in Africa, Europe-Eurasia and the Americas, etc.

Pollmodernization.org invites political aspirants in the Philippine 2016 and future elections to work with us and ensure ascension - installation to public office.

Technology and knowhow for winning elections will be at your fingertips. We have proven case studies, we will add your win to our portfolio.

Greetings!!!

Reconstruction and Recovery

The World Bank  says that timely reconstruction will help lessen the impact of super typhoon Yolanda. Before we digest these words, it is also significant to look back into the past.

There was a time in fairly recent past when NBC news anchor Brian Williams sounded like a broken record repeating the words over and over again that: Aviation in the United States of America is dying.

This is now true with Philippine air line companies and selected several other businesses in the Philippines right at this very moment. 

During the post-Yolanda period, only at least one air line company that very enterprisingly lowered its passenger rates (presumably including for cargo) per seat-mile, notwithstanding that the Philippine government ordered that a number of fees and charges being levied in the aviation sector will be waived, among other behests in order to lessen the burden for victims of the calamity and those that had to fly to ground zero to participate in disaster relief and recovery operations. It is not difficult to hear a wisecrack such as: this suddenly successful air line company must have entered into a conspiracy with Yolanda just to boost its sales.

Dire is a weak description for the situation that a select number of businesses in the Philippines are in right now. It is singularly most significant that the government's economic cluster shall seriously take into the consideration what this means for jobs, purchases and many other economic activities in the country.

One Festival in Manila

O     N     E

One is a rock music festival originally planned for April 2010 but was shelved due to the postponement of the Hazards Mapping and Environment Summit (HMES) 2010 - a sister project.

The HMES project is now revived and rescheduled to December 8-16, 2014, before the March conference in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture of the United Nations called the UN Third World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction.

On the fifth day of the hazards mapping and environment conference, One will be staged at Rizal Park, Manila beginning at past 5:00 pm Saturday, December 13, 2014 until the next day Sunday December 14, 2014.

One of the unique features of One is the use of biometric tickets, the technology for which will be negotiated up to final contract with a provider from the United Kingdom.

One is a concern of Center for Human and Society (Centre di Humanes et Societas, Inc.) a non-profit organization registered in the Philippines. The organizer's advocacy is pushing for and actively participating in the creation of resettlement sites far away from the ground zero where thousands of Tacloban City residents died as well as building Memorials for those that died in the places where the remains of those that passed away during the Category 5 Tropical Cyclone Haiyan codenamed Yolanda. These memorials will be where the relatives of those that died can express grief for their family, loved ones and bosom friends.

The targeted resettlements are within Leyte or off-island, with a choice of several areas that offer jobs, education for the children as well as other amenities.

One was conceived many years ago in 1987 after the period of transition in government in the Philippines called the People Power Revolution.

Related sites:

One Festival Page at Facebook

One Festival Event - Facebook

The Hyogo Framework for Action on Disaster Reduction

With all the resources the United Nations wields, there will always be issues on whether its issuances, promulgations and declarations of various names and types meet with the compliance of its member states on a ratio of at least 1:50. However, the more realistic figure may be 1:150 or higher. That for every 150 issuances, only one out of 150 member countries religiously abides by its issuances must be painful to admit.

But this does not harm the United Nations in any way, for whether the members act like delinquents, the UN shall continue to exist as long as the members keep paying their dues.

About two years from this date, the latest framework on disaster risk reduction made by the UN in a grand event called Second United Nations World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, will expire. It has to give way to a so-called successor framework.

At that point, the UN will have to come up with the successor framework, hopefully containing new material that will detail how to mitigate risks of calamities like Yolanda. The Third United Nations World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction to replace the Hyogo Framework for Action for Disaster Risk Reduction, will be held in Sendai, Japan, several prefectures away from where the predecessor Hyogo Framework was crafted.

If only for the occurrence of the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the second and now the third World Conference is being in the same country one more time. However, following what transpired in that country during the earthquake-tsunami and in the Philippines, during and in the aftermath of Yolanda, it can be said that the framework promulgated at the Hyogo Prefecture conference is more or less dead, killed by its obsolescence.

This Hyogo framework died before its successor was born. Thus again, we make this call, prior to or coinciding with the Sendai conference, that the United Nations considers pushing through with our strongly advocated focused disaster and environmental hazards summit.

Why the need to host a focused disasters and environment hazards mapping conference.

