witnessing a cousin's wedding

Photo courtesy of Mike Mendoza

what's in the ipod shuffle?

Here's what I have.

Videos:
Father of the Bride 1
Father of the Bride 2
Gladiator
Roman Holiday
Sleepless in Seattle
The Proposal

Albums:
Barbra Streisand's Back to Broadway
VST and Company's Awitin Mo at Isasayaw Ko
Bic Runga's Beautiful Collision
Bic Runga's Birds
Bic Runga's Drive
Craig David's Slicker Than Your Average
Craig David's The Story Goes
Fr. Arnel dC Aquino's Lauds I
Fr. Arnel dC Aquino's Lauds II
Black Eyed Peas' The E.N.D.
Celtic Woman's Celtic Woman
Celtic Woman's A New Journey
Daughtry's Daughtry
The Pussycat Dolls' Doll Domination 2.0
Pet Shop Boys' Greatest Hits 2
Lifehouse's Lifehouse
Lifehouse's Stanley Climbfall
Lifehouse's No Name Face
Lifehouse's Who We Are
Marek Lutonsky's ML
Boys II Men's Motown Hitsville USA
Igor Krutoi's Without Words

What about yours?

pursuing prakarsa

Malasag Hill, Cagayan de Oro City

September 19 2010
Photography by Mike Mendoza

training the trainers

The LINC-EG Project continued its involvement in the streamlining the business and permitting and licensing (BPLS) program of the Departments of Trade and Industry (DTI) and of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) by providing technical and material support to the training of trainers (TOT) Workshop for DILG and DTI personnel in Mindanao held in Cagayan de Oro City last August 16 to 18, 2010.

The program seeks to reduce the cost and shorten the processing time of getting local business permits and licenses to encourage more investment in local communities nationwide.

The 38 DTI and DILG personnel trained during the 3-day TOT workshop will guide the personnel of local government units (LGUs) in Northern Mindanao establish streamlined business permitting and licensing systems (BPLS) in the participating LGUs.

The BPLS they are to help establish will use one single unified form for new applications and renewals; reduce the number of signatures and steps to 5; and limit the processing time to a maximum of 10 days from the date of the submission of the application form for new applications and 5 days for renewal as required under the provisions of the Anti-Red Tape Law of 2007.

The workshop included discussions of the process of establishing the reformed BPLSs as well as simulations of the coaching sessions to be conducted by the DTI and DILG personnel for their LGU counterparts.

LINC-EG provided for the resource persons who conducted the training, the training venue, and the accommodations for the participants, resource persons and support staff.

A second TOT in Mindanao, this time for DTI and DILG personnel in Southern Mindanao, will be held 7-9 September in Davao City. LINC-EG will again support this initiative.

- From the LINC-EG Highlights for the Month, August 2010

a mantangale birthday

Mantangale Alibuag Dive Resort

Balingoan, Misamis Oriental
August 21-22 2010

the people at work

I love the rush you get in firing people. But that would make for another story. Because I like hiring people too, when the slate is still freshly white clean and anything is possible and they can still have the chance to impress me.

Scouring all the materials available on how to better manage the people, I found this printed on a piece of paper, folded three times. I cannot remember exactly how I got this, but it may be one of those inspired and guided moments –

How to Properly Place New Employees
(or re-assign old ones needing that extra umph)

1. Put 400 bricks in a closed room.
2. Put your employees in the room and close the door.
3. Leave them alone and come back after four hours (you must or else lunch will be due).
4. Then analyze the situation:
1. If they are counting the bricks, put them in Accounting.
2. If they are recounting the bricks, put them in Auditing.
3. If they have messed the whole place with the bricks, put them in Engineering.
4. If they are arranging the bricks in some strange order, put them in Planning.
5. If they are throwing bricks at each other, put them in Operations.
6. If they are sleeping, put them in Security.
7. If they have broken the bricks into pieces, put them in IT.
8. If they are sitting idle, put them in Human Resources.
9. If they say they have tried different combinations, and they are looking for more, put them in Sales.
10. If they have already left for the day, put them in Marketing.
11. If they are staring out of the window, put them in Strategic Planning.
12. If they are talking to each other, and not a single brick has been moved, put them in Management Group.
13. Finally, if they have surrounded themselves with bricks in such a way that they an neither be seen nor heard from, (they should not be in your company), for they belong in Government.

Hire away!

butuan city and its potentials

In one voice, the government and business leaders of this northeastern city of the Agusan Valley of Mindanao expressed their vision for a more competitive Butuan.

In a meeting with the representatives from USAID Philippines and the policy-reform project LINC-EG or Local Implementation of National Competitiveness for Economic Growth, Butuan City Mayor Ferdinand M. Amante Jr. and Agusan del Norte Governor Erlpe John Amante presented the plans for reforms of the local government that the newly-inaugurated officials will pursue to make Butuan City a business-friendly environment for investors.

