Climate Change In UK,
Then In UP, Then In US?

Almost simultaneously last week, the Parliament of the United Kingdom (UK) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) of the United Nations (UN) published their official statements on global warming. November 15 UK, a bill to be debated by Members of the Parliament. November 17 IPCC, a synthesis report to be acted upon by every Government in the world. Except the US? The full essay

Being A Proposal For Innovation Teams

No, no, no! Science parks? The concept is all wrong. Science parks not, Science stops not. If it doesn’t change, if it stays as is, it’s not Science – it’s Status Quo. Or Art. That goes whether you are in Los Alamos (a nuclear weapons town), Los Baños (a university town), or Las Vegas (a gambling town). You will find science in all those towns furiously working, not hibernating. Science goes on! ¶ My conclusion? Whoever thought of ‘science park’ was thinking with his mind adumbrating, dictionary out of sight. The American Heritage Dictionary tells me a science park is an industrial zone, a manufacturing quarter. Science doesn’t stop there – it produces, reproduces, multiplies goods, industrial or consumer goods, things to eat, employ, experiment with, exploit, exhaust. Consider: a park is an area of land set aside for public use; reconsider, a science park is not The full essay

The University Of The Philippines

A Hundred Years Hence

And so Asiaweek ranked the University of the Philippines Diliman #48 among Asia’s Best Universities in 2000 (asiaweek.com). A very hard slap on a proud face in a very public place. By reputation, UP Diliman is the best of the University of the Philippines; the Asiaweek rank rankled the UP System, but it was true – the whole of UP had sunk below her very own standards. The exercise of academic freedom had turned out to be mostly academic and not instructive, mostly theoretical and not practical. I’m UP ’65, and I’ve been around so long I know: Been there, done that!

This one’s about how two institutions, one in the Philippines and one in India, address the poor. UP being educational should have known more, ICRISAT being developmental would know better.

(1) The University of the Philippines

The University activists had insisted on being the voice of the poor, but the poor needed more than a voice. In the first place, the University needed to be the voice of itself first, as Asiaweek showed it to her face that UP had failed all 5 subjects! In the following list, the lower the number, the higher the rank (UP should be in the Top 10): Academic Reputation rank #18 (Failed), Student Selectivity #44 (Failed), Faculty Resources #61 (Failed), Research #60 (Failed), Financial Resources #67 (Failed). UP’s reputation was undeserved; she selected her students unintelligently; her faculty resources were deficient; her research efforts were insignificant; her financial resources were scarce.

Did the University of the Philippines learn from that and mend her ways? Well, UP is 100 years old next year and you can’t teach old dogs new tricks. Still, UP has to make a paradigm shift in order for her to be able to teach herself. A new University charter is only a makeover, not a fundamental change. It’s the attitude, not the altitude.

Consider: Is UP a champion of the poor? If so, it should be anti-poor. Now, how do we measure whether this University, or any University for that matter, is anti-poor? Allow me to submit my own biased list as follows; so I ask if the University does address:

Poor farmers? Too many farmers are mendicants, sorry to say. I know, been there, done that. I’m a farmer’s son, and I stopped for 2 years before college to work the stone-dry hard clods of soil in our bangkag (rainfed farm for vegetables) by the Agno River in Asingan, Pangasinan, and the weeds and mud in our talon (irrigated field for rice). UP professors talk about self-sufficiency, but talk is not enough.

Poor soils? The wise use of inorganic and organic fertilizers is not enough. The soils have to be conserved, and at little cost to farmers and with little disturbance of the cycle of life and death. If you get from the soil (crops) but don’t give back (crop refuse), you’re a robber, and you know about robbers – only Judas not pay.

Poor access to credit? Why can’t I read of hundreds of UP projects that continue to this day by virtue of well-supervised credit schemes? It’s easy to borrow and difficult to pay.

Poor access to information? The information scientists give to farmers is mostly technical, a language that only the experts understand. If you don’t believe me, click on any Philippine-based website featuring a knowledge bank now.

Poor markets? If I harvest much and get only so much for my labors, what good is farming to me? It’s only a survival kit – for me to survive, not prosper.

Poor distribution of the benefits of labor? A good scheme for this is the farming cooperative. Is UP for cooperatives? I know UP to be un-cooperative!

Poor educational services? Is UP interested in rooting out those who don’t know how to teach and know only to terrorize their students? One or two even brag about failing everyone.

Poor communication services? Does the University computer system work well? We received yesterday the report of grades of our daughter Daphne who graduated 15,552,000 seconds ago (6 months). The system should be faster than turtle slow.

Poor water supply? How do you expect the UP scientist to worry about the water problem of others when he has his own? On campus, the water supply is bad.

Poor leadership? Those from UP get a kick out of demonstrations. Not demonstrations of initiative, entrepreneurship, creativity, leadership. A team is necessary, a leader is paramount.

Poor health services? Why can’t UP develop a model health service system and stop pointing to the Philippine General Hospital as the one and only solution of health-with-a-cash problem of the poor?

Poor Government services? It is not enough that the academics complain of the national Bad Government. Teach by example; show Good Government services within the University itself.

Poor entrepreneurship? UP and all other universities in the Philippines are dedicated to the proposition that students must study first and then seek employment after graduation. There is no degree option for entrepreneurship – UP professors are not enterprising enough.

Poor social contribution? Do you wonder why agriculture in the Philippines is not as vibrant as it can be, given the rich soils, pleasant climate, open export markets for farm produce? That’s because UP Los Baños has abrogated her duty to country to contribute intellectually to policy, procedure, monitoring, evaluation. Been there, not done that.

UP must be able to transcend the mirror of greatness it looks into every morning, un-Harry Potter-like, and ask questions what next needs be done. UP, if you are farmer-centered, and you should be, ask the farmers, all kinds of farmers. Ask the right questions. If you are needs-based, and you should be, ask them and they will tell you their virtual needs – and then go ahead and find out what their real needs are. Do not go there and pretend you know everything, because you don’t; do not assume that you have all the answers, because you don’t even have all the questions. I know; been there, seen that.

Even the Nobel Prize Committee is convinced that human activity is contributory to global warming and can be mitigated if we act now. Global warming is a problem, not a given; to solve a problem, look at it as an opportunity. Gaunt from intellectual nourishment of only one kind, UP Los Baños is a giant half-asleep and half-awake. Bleary-eyed, it refuses to look at climate change as a wide-open horizon for opportunities in instruction and research and extension – the 3 pillars it claims it is built on. There are tons of funds for research for development (R4D) inside and outside the country; all that is needed is a brilliant R4D proposal. Why can’t UP Los Baños make one, and another, and another? Been there, not done that.

(2) The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)

Can UP in general and UP Los Baños in particular learn from ICRISAT? A learning place.