The question of whether the various United Nations platforms for disaster risk reduction has done anything to prevent even at least half, or better, more than 50% of the casualties of recent disasters can only be answered in the negative. More > >

Rebuilding from the ground after Yolanda

Recently we wrote a proposal to a potential Investor for the planned settlement effort for some of the victims of tropical cyclone #Haiyan codenamed #Yolanda that are spread out in nine (9) Regions of the Philippines. In a past venture the same Investor approved a fund through the efforts of Centre di Humanes et Societas, Inc. (CDHS) and B.S.T. Switzerland and U.S.A. for the Republic of the Philippines Government with an absolute value of USD 2-Billion at tranches of USD50-Million for a shelter development project in the village called Sampaloc, Municipality of Tanay, Rizal Province in the Philippines.

Over a brief working period in the year 1999 the composite private study group prepared a Project Feasibility Study with inputs being cooperatively provided by the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC), then under Chairman Karina Constantino David (left photo) as well as the National Housing Authority (NHA) headed at the time by Atty. Chito M. Cruz (photo at lower right). The government positively evaluated the viability of the project after several consultations with the group of CDHS and agreed to accept the fund support on behalf of the beneficiaries - 150,000 informal settler families in various parts of Metropolitan Manila.

The completed study was submitted to the Investor that then evaluated and made favorable determination to proceed with funding the project. In that year, 1999, a formal Letter of Intent from the Bank to fund the shelter development project was sent to then sitting President, His Excellency Joseph Estrada.

After Pres. Estrada left office, there was no occasion to revive the momentum of the investment partnership with the Investor following the ascendancy of a new government under Her Excellency Gloria Macapagal Arroyo vice His Excellency Jose Marcelo Ejercito or also known as Joseph Estrada. The fund was obtained through representations and negotiations, document submittals and evaluation over a period of less than one year. The formal Letter of Intent was issued on the approval of fund for the Sampaloc, Municipality of Tanay, Rizal Province, Philippines shelter development project by the Agent of the Investor based in the United States of America.

The approved fund, that was more than Philippine Pesos Eighty Billion (PHP80-B) was never utilized under the administration of Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and the funder's prescription on behalf of the Philippine beneficiaries had to be changed. More > >



Images after Yolanda compiled by International Business Times, London

Notes on the Settlement Concerns After Yolanda

The following executive brief of the proposal for funding for a housing project for Yolanda and future victims of calamities is shown below. It was also published in social networking site. See here.

The Post-Yolanda Housing Situation in the Philippines

A reported 300 Kph-strong, hurricane category 5 tropical cyclone hit the Philippines on November 8, 2013 and devastated a large number of areas located within nine (9) administrative Regions of the country.

The final report on the actual scientific and technical analysis and assessment of this natural phenomenon - its true levels of strength at various stages, identifiable patterns of emergence (if any), and other factors, will take some more time, however the situation on the ground of those that were affected by the disaster needs immediate attention.

Furthermore, also needing immediate and serious attention are the victims of calamities about to occur in the near future in the Metro Manila and surrounding areas. The Philippine Government itself, together with other sectors, have warned that the next big calamity will strike the national capital region itself. These bodes for measures to mitigate the atrocities and huge damages to Metro Manila similar to the ones suffered by the people in Visayas and parts of Mindanao brought about by tropical cyclone Yolanda.

The Philippine Government, in cooperation with foreign donors has put in place a few stop gap measures to alleviate the conditions of the victims, 90% of whom had either totally lost their homes and valuables, with more than 50% up to a high of 75% also losing their very source of livelihood in the process:

1. Crops (rice, coconut, corn, other primary agricultural resource)

2. Merchandise for retail, wholesale

3. Manufactured light products (paper based, light wood-based, water-based, others)

4. Real estate improvements (for rent space - building, house, etc.)

5. Others

In the current situation, housing materials are being given by Raffle Draw to victims of the disaster. Twelve (12) pieces of new metal roof sheets are given to a few victims whose names are picked in a Raffle Draw at the level of the Municipality. Along with the 12 roof sheets are different sizes of nails. The metal roofs are marked with a foreign brand and are said to have arrived from outside the Republic of the Philippines. At this rate therefore, with the giving of roof sheets through the Raffle Draw it is envisioned it will take a considerable amount of time to service several hundreds of thousands up to millions of victims without any capacity to borrow money or generate new income to allow them to completely rebuild their homes and return to normal life and hopefully, as well to their livelihood.

