Empowering communities through Information

AT the plane bound for Davao City to attend the National Information Convention, I was seated beside a pretty young mother with a crying baby of about 8 to 9 months old on her lap. The adorable toddler cried incessantly and heads turned to our direction. I attempted to pacify the baby gesturing a Mr. Bean funny look and even sang a bit of the Baby Shark giving that small clapping gesture but to no effect at all. I noticed others nearby scanning files or browsing contents from their smartphones and a lady behind us reached out her mobile unit showing cartoon characters with a nursery rhyme. I even boosted the rhyme singing “na-na-na-nana” but still the baby kept on crying. A stewardess gave something like a small cup of yoghurt and cupcake and the other attendant gave an ointment to the lady for the baby to stop crying. On several attempts the mom tried to breastfeed her baby but still all we hear is a loud cry. I directed the cool air from the ventilation nozzle at the ceiling and a Korean or Japanese lady suggested that the baby’s shoes be removed. Well, the baby, a half American seemingly refused and I noticed tears flow from the mom’s face in desperation. I consoled her by tapping her back and I even offered to carry the baby as suggested by the lady in front who spoke to her in Visayan. I felt a bit uneasy in that situation especially that I often catch her attempting to breast feed her baby. The male passenger seated next to me by the window even asked the flight attendant and offered his seat if there’s a vacant space at the tail end so the toddler need not have to sit on the mom’s lap. The crying only stopped when the plane moved and started to take off. The moving scenes from the small window may have caught the attention of the baby and we all felt relieved when the baby stopped crying. As the young mother robbed her eyes wiping away the drying tears, I learned that the baby was calm and alright in their first flight from Canada hours earlier and perhaps it was the change to Manila’s warm temperature that made the baby uncomfortable. I just can’t imagine a petite Filipina mother of about 5ft singlehandedly carrying a baby for about over 24 hours including waiting time. After sleeping at mid-flight, the baby’s wide eyes and his pink cheeks cheered the nearby passengers as we disembarked at Davao’s Francisco Bangoy International Airport. I travelled light without any electronic devices such as laptop, digital camera and audio recorder believing that my smartphone is all I need with all its capability to produce what is expected of me as a post-activity-report.

The National Information Convention which brought about 1,700 communicators and government advocates to Mindanao particularly in the city of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte is itself a milestone as I can’t think of a similar event of its kind that happened before. With my participation as a delegate representing the Department of Trade and Industry-CAR and the Association not handle a huge arrival of visitors. In the words of a tourism colleague, “Yes we can invite hundreds of thousands of people by investing heavily on marketing and promotions, but can our roads, sidewalks, grounds, and tourist spots handle such horde?” Unless we intend our community members to watch the community celebrations in their homes, full festival promotions shall perhaps be reconsidered in smaller towns.

“Isugarud nga pyesta tapnu adu ti tao!” another friend would blurt out, insisting that crowd is an inherent quality of the festival. Then, an eternal argument would ensue absent any compromise of viewpoints. The magic word, as they of Government Information Officers-Cordillera, I shared and posted few snapshots with notes at my social media page linking the hashtag #NIC2018 so that followers can be updated on our convention topics especially with the live broadcast and net streams, of PCOO, PTV and Radio Television Malacanang (RTVM) and Radyo Pilipinas. Believing that nothing beats hard work, I know that preparatory activities such as planning, organizing, venue arrangements, communicating to speakers and participants including flight booking and hotel reservations are among the nittygritties in every big events. I fully understand how my wife needed to be in Davao quite often before the event as her office, the Philippine Information Agency served as the lead agency that pulled the activity to a great success. Before cameras finally rolled and organizers said their opening spiels, I estimated that the actual event is just about one fourth of the whole activity.

With Davao City’s tagline “Life is Here” complimenting the convention theme “Spurring National Development and Empowering Communities through Information”, we were basically updated on media trends and enjoined to enrich our mindsets and perspectives to be more pro-active in as far as dissemination of our respective government programs and services. Notable speakers from both government and private sector engaged in communication dwelt on topics that relates to empowering communities by telling a story that frames the national narrative, creates a welcome environment for business and investment and inspires the Filipino people by assuring them that change is happening around the country.

The participants composed of mostly information officers of government instrumentalities were challenged to heed the call of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte to help him transform the country and build a nation that provides a comfortable life for all.