I see that while the UP Los Baños paradigm derives from the bird’s eye-view (the all-seeing eye), the ICRISAT paradigm derives from the worm’s eye-view (the one-eyed one). ICRISAT is pro-poor – it looks at the problems from the point of view of the poor, not the expert.

I’m not surprised. Only 7 years ago in India, ICRISAT was languishing, its energy spent, its genius discouraged, its will wilted. Along came a man called William Dar from the Philippines, and that made all the difference. He brought with him instincts sharpened by confronting adversities positively, seeking options, pursuing his dream. His dream was to rise from poverty. He knew how it was to be poor, and wanted out. ‘Poverty is not abstract for me. Poverty was there for us,’ he says. So: ‘I challenged myself to be one of the most successful people from my village.’ That’s what he is now.

William Dar comes from Danumán West, a village in Santa Maria, Ilocos Sur, Northern Philippines. Theirs is a farming family of 6 siblings (4 girls); he first learned his agriculture from his father. ‘I’ve done it all – planting, land preparation, harrowing, everything. So farming or agriculture is not abstract for me.’ Rice, onions, sweet potato, corn, peanuts, pigeonpea. You don’t know how cold is cold until you have shivered with your raincoat of a layer of palm leaves in the middle of the field in the middle of a heavy rain and there’s nowhere to hide. I know: Been there, done that.

His maternal uncle helped him through college. He graduated from the Benguet State University (BSU, then Mountain State Agricultural College) in 1973 with a BS in Agricultural Education. His first mentor was BSU Vice-President for Planning and Development Saturnino Ocampo. His other mentors were Fortunato Battad, now President of BSU; Santiago Obien, who became the Founding Director of the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) and built PhilRice into a world-class institution. ‘Battad made a good PR man, specialist at marketing, while Obien was the kind of man who would show you the way, the person with technical knowledge, very focused. These two are honest men,’ he says. ‘This association with stalwarts has given me the professional edge.’

He has always tried to inspire others to work with, not against each other. Team, not steam. Dar says:

I believe in group strength. I remember my father asking us to help out in the household chores. There was division of labor. I would have to feed the dogs in the evening and sometimes cut grass before dusk (to be sold later) while my sister would be cooking. There was one message for all of us. You help one another. Do the task assigned to you responsibly but at the same time help one another. This hard training in the family imbued in us a sense of oneness. It gave us the confidence that together we could achieve something. Wherever I have served I have always laid stress on the gains to be had from working as a team, much more in a public institution. That is the work ethic that I have tried to inculcate in ICRISAT. That’s the genesis of Team ICRISAT.

So, the withering ICRISAT became a challenge to him. ‘I began wondering how to rekindle the enthusiasm of everyone. My past experience made it easy for me, for I had in similar situations created a Team Philippines and a Team Singapore. The slogan served as a platform to unify an institution. All it needed was a leader who could motivate.’

So, as a challenge, ICRISAT was heaven-sent. This poor boy was ready, willing and eager to soil his hands for the poor in the lands of poverty called the semi-arid tropics: 55 countries, 2 billion people, 50% poor, no water, crops devastated by insect pests, people ravaged by disease (HIV/AIDS and malaria), soils degraded, biodiversity endangered.

‘Now I call myself an international public servant who is determined to make a difference in the lives of the poor. My personal mission is to serve with a heart the poor living in the drylands,’ Dar says. The team is necessary, so you have Team ICRISAT. The team still needs a leader with a vision to make true and a mission to make it happen, and ICRISAT has William Dar.

Does UP have anyone like William Dar inside?

Been there, seen that. I know that there happens to be one Dean in UP Los Baños who has that same heart, and she was one of my students: Candida Bernabe Adalla of the College of Agriculture. The art of the academic is useless without the heart; the private science of the researcher is useless without the public service. Until she learns that lesson with a grade of 1, on the whole UP will continue to be half-aware, half-relevant to the affairs in her own country until 2107. Alas, two halves have never been seduced by a genius to become a whole. Never been there, never done that!

And Independence Day, UP Los Baños?

4 scores and 7 years ago we Filipinos learned the lesson of loyalty to our ideals, the Yankees only 4 years ago. In July 1921, the University of the Philippines declared a Loyalty Day (October 10) (UP, Beloved) 3 years after the act; it was only 87 years later, in April 2003, when President George W Bush proclaimed for the United States a Loyalty Day (May 1) (whitehouse.gov). So, the Yankees don’t have a monopoly of intelligence.

Loyalty is necessary, in the words of GW Bush in his Presidential Proclamation, to ‘reaffirm our allegiance to our country and resolve to uphold the vision of our Forefathers.’ Loyalty cannot be any less than that.

On October 10 of 1921, the College of Agriculture of the University of the Philippines (UP) celebrated the very first Loyalty Day 3 months after the Board of Regents of UP approved a student body resolution to honor 200 staff and students of the College who volunteered to fight the war in Europe in the name of democracy. I had questioned such loyalty myself 40 years ago, my satire of an open letter ‘What Did You Do In The War, Daddy?’ declaring it subservience (to the Americans), but I’ve come to realize it was appropriate, it was loyalty to the country (americanchronicle.com).

I’m writing this after an exhausting day, alumni and UP Los Baños celebrating the 89th Loyalty Day. UPLB Alumni Association President Pids Rosario and UPLB Chancellor Luis Rey I Velasco leading the commemoration, with easily 3,000 watching the foot parade and the presentations (at UP Los Baños, that’s mass appeal). Toward noon, the UP Los Baños part of the celebration of the UP Centennial (2008) was launched with the unveiling of the logo.

8 groups competed for the Most Colorful, Most Symbolic, Most Creative trophies in the traditional presentations part. At this point in time, I had already walked all over the place shooting the scenes I liked with my Canon PowerShot A540, exhausting 2 sets of batteries (Eveready alkaline) and 2 GB of recording media (Kingston memory card). At this time, I had probably pressed the shutter at least 600 times to take pictures; at the end of my day, past 1500 hr, I had taken 763 shots totaling 1.43 GB. While my first love is writing, self-taught, I began my earnest off-and-on teach-yourself photography in 1968 while I taught at Xavier University; in 1972, I learned much from Pat Laforteza (from Los Baños) of the National Science Development Board; I learned from the one-and-only Mao Chanco (Quezon City), whom I accidentally met when I was Editor of the Forest Research Institute starting 1975 – we were both into conservation, Mother Earth etc. (Both Pat and Boo are gone now, but the happy memories and shared knowledge remain.)

About the competition, the town of Los Baños represented by dancers (boys and girls) from my village of Mayondon was Most Colorful. PhilRice Los Baños’ presentation, conceived by Mar Movillon, Station Manager, was long, comprehensive, imaginative, historical, using mostly local materials, native talents. I heard from another source that Marites Cayton and Helen Dayo, having seen the PhilRice presentation, were both of the opinion that it was ‘No contest.’ PhilRice was a sure winner. Today, my vote for Most Creative went to PhilRice.