Eventually, the Philippine Government will come around towards extending support and assistance for reconstruction of destroyed houses, even for those that cannot afford to repay the cost over the long run, to have their houses rebuilt. This will have to be within a more immediate time frame, since as the victim families have stated, during the aftermath of Yolanda, everytime it rains they have to find trees, old walls of their destroyed houses and stand up to minimize catching rainfall then wait in one position until the rain stops.

Revival of Funded Project

An aborted project in Luzon with a fund of no less than Eighty Billion Philippine Pesos (PHP80-B) was due to be staged in more than two thousand five hundred hectares (2,500 has) of alienable and disposable real estate in the Municipality of Tanay, Province of Rizal with a resettlement housing and satellite resettlement communities in Real, Infanta, and Nakar – all in the Province of Quezon that will occupy an aggregate real estate size of more or less six to ten thousand hectares (6,000-10,000 has).

The project became possible with the preparation of a Project Pre-Feasibility Study that outlined the creation of s elf-sustaining communities in the vicinity of Eastern Metro Manila-Rizal-Quezon area also called Marilaque area. Said study was submitted to a foreign Funder that upon evaluation of the merits of the undertaking, approved the enterprise for an investment loan with very soft terms and conditions with an absolute value of United States Dollars Two Billion (USD2-B) in 1999. On record, the approval of the investment and necessary documentation to be accomplished and signed with the beneficiary (as represented in this project's case by the Philippine Government), were forwarded by the Funder to the Philippines.

The group that prepared the pre-feasibility study is a coalition of eight (8) independent organizations with the following as the lead entitites:

Centre di Humanes et Societas, Inc.

Center of Social Development Alternatives, Inc.

Development Alternatives – Asia Pacific, Inc. 

The project was cut short merely due to a transition in government in the Philippines and His Excellency Jose Marcelo Ejercito also known as Joseph Estrada was replaced by then Vice President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. The aborted project was spearheaded by the private sector (CDHS, Inc.), then was funded with more than 150,000 target beneficiaries represented by the Philippine Government receiving an investment by the funding agency with soft loan terms and conditions in the absolute face value of United States Dollars Two Billion (USD2-B) in 1999.

When the transition took place, the national leadership and the lead participating agency in the Philippine Government no longer took up from where the previous administration of Pres. Joseph Estrada left and the Tanay, Rizal resettlement housing was shelved. The fund for the project would certainly be taken out of its original prescripton in favor of the Philippine beneficiaries and will be returned to its original source or diverted to other investment fund beneficiary who needed it most.

Response to Current Human Settlement Issues

The determination of Fleurdelis Green Heights (A Concern of CyberparkGroup) with the CSR arm CDHS, Inc. is to revive the aborted project. Such revival will be with an increased scope and coverage. The full intention is to provide an immediate response to the post disaster settlements concerns in all the affected areas of the recent calamity, typhoon Yolanda.

The utilization of the original project site will still be considered, however, a change in the original project framework will be adopted to be tailored-fit to the potential of future natural phenomenon projected to occur within the vicinity of Eastern Metro Manila as well as the adjoining Provinces of Rizal and Quezon.

This change of the project plan framework will be done, notwithstanding that even if the site may not have been affected in any part by the Presidential Proclamation 226 of 24 November 2011 by His Excellency Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III declaring no less than 26,125.64 hectares of the Marikina Watershed covering the Municipalities of Baras, Rodriguez, San Mateo and Tanay, all of Rizal Province as Protected Areas, there will be a need to re-engineer the original design due to the weather factor and considering such other aspects of design engineering and geologic-seismologic, geospheric variables that inevitably must come into play in the vicinity of the Eastern Metro Manila and Rizal-Quezon Province area.

Shelter-Livelihood Hubs. As originally envisioned, the revived project will complimentarily focus upon building “livelihood hubs” to service several hundreds of thousands to millions families that lost their homes and are barely adequate enough to rebuild their homes.

For the aborted project in particular, the focal livelihood center was an integrated steel multi-industry complex. Steel works plant for dye and tool making, another for railroad construction, a site for shipbuilding and aircraft or military materiel manufacturing, also for frameworks for bridges, ultra-high buildings or towers and other super structures.  The industrial complex shall provide training or capacity building and ultimately livelihood for thousands of people in the area who will be coming from various informal communities of Metro Manila. More > >

By:

Centre for Human and Society (Centre di Humanes et Societas, Inc.) 

Corporate Social Responsibility arm of CyberparkGroup

Fleurdelis Green Heights

Some of the grim images compiled by the International Business Times London on the devastation by Yolanda, the state of the victims after the typhoon and some of the immediate responses.