In a separate meeting, DTI Caraga Regional Director Brielgo Pagaran enumerated mining, wood and agri-aquaculture as the winning products of the area. He says that with a renewed strength, Butuan City can draw on its attractive industries as it pushes through with its agenda of becoming one of Mindanao’s progressive cities.

The same optimism was shared by Butuan City Chamber of Commerce President Engineer Alan Silor. Expressing his high hopes for better management of the local government, he confirmed the private sector’s willingness to partner with the government to improve basic services that will encourage more economic activity in the city.

In agreement, the leaders named some of the crucial features to make their city competitive – streamlined government processes, proper implementation of priorities, and transparent and accountable leadership.

They expressed to John Avila, representative of USAID Philippines, their continuing interest and commitment to the various projects of the USAID in the city.

LINC-EG organized the meetings last July with the Butuan City leaders to explore the possibilities of partnership in their various projects. Chief of Party Alid Camara, whose mandate is to bring the policy-reform project to the main cities in Mindanao, is confident that with the right attitude and effective implementation of reforms, Butuan City will soon realize its competitiveness potential.

back to the bible

You would be amazed at the new things you'd learn if you help your children with their school work and assignments they bring home. Yes they fret about the things that their teachers ask them to look up, read about and write on paper and submit.. a few hours after they told you about it and not a minute later.

But in that funny rhythm I also learned to like it, since for the past month alone I've read and expanded my world to include music beats and time signatures, the works of Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, the route of the trip Around the World in Eighty Days, basic advertising for tourism spots in the country, types of personalities, types of flames, components of physical fitness, and now, the Bible.

The nuns of my primary and secondary education and the priests of my university education will surely give me a boink on the head if I forget my Bible basics, but it's very interesting to discover other facts about the best-selling book in the world.

I grew up seeing the Bible as a big, long and epic story that stretches from the creation of the world in the first page to the scary last page of the end of the world. But this quick homework research tells me that the Bible is better appreciated when the books are read by themes.

The Old Testament has 17 Historical, 5 Poetical, and 17 Prophetic books in it. The 17 Historical Books are: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther. The 5 Poetical Books are: Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon. The 17 Prophetic Books are: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.

The New Testament has 4 Gospels, Acts, 21 Epistles, and Revelation in it. The 4 Gospels are: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The 21 Epistles are: Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, and Jude.

Then there are the Deuterocanonicals, seven books present in Catholic bibles but missing in Protestant bibles.

Furthermore, the Bible was written over a 1500 year span (from 1400 B.C to A.D. 100), through over 40 generations, by over 40 authors from many walks of life (kings, peasants, philosophers, fishermen, poets, statesmen, scholars),in different places (wilderness, dungeon, palaces), at different times (war, peace), in different moods (heights of joy, depths of despair), on three continents (Asia, Africa, and Europe) and in three languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek).

Yes, there will always be lots of background information and quick facts about the first book ever printed. Yet I think everyone will agree that what matters at the end will be the good news we get from inside its pages.

the lightning collection

Topaz

http://apps.facebook.com/onthefarm/gifts_send.php?gift=topaz

Amethyst
http://apps.facebook.com/onthefarm/gifts_send.php?gift=amethyst

Turquoise
http://apps.facebook.com/onthefarm/gifts_send.php?gift=turquoise

Diamond
http://apps.facebook.com/onthefarm/gifts_send.php?gift=diamond

Emerald
http://apps.facebook.com/onthefarm/gifts_send.php?gift=emerald

Ruby
http://apps.facebook.com/onthefarm/gifts_send.php?gift=ruby

power problems of mindanao

An article is now being circulated and shared among Mindanaoans regarding the power problem. Starting early this year, Mindanao has been a victim of scheduled and rotating power outages, and even if the blackouts are gone, the power bills have steadily increased that now it's almost a 100% increase from the usual monthly figure, mine included.

Written by Engr. David Tauli, Senior Vice President of the Cagayan Electric Power and Light Company (CEPALCO), everyone is invited to read and ponder on the ideas he presented in his paper, a portion of which is below:

1. The Short Term Power Supply Problem

As of July 2010 there are two critical short-term power supply problems in Mindanao:

(1) Unwillingness and inability of NPC to meet their obligations to Mindanao customers under existing Contracts for the Supply of Electricity; and
(2) Extremely high rates for Ancillary Services charged by the NGCP in the transmission services bills to power customers for the months of April and May 2010, which will continue for a year if the application for the NGCP-TMI Ancillary Service Procurement Agreement (ASPA) is given final approval by the ERC.

The second problem resulted from the first, but it has taken on a life of its own and, consequently, needs to be addressed separately.