Yesterday, my vote for Most Creative went to Fernando Bernardo, who launched his twin books at the UPLB Alumni Awards and Fellowship Night in proper ceremonies at Baker Hall. His first is a coffee-table book, containing some 1,000 photographs, the Centennial Panorama: A Pictorial History Of UPLB, 300+ pages; the second, which I final-edited and desktop-published, I call a text book because it’s mostly narrative, UPLB: A Century of Challenges And Accomplishments, 240+ pages. Both published at Los Baños by the UPLBAA, both just off the press. (It’s a Buy One, Take One unbeatable offer: you buy the coffee-table book, 2.5K pesos, you get the text book free.)

In his 1-year-plus research for his twin books, Bernardo came to realize that the little town of Los Baños in Laguna, some 65 km south of Manila, may be The Most Scienced City in Asia (my coinage); in fact, it may have the highest concentration of scientific expertise and experience in the world. Bernardo based his conclusion on (a) number of staff with higher academic degrees obtained, and (b) number of centers of excellence in research. There are 300+ holders of Master of Science degrees, 500+ of Doctor of Philosophy degrees. At the UPLB campus alone, there are 11 colleges, institutes and schools. Comprising the Los Baños Science Community are 38 national and international research & development institutions. On campus, there are several museums and nature gardens: the International Rice Research Institute’s Rice World, the UP Los Baños’ Museum of Natural History, Makiling Botanic Garden, Science Park, Agri-Park, Makiling National Park.

Also last night, my vote for Most Intelligent went to Senator Juan Miguel ‘Migz’ Zubiri who came to give a beautiful response for the awardees (with beautiful, pregnant wife Audrey Tan). Zubiri was honored as a ‘Most Outstanding Alumnus of UPLB’ – for active advocacy in Congress of laws for the environment; for instance, he is the Father of the Philippines’ Biofuels Act. The other Most Outstanding Alumnus for 2007 was Jaime Aristotle Alip – for his inspired application of micro-finance, successfully assisting so far 300,000+ landless poor women in setting up small enterprises for their families.

In his response, Zubiri acknowledged his cerebral debt to UP Los Baños as his alma mater – he finished Agribusiness. He also shared a little anecdote of when UP senatorial candidates in this year’s elections were being called onstage. He went up; Mike Defensor, of UP Diliman, told him, ‘You’re Los Baños,’ the old put-down, implying that only UP Diliman deserved to be called ‘UP.’ Migz to Mike, this is his punchline: Look who won and look who lost?

Intellectually, Zubiri intrigued me with this proposition: ‘I want UP Los Baños to be the center of excellence in renewable resources.’ Instantly, I wedded it to Bernardo’s proposition (read his books!) that UP Los Baños ought to be a University entire of itself. I await The Declaration of Independence. I predict that within 5 years, we’ll have a State University of the Philippines. Because UP Diliman has no monopoly of intelligence.

‘Let knowledge come from everywhere’

There is a new AI emerging in the horizon in Asia. It’s called Agricultural Innovation.

It’s coming from India.
It’s coming from the United States of America.
And, if you’re sleeping, it’s coming to heads near you.

At first it had a long name: ‘The India-US Knowledge Initiative on Agriculture Education, Research, Services and Commercial Linkages.’ The mouthful is now referred to as ‘The US-India Agricultural Knowledge Initiative.’ The first name says it all, defining the areas; the second name says it less, implying that knowledge can come from anywhere and go anywhere.

There has been a subtle shift in emphasis, from ‘The India-US Knowledge Initiative’ to ‘The US-India Knowledge Initiative.’ The first implies that the US is learning from India; the second implies what is the project’s goal – India learning from the United States of America.

There is much to learn from this.

Understandably, quite a number of Indian nationals in India and the US have raised concerns that this is another Yankee capitalist scheme. For instance, Atul Kumar Anjaan (2006 June 2, politicalaffairs.net) declares that the Knowledge Initiative has three main features: agricultural biotechnology, access to biological resources, and intellectual property rights, ‘three areas of crucial interest to the US because though technologically rich it does not have the genetic resources, which is essential for biotechnology products.’ He says that because Wal-Mart, Archer Daniels and Monsanto, three of the world’s biggest multinationals are on the Initiative Board; the three are out ‘to gain access to and retain ownership of the vast bio-resources of the developing countries,’ implying that instead of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs), it would be Intellectual Property Wrongs.

Like some people I know, AKA is afraid of new knowledge. In the first place, he is wrong about the main features of the Knowledge Initiative. In the second place, the Initiative does not prevent Indian nationals from working for their own IPRs.

There are some Indian nationals who object to the Knowledge Initiative, because it allows the US multinationals to work on the living natural resources of their country. How different are they from those who rejected the man from Nazareth, called Jesus, who brought new knowledge to the world? I thought the Indians were more intelligent than that. It is not knowledge (or in another form, technology) that is the problem – it is how you put it to use, or how you don’t.

Indian MS Swaminathan approves, he who was once Director General of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), one of Time’s ‘20 most influential Asians of the 20th century,’ Father of India’s Green Revolution (irri.org). In an interview with Shobha Warrier (in.rediff.com), he says: ‘Let knowledge come from everywhere.’

The Knowledge Initiative has four focus areas (dare.gov.in):
(1) Education, Learning Resources, Curriculum Development and Training
(2) Food Processing, Use of Byproducts and Biofuels
(3) Biotechnology
(4) Water Management

Why would India be interested in the knowledge that the Yankees have in those areas? ‘They have all the Nobel Prize winners there,’ Swaminathan said. ‘They have invested a lot of money in developing ideas, and they have human resources.’

In other words, Indians could learn much from Yankees about education, be much more knowledgeable in food processing, branch out to biofuels, be very skilled in biotechnology, be highly productive in water management. We Filipinos could too, if only the Government of the Philippines through the University of the Philippines Los Baños got into an agreement like the US-India Knowledge Initiative.

Would not the Knowledge Initiative result in a second Green Revolution that would fail the Indian farmers and spoil the soil again? Swaminathan said: ‘I coined the term Evergreen Revolution, which means improvement of productivity without associated ecological or environmental harm.’ Swaminathan is Indian Adviser to the Initiative, so he has his job cut out for him. The Knowledge Initiative would increase the yields of crops and not decrease the fertility of the soil and not increase water pollution from farm chemicals. That’s for the Knowledge Initiative to say and for you to find out.