The goal of the IO convention is to impress that information is essential to development, and it’s the responsibility of government information officers to effectively communicate timely, relevant, accurate, and truthful information to their stakeholders. It was also stressed that government policy, programs, projects, and services can make a difference in the lives of citizens, especially to those who are marginalized and vulnerable. Further, it is also the role of IOs to ensure that they hear, read, and understand RP’s development message, so that they can benefit from it and improve their quality of life.

In realizing the following objectives, the PCOO cluster of offices encourages communicators to model effective and responsible sharing of information and use their platforms to provide information that will improve quality of life. The participants were likewise encouraged to engage and strengthen partnerships with private communicators with the goal of nurturing a well-informed, empowered and enlightened citizenry. say, should be “sustainable”.

-o0oIf you are reading this paper today (February 27, 2018), and you yearn for a cup of coffee, proceed to the La Trinidad Municipal gym immediately and have some of our very own coffee Arabica! The simple coffee festival of La Trinidad with the theme, “Brewing unity through coffee” intends to pay tribute to our town’s coffee producers and stakeholders, and promote La Trinidad’s coffee industry. After the mini coffee fest, the town will open the Strawberry Festival celebrations on March 9, 2018. The main events will be on March 16, 2018 (which is a holiday for La Trinidad), and March 17, 2018 for the parades (street dancing, drum and lyre competition, and float parade). Happy Fiestas! hasty decisions and efforts to control it. This is because monitoring pests, when properly done, provide enough information to make an economically sensible decision that is based on solid research information, according to Marquez.

In practice, the decision is flexible and is still incumbent upon knowing and understanding the pests and diseases of rice, for instance. This leads to the formulation and employment of a suitable and efficient combination of management strategies and biological, cultural and mechanical control methods of pest control. If pesticides are to be used, it must as a rule, be utilized as a corrective tool that targets a specific pest present in economically damaging numbers.

Here is a story formulated by a pest scout on the brown planthopper that is helpful in recognizing the problem and evolving effective solutions, management and control of the pest.

The brown planthopper is a very damaging insect in rice cultivation. These are very tiny insects that are hardly noticed even if the rice plants in a paddy are covered by them. An infested rice field can be lost if interventions come in too late.

The brown planthopper can be recognized by knowing its feeding habits. It normally attacks at the base of the plant and sucks its sap that causes drying. Affected plants look burnt. The worst attack is in the booting stage or just before the rice ripens.

The brown planthopper is a pest that likes some kinds of rice more than the others. This characteristic suggests one aspect of controlling the pest. Avoid planting rice varieties that are susceptible to the brown planthopper in those times where their growth is very favorable.

The brown planthoppers like warm and moist weather but do not like bright sunlight. Planting several rice seedlings close together makes it is easy for the hoppers to move from one plant to another. The pest also likes to eat rice that has been fertilized with lots of urea. Do not spray pesticides early in the season as a control measure. The act kills hopper predators such as spiders.

Here are a few information and recommendations I gathered during the lectures for identifying and managing insect pests in rice in the Philippines from the pest scout exercises in Tabuk City.

· The farmer is a very important character in the identification and management of pests and diseases in the farm. Their active support in developing and adopting a scientific approach to pest surveillance and monitoring must be sought continuously especially in putting in place an early warning system for pest outbreaks.

· The PRIME is building a rice area pest monitoring system. It would be best to also utilize the strategies and learnings from this project for other crops.

· The site selection and monitoring sites establish visits by trained pest scouts in the study, identification and determining the emergence of pests at a very early stage. The arrangement must provide for close working tie-ups with the farmers in the area to ensure transfer of critical knowledge and technology.

· The Project can look into creating awareness among the farmers about Integrated Crop Management (ICM) practices that keep the plant healthy and less vulnerable to plant pests and diseases.

· Pest and disease management consist of a range of activities that support each other. Good crop management practices are aimed at preventing pests and diseases from affecting a crop. It focuses on keeping existing pest populations and diseases low. Control, on the other hand, is an activity that focuses on killing the pest and disease. In organic agriculture, the management of pests and diseases deals with the causes of a problem rather than treating the symptoms. Therefore, management is a much higher priority than control. Besides monitoring pests and their management are focused on preventive practices, as well as control practices using biological, mechanical control, and natural pesticides which are important considerations in pests risks identification and management on food crops.