1.1 Unwillingness and Inability of NPC to Meet Their Obligations to Mindanao Customers

In the period February to June 2010, the National Power Corporation(NPC) was not able to supply to their customers in Mindanao (distribution utility companies and directly connected industries) the amount of power and energy that were contracted from them under Contracts for the Supply of Electric Energy (CSEE). The NPC contracted to supply a total of around 1,350 megawatts to Mindanao customers, but were able to provide just 50% to 80% of the requirements of their customers during these months, resulting in brownouts in the franchise areas of distribution utilities that lasted two to eight hours daily and shutdown of operations of the industrial customers. Economic losses by NPC customers in Mindanao due to the massive power shortages have been estimated to be in excess of one billion pesos per month for all the months in which extensive brownouts occurred.

The Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Corp (PSALM, owners of NPC) and the NPC have been blaming El Niño for their inability to provide the requirements of their Mindanao customers, but it has been shown conclusively that the main cause of the power shortages was the heavy drawdown by NPC of the water stored in Lake Lanao during the last quarter of 2009, resulting in year-end water surface elevation that was about one meter lower than the lowest year-end elevation of Lake Lanao in the previous decade. This one meter of depletion in the stored water would have been sufficient to supply the requirements of Mindanao customers over the dry period from January to May (along with the generation from the non-hydro plants owned or controlled by NPC operating at their normal levels for the dry period). Because of the low year-end water surface elevation, the hydro plants on the Agus River produced only from 100 to 300 MW in the first half of 2010, while they had been capable in previous years of producing in excess of 500 MW during the dry period from January to May.

1.2 Extremely high rates for Ancillary Services charged by the NGCP in the months of April and May 2010

In April and May 2010 the bill of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) to their customers included charges for Ancillary Services at the rates of 560.44 pesos per kilowatt and 606.88 pesos per kW, respectively. This can be compared with the average Ancillary Service charges of 49.76 pesos per kW per month in the year 2009, showing that the rates in April and May were more than ten times the average rates last year.

Despite objections by NGCP customers to the extreme rate shocks due to the AS charges, it is expected that the NGCP will continue to charge these exorbitant rates because of the Provisional Approval given by the Energy Regulatory Commission(ERC) to the AS Procurement Agreement between NGCP and TMI. Hearings at the ERC are being conducted as of this writing, and it is the hope of the Mindanao customers that what has been considered as both exorbitant and illegal AS charges will be disapproved by the ERC, and the amounts collected by NGCP (and passed on by the distribution utility companies to their customers) will be refunded to the customers.

2. The Long Term Power Supply Problem

Large power plants in Mindanao are estimated to have total dependable capacity of 1,600 megawatts, while total peak demand prior to the power shortages in 2010 was approaching 1,400 MW. Growth in power requirements throughout Mindanao have been projected to be in the vicinity of five percent per year. Large power plants need to be constructed in Mindanao to meet demand in the coming years. There have been proposals from the private sector for the construction of enough power plants to meet the expected growth in demand, but to date none of the proposed projects has been able to aggregate enough power purchase agreements (PPAs) to commence project implementation.

The main reason for the unwillingness of the electric cooperatives to enter into PPA’s with prospective power plants is that the price being quoted is five pesos per kilowatt-hour or more for long-term power supply, while the customers of NPC are purchasing their bulk power at around three pesos per kWh. This problem in perception would not exist if the NPC had unbundled their bulk power rates into hydro and non-hydro components, so that customers could see that the actual rates are at most two pesos per kWh for generation from the hydro plants on the Agus and Pulangi rivers, and at least four pesos per kWh for generation from the non-hydro plants. Further unbundling of the rates would show that the rates are in excess of eight pesos per kWh for the oil-fueled plants, but this may introduce administrative problems in the billings by NPC. Moreover, the two-component unbundling would show that the low average rates are due to existing hydro power plants that have a limited dependable capacity of around 800 MW only. Power customers could see that no more low-cost power is available in Mindanao, and should readily enter into contracts for the relatively expensive generation of all types of large power plants that are being proposed for Mindanao by the private sector.

Hence, the long-term power problem is basically a price-perception problem that could be addressed by the PSALM and NPC through: (a) unbundling their rates, (b) entering into long-term contracts (CSEEs) with Mindanao customers for the generation of the existing NPC-owned hydro plants, and (c) entering into CSEEs with their customers for the generation of non-hydro power plants that is still owned or controlled by NPC. However, the PSALM and NPC have been making unreasonable excuses for not unbundling their rates and contracting out the generation of their power plants, their main excuse being the privatization of NPC generating assets that is being carried out by the PSALM. But this is really an unacceptable excuse, which the PSALM and NPC will not be able to invoke when Congress passes a resolution that will extend indefinitely (beyond the year 2011) the non-privatization of the Agus and Pulangi hydro plants that is mandated in the EPIRA.

This last point underlines the urgency for Mindanao power customers to work on the non-privatization of the Agus and Pulangi hydro plants, not only to prevent an increase in rates of electricity in Mindanao, but also to move the electric cooperatives to enter into long-term power purchase agreements with prospective power plant projects.