I learned and got interested in the Knowledge Initiative when I was trying to research biotechnology – a subject I wanted to appreciate but couldn’t as long as I didn’t understand it – and I saw ‘Making biotechnology work for the poor,’ the welcome address of William Dar, Director General of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), at the ‘International Workshop on Application of Genomics to Chickpea, Pigeonpea and Peanut Improvement’ 2006 March 6-9 at ICRISAT headquarters, Patancheru, Andhra Pradesh, India (2007, Nurturing Life In The Drylands Of Hope, ICRISAT, pages 29-32). Dar said, ‘Dr Mangala Rai had intimated earlier that ICRISAT will be brought into the Knowledge Initiative on Agriculture between India and the USA, which I welcome very much.’ What good would that do?

I am sure that the new Knowledge Initiative on Agriculture that will link universities, technical institutions and businesses in the USA and India to support joint agricultural research and education projects will ultimately benefit the poor in developing countries. We stand ready to be a strategic partner in this initiative.

Put that way, for whatever it’s worth, I myself would like a similar US-Philippine Knowledge Initiative only because my alma mater UP Los Baños is a giant sleeping, our technical institutions could be better, our local businesses couldn’t be bothered about going after new products and enjoying IPRs themselves, and education in my beloved country used to be a sure winner but now is a sore loser. (And yes, you should check out the innovations coming from ICRISAT, in India: building a team, winning awards, marketing technologies, visioning.)

Still, the Knowledge Initiative cannot come from UP Los Baños if all she does is think of academic freedom, which is to serve the University, and not freedom from poverty, which is to serve the People.

Sad to say, the Knowledge Initiative cannot come from anywhere near the University of the Philippines because UP is convinced that Tagalog-based Filipino is the best national language and to use English for education is colonial mentality. Duh!

To The Breeders, To Make Much Of Time

This time, when I looked at the numbers, lo and behold! I saw Charles Darwin amidst 13 new varieties of sweet sorghum, 13 survivors of selection. Darling, I’m referring to the biologist who revolutionized the world of thought by inventing the concept of evolution, coming out in 1859 with such radical idea in his book The Origin Of The Species By Means Of Natural Selection. Darwin’s works were violently attacked in those days (blupete.com); this article is another attack on another front today.

‘Natural selection’ Darwin says; those who are the fittest to live are the ones who survive. The law of the jungle. Well, today, we’re going to talk about un-natural selection, that is, man-made. The law of the juggle. Let me explain using theoretical, what-if data:

The plant breeders of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) were able to create 13 new varieties of sweet sorghum: AA, BB, CC, DD, EE, FF, GG, HH, II, JJ, KK, LL, MM. Afterwards, the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UP Los Baños) test-planted all 13 varieties in 13 regions of the Philippines. Here are the highest average yielders per hectare:
91 tons, AA, Region 03
69 tons, BB, Region 10
78 tons, CC, Region 04
50 tons, DD, Region 05
55 tons, EE, Region 11
40 tons, FF, Region 08
65 tons, GG, Region 07
70 tons, HH, Region 12
73 tons, II, Region 06
78 tons, JJ, Region 02
78 tons, KK, Region 13
99 tons, LL, Region 01
78 tons, MM, Region 09

The law of the juggle says the highest goes to the top, the lowest to the bottom. So, following ‘survival of the fittest,’ following protocol, we recommend to the Philippine Seed Board (PSB) variety LL (99 tons) for public consumption. LL is the fittest of them all. The PSB approves.

Now, the mean best yield of the 13 ICRISAT sorghums is 71 tons (91 + 69 + 78 + 50 + 55 + 40 + 65 + 70 + 73 + 78 + 78 + 99 + 78 equals 924 divided by 13). That means the top 2 new sorghums yield higher than the average new sorghum by at least 20 tons. I’m happy for the peasants, because I believe sweet sorghum is the single best crop for small Filipino farmers. To the poor tillers of the soil, sweet sorghum yields food from the grains, animal fodder from the stalks, fuel from the bagasse, fertilizer from the crop residue; sweet sorghum can be grown in the worst places. Syrup from sweet sorghum gives us ethanol, a biofuel priced above diamonds now that gasoline and diesel are priced above rubies. In short, sweet sorghum equals hope.

But, I have a problem recommending the top new sorghum variety to farmers in those 13 regions of my country. Why?

Because, looking again, I find the yields in:

Region 03: AA highest, the rest lower;
Region 10: BB highest, the rest lower;
Region 04: CC highest, the rest lower;
Region 05: DD highest, the rest lower;
Region 11: EE highest, the rest lower;
Region 08: FF highest, the rest lower;
Region 07: GG highest, the rest lower;
Region 12: HH highest, the rest lower;
Region 06: II highest, the rest lower;
Region 02: JJ highest, the rest lower;
Region 13: KK highest, the rest lower;
Region 01: LL highest, the rest lower;
Region 09: MM highest, the rest lower.

13 different highest yields. Do you realize what that means? Recommending only 1 to all 13 is recommending to 13 less than the best sweet sorghum in each region – except Region 01.

You see, if the UP Los Baños data is at all accurate and reliable, the most outstanding variety of all, LL, yields 99 tons in Region 01, true – but lower than 78 tons in Region 13, lower than 65 tons in Region 07, lower than 40 tons in Region 08, and so on and so forth. The data means that LL is best suited to Region 01, to the climate prevailing and soil conditions obtaining there; AA is best suited to Region 03, and so on and so forth.

Best fit. I must therefore revise ‘survival of the fittest’ to ‘survival of all the fittest’ – it is fittest that I recommend not just 1 or 2 but a total of 13 highest-yielding varieties (HYVs) – that is, a different HYV fits best a different region. In other words, there are 13 sorghum HYVs all in all for me to recommend, each one the highest for that region. That means I have saved at least 12 generations of sorghum breeding & selection for 12 other new varieties of sorghum. 12 years saved?

I submit that the faulty logic of ‘survival of the fittest’ in testing new crop varieties originated from the concept of the average (or mean). Suppose the average yield for LL was derived from these yields in 9 different sites in that same region: EE 88, NT 93, NF 95, NS 97, NE 98, OH 100, OO 100, OT 100, OX 120 tons. So, we find 99 tons as the mean yield (no site), 98 tons (Site NE) as the median yield, and 100 tons (Sites OH, OO, OT) as the mode yield. The difference between mean and median and mode is a significant 1 ton. Since there’s no such thing as an average sorghum; the median is an arbitrary figure – I’ll pick the mode yield, reflecting the trend of the yields of LL in that region – there are 3 sites with 100 tons. LL’s best yield is 100, not 99 tons. 120 tons (Site OX) is a fluke.

Don’t forget that a crop variety is site-specific, growing best in one place and not another. Therefore, in un-natural selection, ‘the survival of the fittest’ fits best the Site in the Region, not the Country. That’s the fittest I can say, right?

Below are two reactions to my theoretical excursion above:

Belum Reddy, the Sweet Sorghum Man of ICRISAT, tells me: ‘Frank! You are right; sweet sorghums are site/season specific. So we need to test them in the target area before we recommend.’

