Self-reliance in farm machines
MR. RAMON Uy, Sr. of Bacolod City believes that we Filipinos could become self-reliant in making and maintaining our own farm machineries and equipment, and I agree with him.
He owns a social enterprise that doubles as a foundry and as a manufacturer of these machineries and equipment. What that means is that he is not just talking about making this goal happen, he is already making it happen in real life.
As far as many of us would probably think, the only way to level up from using carabaos in the field is to buy the farm tractors that are almost always imported and are too expensive. That is no longer true now, because Mr. Uy has already started making his own farm equipment, starting with small and simple designs, but also starting to move up to bigger and more complex designs.
On the practical side, he is already making the replacement parts for the imported machines that are difficult to source locally and are too expensive to buy.
What usually happens is that the machine owners would just junk these assets if they could not source the parts.
Aside from making these parts in his own foundry, Mr. Uy helps the farmers in putting up their own minifoundries through his “pandayan” project.
Aside from making replacement parts, the “pandayan” also makes other products that the farmers could sell to make extra money, such as small tools and kitchen knives.
In a manner of speaking, Mr. Uy has started a mini- industrial revolution.
MORE DRUG TESTS AND PSYCHIATRIC EVALUATIONS
The present leadership of the Philippine National Police ( PNP) should be commended for removing various offenders from the service.
The moves might seem drastic, but I am sure that these leaders know what they are doing, and that the offenders deserve what they got. I just hope that the removal was done with due process, and that no one was deprived of their rights.
I do not know how the PNP is doing it, but I think that all government agencies, especially the uniformed services should conduct drug tests and psychiatric evaluations as often as possible, perhaps even quarterly if their budgets could afford it.
I purposely singled out the uniformed services because of many examples of abuse among them, even if we know that most of them are upright and decent. In fairness to all the good men and women in our uniformed services, their top officials should continuously remove the weeds from among the wheat, so that the name of those good people will not be tarnished by the bad people. After all, the laws provide for the due processes that would allow the removal of those who do not deserve to be in the service.
Perhaps i t would also be appropri a t e t o c r ea t e new mechanisms to reward the men and women who wear their uniforms with honor and dignity. They could perhaps be given top priority when they apply for public housing, or perhaps their children could be given scholarships with complete allowances for books and other expenses./
What usually happens is that the machine owners would just junk these assets if they could not source the parts.