Santiago R Obien, the one I have called in the pages of American Chronicle ‘Wizard of Rice,’ has an interesting story:

Take a rice line that eventually was named variety ‘Angelica,’ for example – in the national coordinated test, it gave the highest yield in PhilRice Agusan (Norte) but its national average yield was one of the lowest among several ‘lines’ tested in 7 or 9 locations nationwide. If we followed the usual procedure, this line (now named ‘Angelica’) would have been discarded. But I told my staff in PhilRice Agusan, ‘grow that line in Agusan and develop it as a variety for the Caraga Region. (Caraga is cloudy most of the days, hardly any distinct dry season …) Thus, ‘Angelica’ was most adopted in the Region. It became popular, and was popularized by the lady Governor of Agusan del Norte at that time: Angelica Amante.

What can I say? All’s well that tests well.

Also published by the American Chronicle in a slightly different version.
Copyright 2007 October 1 by Frank A Hilario

Also published by the American Chronicle in a slightly different version.
Copyright 2007 September 15 by Frank A Hilario

Bernardo’s PowerPoint

History of UP Los Baños

He reminds Filipinos – me first – that the Americans came to the Philippines with their colonial curriculum. He deserves a University of the Philippines Los Baños Alumni Association (UPLBAA) Presidential Award for teaching us history. Fernando A Bernardo is The Gray Historian of UP Los Baños, having succeeded in capturing between 4 covers the UP Los Baños Story from the early 20^th century to the early 21^st while tackling areas as gray as his head, writing in long hand. There had been previous attempts to write such history, but only he has turned dream to reality. Here come the UPLB Alumni Fellowship Night (October 9), UPLB Loyalty Day (October 10). Twin books, twin celebrations – no I don’t drink, yes I’ll drink to that!

I say ‘FA Bernardo’ to (artfully) separate him from wife (Emiliana) ‘EN Bernardo’ who is (almost) equally known, who helped him tremendously in this gargantuan labor of love – she helped in the repetitious line-by-line editing. Didn’t someone say behind the success of a man is a woman? The historian has written of 100 years of UP Los Baños in his unique style I call PowerPoint history. I invented the term as a double entendre, of which I’m fond constructing. The first and obvious meaning is that it refers to Microsoft PowerPoint, the software that everybody uses to make presentations during seminars, lectures, conferences, workshops, times when occasion or presentor demands – I don’t, I don’t make presentations; I just present myself. The second meaning is that our historian has written history in the manner of PowerPoint, which is grouping and presenting important points with Bullets and Numbering. Sometimes it helps.

There is a third meaning I want to point out in my use of the Microsoft-invented term PowerPoint: FA Bernardo’s twin books are written in the manner of Milestones (deserving Bullets) and their Mix of Meanings and Materials (deserving Numbers). This is not your usual history, but then again, the history of UP Los Baños is highly unusual – it’s American. You don’t agree with Bernardo’s view of UPLB history? Just look for power in his own storytelling.

If I heard him right, our historian started with the idea of writing the history of the University as consisting of 100 milestones, which are, literally, landmarks (as in kilometer posts), and figuratively, important events in the story of a person, nation, or knowledge itself (I’m borrowing from American Heritage Dictionary). 100 milestones they were going to be. Or 101, to indicate that there were really more than 100. As he checked and revised the manuscript (checked again, revised again), he noted that there were probably 200 milestones, or even more. So he dropped ‘milestones’ from the titles. It had become difficult to count them. I’ll add to the count and say his twin books are twin milestones in UPLB history.

Yes, they are twin books. I refer to the one I helped edit as the text book (UPLB: A Century Of Challenges And Achievements) as distinguished (no pun intended) from the coffee-table book (Centennial Panorama: A Pictorial History Of UPLB), the first being mostly text, the second being mostly photographs. The text book is 249 pages text (with chapter breaker photographs); the coffee-table version is 314 pages, both big-sized tomes.

UPLBAA, Publisher. They make one package: pre-Loyalty Day, you pay P2K for the coffee-table book and get the text book as bonus. (Suppose you want only the text book? You pay P2K and get the coffee-table book as extra! I mean, the text book is not for sale separate from the coffee-table version.) Please send check to UPLBAA.

The question you may be asking is: Why should I pay P2K at all for Bernardo’s twin books? Good question! Now, let me answer it this way, by way of Bullets & Numbering:

#1: You will be learning from the past merely looking at the pictures.
#2: You will be looking at the past while learning from the story.

It doesn’t come any better than that! Want to prove me wrong? You have to read the books; to review both, I had to.

#1: Centennial Panorama –
Learning from the past, looking at the pictures.

The coffee-table book is UP Los Baños history in images, most of which you have not seen, even if you happen to be older than the first College gate (1933). FA Bernardo collected his materials and images over the course of a year from many and diverse sources here and there. Anyone can collect photographs, even old photographs, but the images do not tell a story by themselves, that which his book does. The images add authenticity and credibility to the story being told, no matter that only a few words are used. Not only that, they remind us of our past, whether we are UPLB alumni or not, the bygone days that are now part of us all, the events that shaped the alma mater if not the alumni, the challenges and considerations that confronted individuals and institutions, the trials they underwent and the triumphs they experienced. If you did not live that history, here is your chance to relish it a little.

The photographs are legion, such as of the first College gate, Charles Fuller Baker, Edwin Bingham Copeland (first Dean), ‘farm pest monitoring sites’ from an international project, aerial view of the campus in those early years. My favorite image is that of an Ilocana girl smoking a big cigar, a status symbol of those early years of the 20^th century.

A coffee-table book is usually a collection of stunning photographs, pages designed for maximum impact of color and composition. Not this, since no one was commissioned to take photographs while 100 years rolled by. Yet, some photographs are dramatic, being so historical, as that ethanol road test – yes, College of Agriculture engineers ran a 1929 De Sotto de Luxe sedan on 10% ethanol for 50,000 km about 70 years ago! We should have learned the De Sotto lesson decades before Brazil thought of sugarcane ethanol, before Al Gore came up with his Inconvenient Truth.

Why should you be interested in a new book of photographs that tell old stories? If you or any of your loved ones has been part of UP Los Baños in its 100-year history, you may find more meaning in your past and present if you knew this University’s past; you may even be able to get a glimpse of an exciting future.

#2: A Century of Challenges & Achievements –
Looking at the past, learning from the story.

Naturally, the text book contains much more of the story in words. I know because, as the historian puts it by way of acknowledgment, I final-edited the manuscript, and in fact desktop-published it myself – in the language of classical publishing, I did all the designing of the text chapters: crafting the chapter opening pages, typesetting (fonts, formatting font sizes and styles of characters, lines and paragraphs), layouting pages (setting margins, number of lines on a page, running heads), copy editing (correcting grammar & spelling, checking for errors in fact or meaning), proofreading & copyreading, cutting & pasting, inserting & dragging images (photographs, illustrations, graphs), blueprinting (printouting), correcting, repositioning. The only thing I didn’t do was the cover, the design of which came from the coffee-table book artist, as directed by FA Bernardo of course. (Which software did I use? How did I insert images & boxes, dragging them place to place even while adding or subtracting much text? Secret! In any case, book publishing has become so much easier because of the personal computer and laser printer, and they’re not that expensive either, or I couldn’t afford an Intel Core 2 Duo PC with a Xerox Phaser 3116 – I did it at home.)

No, FA’s history does not tell all stories. He would have needed another year to gather materials on his desk, gather thoughts in his head, gather drafts into 2, even 3 books? Like, he does not mention the technology of publishing changing over the years within UP Los Baños itself, from typewriter to typesetter to desktop publisher. Among other things, I would have liked him to mention names of alumnae, like Gelia Castillo who became the first celebrated UPLB international expert, like Lizbeth de Padua who became Bb Pilipinas Universe. Well, no book is perfect.

I recommend you check out a fascinating book feature that is not found in its coffee-table twin: A Centenary Timeline for UPLB – I wrote it myself. Here’s an excerpt:

1800s

1821: February 26, a royal decree authorizes the Real Sociedad Economia to establish a professorship of agriculture in Manila. An offer to pay a professor’s salary of P250 a year is made, but there is no taker.

1858: September 13, Governor-General Fernando De Norzagaray y Escudero establishes a Botanic Garden and a School of Agriculture at Calle Arroceros, Manila. The school does not live long.

1889: July 2, the Escuela Agricola opens its doors in Manila by virtue of a Royal Decree issued on November 29, 1887. After one commencement exercise, the school closes forever.

1889: Up to 1902, the Filipino-American War is more violent and lasts longer than the Filipino Revolution against Spain (1896-1898), with more human lives lost and more destruction of agriculture. Up to 90 percent of the carabao stock is decimated.

You get a rapid glimpse of history even from that excerpt – first, the Spanish imperialists, then the American colonizers. Don’t you feel the pulse of those centuries past?

Bernardo’s text book of UPLB history is full of names, numbers, incidents and milestones that will prove too much if you read more than 2 chapters at a time. Therefore, I suggest that you do not read chapter by chapter but browse the chapters, pick up what interests you, and read here and there. Then you will appreciate that the book, while not necessarily visually attractive as it is mostly rivers of text, makes you think what might have been and what might be next. All good history books should be like that.

One of the major events in UPLB history was the UP-Cornell Graduate Education Program, which was aimed at strengthening UPCA as a graduate school as well as train Filipinos for leadership in agricultural research and educational development. Outstanding products of this program include Emil Javier, Percy Sajise, Pids Rosario, Mario Labadan, Edelwina Legaspi, Teroy Lasap Jr. (No, not me; I didn’t go to graduate school. Yes, Percy, Pids, Teroy were my classmates.)

If you’re interested in names of individuals and institutions, try the Index I prepared. Dates as well as accompanying names are emphasized in the Timeline; names and pieces of relevant information connected to each one are emphasized in the Index. Thus, Umali, Dioscoro L may be seen at least 16 times (as in pages 56, 87, 98, 105, 118, 185), while quite a number show only once, such as Sacay, Orlando (103), student activism (62), thesis as required for graduation (32), University Publications Office (136).

Some of the stories are startling, such as that one that tells of how UP Los Baños missed the historical chance in those Martial Law years of becoming independent of the UP System. And it is shocking to learn that there was a year when UP’s budget was cut 14%, whereupon the UP President unilaterally declared UPLB budget be cut 36%. ‘Murder!’ he wrote. Actually, ‘Unfair!’ he wrote. Right.

One of the main laments of our historian has to do with the UP Open University (in Los Baños): it has only a few hundred students while other Open Universities in Asia have thousands (Malaysia 16K, South Korea 210K, Thailand 550K, India 800K). He blames it on the strict admission requirements of UPOU, that is to say, it is not really an Open University. Right.

The biggest challenge to UPLB today, our historian says, is ‘the great need to restore or revive the Los Baños Spirit’ which he defines as ‘the spirit of teamwork, the enthusiasm to cooperate, the indomitable spirit in the face of adversities, the never dying commitment of graduates of the old UP College of Agriculture and UP College of Forestry.’ UP Los Baños alumni abroad, get that?

So: The history books have been written; FA Bernardo is finished with his 2-book brainchild. But the story of the University of the Philippines Los Baños is not finished. It is beginning its second 100 years, at the end of which, each having been part of its second century one way or another, we all hope to have contributed to changing UP itself from its colonial curriculum, serving the people and not selfish interests, enjoying financial independence and not simply academic freedom – constructive, innovative, brilliant.

Hard-bound, FA Bernardo’s twin books are open doors to the past. We must know our past and know it by heart; if we forget our history, we will be bound to repeat it.

Also published by the American Chronicle in a slightly different version.
Copyright 2007 September 12 by Frank A Hilario

Pinoy chairs UN scientific body on desertification

Global science has caught up with the Filipino who has talent and technique. William Dollente Dar, from Santa Maria, Ilocos Sur, has just been elected as Chair of the Committee on Science and Technology (CST) in the current (September 3-14) conference in Madrid, Spain under the auspices of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). It has taken the UN 30 years to realize that the Filipino has the head and heart for ‘science with a human face’ (icrisat.org).

In 1977, the UN Conference on Desertification adopted a plan of action to combat desertification; unfortunately, the plant that grew from the seed sown wilted, died. In 1994, the UNCCD was born; the Philippines signed on August 12 of that year. Some 13 years later, we have the Madrid conference, with a Filipino as head of the science committee. The University of the Philippines must be so proud!

Desertification? Some 200 countries have ratified the Convention, indicating how widespread the unease is. Desertification is ‘denuding and degrading a once-fertile land, initiating a desert-producing cycle that feeds on itself and causes long-term changes in soil, climate, and biota of an area’ (highered.mcgraw-hill.com). With denuded mountains along with eroded farmlands, the process of desertification has already begun. Desertification results in soils starved of water, crops starved of nutrients, farmers starved of income, citizens starved of nutritious produce, countries starved of healthy economies.

With Dar as Chair of CST, the committee can tap his experience and expertise on sustainable use and management of resources, having proven himself as Director General of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), which is based in India: he turned ICRISAT from moribund to dynamic, creative. ICRISAT is one of the 15 international centers nurtured by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), which is supported by the World Bank and FAO. With Dar as Captain, from January 2000 when he took over, to January 2005 when his term was renewed, Team ICRISAT won 46 awards (bar.gov.ph). Among such awards were 2 trophies of the CGIAR’s King Baudouin Award, won in 2002 and 2004. In 2005, ICRISAT won the World Bank’s Development Marketplace Award. This year, ICRISAT was rated Outstanding by the CGIAR, the award for total excellence, considering quality of outputs, impact, financial health, stakeholder perception (americanchronicle.com). The award comes with a World Bank US$2.4 million grant, et amore.

On June 22 this year, the Philippine Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) recognized Dar as the Outstanding Professional of the Year in Agriculture. This category of award is bestowed as PRC’s highest award to someone ‘recommended by his/her peers for having amply demonstrated professional competence of the highest degree and conducted himself/herself with integrity in the exercise of his/her profession’ (americanchronicle.com). This is only one of the many professional awards received by Dar. It will be noted that he has been Executive Director of the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD), as well as Secretary of Agriculture of his country. PCARRD plans, supports and monitors R&D programs and projects mostly based on the academe; the Secretary of Agriculture plans, supports and monitors agriculture production all over the archipelago.

With Team ICRISAT’s achievements, and with his own, Dar’s job as new Chair of the UN scientific committee is cut out for him. In the context of the times, desertification is the product of denudation of the land and degradation of the soil that both contribute to and are aggravated by climate change. That is to say, renewing the denuded and ameliorating the degraded lands are direct ways of combating desertification and mitigating global warming. Done properly, reforestation is a battle won against desertification; practiced with sustainability in mind, farming in the drylands is another battle won. Science comes in as an arsenal supplying arms: improved seeds, improved cultivation methods, improved marketing, improved distribution of benefits of the works of minds and bodies to society.

A model for the tropics, Team ICRISAT under Dar has harnessed the potential of sweet sorghum as an intelligent choice for a biofuel crop. Sorgo, as sweet sorghum is sometimes referred to, grows well in denuded as well as degraded sites, the perfect crop to fight desertification, a David fighting a man-made Goliath. With Team ICRISAT’s advocacy, an Indian national has put up Rusni Distilleries to extract ethanol from sorgo grown by small Indian farmers in a commercial arrangement, complete with Indian government support. Being Science Chair of a UN body is added reason to say ‘William Dar is the Al Gore of Science’ (americanchronicle.com).

Given all that, when it comes to the crunch, the global war against desertification must be fought with local battles that have to be won. On his part, and to begin with, Dar had to steer his UN committee in the right direction.

Having become Chair, Dar invited the delegates to discuss the priority theme of their mission as the new science committee. He noted that the proposed Ten-Year Strategic Plan of the UNCCD, 2008-2018, contained ‘relevant recommendations.’ For instance, the Plan’s vision is compelling:

A world where land degradation/desertification trends are reversed and the effects of drought and climate variability mitigated, thereby contributing to sustainable development through the improvement of people’s livelihoods and economic well-being and the protection of the environment at the local and global levels.

Drought reversed, climate change moderated, livelihoods improved, economies ameliorated, environment protected – locally, globally. And how are all that to be accomplished? The accompanying mission is apropos to the vision:

Provide a global framework to support the development and implementation of national and regional policies, programmes and measures … through scientific and technological excellence, standard setting, advocacy and resource mobilization.

As Science Chair under the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, Dar knows that success depends very much on the last in the list, resource mobilization, meaning moving a legion of institutions and individuals to contribute time, intellect, money and effort to achieve the common goal.

No one man is great enough to fight desertification alone.

Also published by American Chronicle in a slightly different version.
Copyright 2007 September 12 by Frank A Hilario.

Tony Meer Paints His Loves

Also published by American Chronicle in a slightly different version.

He is my beloved kind of hero. He is my Caped Crusader – he is a lawyer who fights for unpopular causes; he is my Superman – he has a lingering health problem yet stands out as he continues to fight for the Filipino soldier. He sits still on his wheelchair while his mind prowls the past and the present, looking for opportunities to serve his people.

Tony Meer is 83 going on 84; I’m counting, he is not. Yesterday, September 6, I didn’t really count but there may have been 83 paintings from his brilliant mind and gifted hands in his one-man art exhibit at the Manila Polo Club, Forbes Park. Tony Meer is Lawyer, Soldier, Painter, Spy.

You knew Tony Meer is an alumnus of the University of the Philippines (UP), but you didn’t know he was a spy? That means you haven’t read his autobiography, a massive tome, A Lawyer’s Fate & Faith (2003), all of 499 pages, each page 9×9 inches. He was a soldier-spy in World War II. He was one of those who helped liberate the campus of the UP College of Agriculture in the last war.

You didn’t know that Tony Meer was a painter? Neither did I, never mind that he did share with us (Dr Tony O, his wife Bella and I) his penthouse and karaoke December 15 last year, 2 days after celebrating his 83^rd birthday. I asked questions and we sang songs along with him with his karaoke and sing-along mike. Who wouldn’t be happy and open celebrating an 83^rd birthday? A creative mind is a happy soul.

Yesterday at Tony Meer’s one-man art exhibit, it was love at first sight for me. I fell in love with Tony’s girl the moment I saw her. The image you see is a detail of my favorite Tony Meer painting, unsigned and undated – it belongs to the future. It is a painting not by the hand but by the heart. She sits still and she moves me; she looks the other way and she has my attention. She is young and I am young at heart.

While not a Michelangelo or Leonardo, the one who sired her, Tony Meer, is a painter unlike any other. Let me count the ways:

(1) He paints in oils.
(2) He paints in music.
(3) He has painted in blood.
(4) He has painted in jurisprudence.
(5) He continues to paint in words.

(1) He paints in oils.

His one-man show of paintings yesterday was for raising funds for his foundation Handog sa Sundalo (Gift to the Soldier). (A good number bought paintings, he reports today.) I will describe the Tony Meer collection of paintings as one of portraits: visual renderings of men, women, children – and horses. The painting of a horse I liked he has titled ‘Macedonian’ and was featured on the face of the RSVP invitation card. About 20 were portraits of women. Tony Meer probably loved them all; I love a few. One of them has her eyes blocked out in colors; she is someone who is here and is not here. There are portraits of several men, at least 12 of them. The one I like I shall call the White Man: white hair, white beard & moustache, white teeth showing – his smile warms my heart.

(2) He paints in music.

At the one-man show, Tony Meer yesterday read and sang songs he wrote and composed himself, dedicated to his many loves, ‘the people who made my life worthwhile.’ The many women in the artist’s life – falling in love was music to Tony’s ears.

(3) He has painted in blood.

When World War II came to the Philippines 1941 December 8, he enlisted in the Philippine Army under General Douglas MacArthur. He became a machine-gun expert; he became a smart intelligence officer. Among others, he saved the Carlos P Romulo family from the enemy butchers. The Japanese hunted him. When they couldn’t catch him, they tortured his sister-in-law’s family; they burned the family house in San Pablo City; they massacred men, women and children of the city; they threw babies into the air and caught each at the point of a bayonet. Barbarians! The blood flowed; the mural was oppressive, suffocating.

(4) He has painted in jurisprudence.

Tony Meer, UP College of Law, is the one who discovered the contract lease between the Sultan of Sulu and the British North Borneo Company, proving that the Sultan in truth and in fact owned Sabah. He is the one who first assailed ‘the right of a government official to destroy the property rights of a taxpayer by methods not conferred upon him by the law involved, or in excess of the authority granted him under the law.’ He is the one who found in the Tariff and Customs Code a provision for allowing the entry of imported parts of a final product free of customs duties and taxes, and with that, the Philippines became the biggest pineapple country in the world.

(5) He continues to paint in words.

Aside from that coffee-table book I already told you about that which much of the information I know comes from (my copy obtained through a common friend, Dr O), I have a copy of his new book Carry On! subtitled The General Miguel Malvar Family (102 pages). Miguel Malvar was the last General to surrender to the American imperialists. Tony Meer’s mother was a Malvar, a daughter of the General. Tony Meer, grandson of a hero, is going to be the last hero to surrender to the hegemony of the mass media, or the machinations of those who use the mass media to build and maintain their empires. He continues to publish himself, even paying for space in the media, to denounce hosts of television talk shows who are ‘vultures of morals, who smile with glee when some other persons are suffering from the publication and exposure.’

I don’t know about you, but I’m sure Tony Meer loves his country very much.

Copyright 2007 September 07 by Frank A Hilario.

The Filipinos In Search Of Themselves

I’m looking for University of the Philippines (UP) lawyers who will prepare and file a case for The Filipino People vs The Congress of the Philippines. The Bastards. Those who make it noblesse oblige to gleefully display their ilk as citizens of virtue and to censure most anybody except the loudmouths that are themselves.

Case: Gross incompetence? Corrupt ideas? Unpatriotic acts? Behavior inimical to the interests of the Filipino? I can’t decide, that’s why I need a lawyer, a Knight in Shining Armor.

You ask me: What bastard? The American Heritage Dictionary says a bastard is (A) an illegitimate child, (B) something that is of irregular, inferior, or dubious origin, (C) vulgar slang, a person, especially one who is held to be mean or disagreeable. So, who is my bastard? All of the above. But if I had to choose only one, it would be B, as revised by me: something or somebody that is of irregular, inferior, or dubious origin. But C is also good and would suffice: someone who can’t help but be mean or disagreeable. I used to be a C bastard myself, and then I grew up. I’m 67, for Christ’s sake.

Aside from me, let’s see if you recognize any historical bastard, Filipino, of the last century, the 1900s, before he disappears from view. This exercise is for your own good; then you’ll know what to do as a man of class, man of letters, man of media, or man on the street.

Oh, and yes, let me remind you that the word Filipino now has two different meanings. American Heritage defines it as one, a native or inhabitant of the Philippines, and two, the name for the Austronesian language that is based on Tagalog, draws its lexicon from other Philippine languages, and is the official language of the Philippines.

And that is where my favorite American Heritage is wrong, and the error is unforgivable. You see, the language Filipino today is a bastard, as it draws not its lexicon from other Philippine languages, but only from Tagalog. I would rate this Filipino mediocre, even execrable.

Therein lies a B story.

In 1987, the Cory Constitution, the one in force today, declared that Filipino, as national language, ‘shall be further developed and enriched on the basis of existing Philippine and other languages.’ 20 years of Senators and Representatives later, what have the A or B or C bastards of Congress done by way of formulating the guidelines to enrich the Filipino? They have insulted the Filipino by ignoring the Filipino.

It’s not true, as James Fallows had written, that the Philippines is a damaged culture (1987 November, Atlantic Monthly) – it’s worse. We are a hundred damaged cultures, Beloved. I blame it on Manila Imperialism (MI). The more popular owner of the acronym MI is of course the theory of multiple intelligences by Harvard Professor Howard Gardner, and now I’ll have to get into that too. Gardner theorizes that each one of us has nine intelligences: linguistic, musical, visual, logical-mathematical, personal, interpersonal, bodily kinesthetic, naturalistic, existential. Tell that to the (Philippine) Marines!

Considering that, if instead of their MI (Manila Imperialism), the lawmakers use their MI (multiple intelligences), then they would know that it is much, much better for the Filipino to be enriched by other languages (cultural influences) than keeping this language pure and tribalistic, a bastard. The delegates to the Constitutional Convention in the time of Cory Aquino were using their inherited MI (multiple intelligences) while the members of Congress since then have been using their legacy of MI (Manila Imperialism). Differing intelligences.

The bastard that is MI (Manila Imperialism) first reared its ugly head perhaps during the time of Manuel Luis Quezon. He was President of the Philippines when the 1935 Constitution was passed. One of the major provisions of the insular Quezon Constitution was for Congress ‘to take the necessary steps towards the development of a national language which is based on one of the existing native languages’ (Paz M Belvez, 2002, ncca.gov.ph). The next year, Commonwealth Act 184 created the Committee on National Language (CNL); those who became CNL members were Isidro Abad (Cebuano), Hadji Butu (Maranao-Maguindanao), Jaime C De Veyra (Hiligaynon), Santiago Fonacier (Ilocano), Zoilo Hilario (Pampango), Cecilio Lopez (Tagalog), Casimiro Perfecto (Bicolano), Felix Salas Rodriguez (Samarnon), Lope K Santos (Tagalog), Felimon Sotto (Cebuano), Jose Zulueta (Pangasinense). A bastard committee? No, a multiple intelligences body, with nine major languages represented. But their decision to recommend Tagalog as the sole basis of the national language is of dubious origin, as there were more native Cebuano speakers than Tagalog, and to force others to speak and think and write Tagalog is to force on them a culture other than their own; it is not mutual acceptance but assimilation; it is not cultural integration but cultural imperialism.

Early this morning, September 4, when I went out walking our two dogs EmEm and Chubby at the grassyard beside VEA School (offering grade school and high school), I overheard the children and the teacher practicing their pieces for some presentation or other. The subject was not roses but Filipino, and a child was reciting that Quezon is the Father of the National Language. He is, of our bastard language, our bastard soul, not that mandated by the clever Cory Constitution, not derived from richly endowed Philippine languages. President Cory Aquino is the Mother of the streetsmart National Language, one of cultural intelligences.

A common language is for communicating, cooperating with. If the Filipinos’ multiple languages were transformed as their multiple intelligences into one essential national language, it would be the people’s authentic soul even as their cultural vitalities animate them. Then they can become a truly great nation, a creative country if ever there was one.

To force our lawmakers to generate guidelines to develop Filipino as national language, I challenge the UP College of Law to sue those bastards in Congress so we can all stop suffering with our bastard soul.

Also published by American Chronicle in a slightly different version.
Copyright 2007 September 04 by Frank A Hilario.