MARCH 1 - MARCH 7, 2020


4 OPINION EDITORIAL


Ready?


A press release from City Hall has revealed a great deal of optimism in the future of the tourism industry as the fear of the spread of CoViD-19 is “becoming manageable”. The statement most likely means that either the authorities have been able to assure the public we are indeed safe, or the short-term memory (and perhaps stubbornness) that exemplifies Filipinos as a people is kicking in yet again. The effectiveness of the local governments in containing the fear of the spread of CoViD 19 is worth considering. We have seen them at work. Through CCTV cameras, we have been


able to trace the itinerary of the tourists we had been looking for, as well as establish the identity of the people they came in contact with. Today, we have managed to keep the


METROPOST


CoViD 19 outside of our national borders. That’s a great achievement. However, as they say in the U.S. and other countries which have not reported a CoViD 19 infection thus far, the matter is not a question of if but when. At the rate the virus is spreading to


other countries (especially to South Korea, which is our No. 1 source of tourists), we may just be looking at another CoViD 19 case in the Philippines sooner that we expect. The reality is that the travel and tourism industry is severely affected by this CoViD 19 threat. Instead of dreaming up rosy pictures


about the tourism industry, we could benefit more from planning for worst- case scenarios on how we expect to feed the people who may be rendered jobless by the slump in tourist arrivals. Neighboring Cebu is planning for the worst case. The various local government units can brace themselves for lower business tax collections next year, and be on the lookout for ways to help the business sector weather the coming storm -- through tax breaks perhaps? They can also probably plan on absorbing the soon-to-be-jobless workers by hiring them in government projects, and training them in skills we might need to survive -- such as agriculture. We’re not really over the hump yet. We


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ATTY. WHELMA SITON-YAP ECON 101 whelmayap@yahoo.com


resident Duterte’s economic team had just revised the list of the Administration’s big-ticket infrastructure projects, the new “Build, Build, Build “list, to now feature 100 projects (instead of 75), as reported by Rappler. The New Dumaguete (Bacong) Airport which will cost P6,941,000 more or less is included in the approved list.


The projects were jointly approved by the powerful National Economic and Development Authority Board’s Committee on Infrastructure and the Investment Coordination


Committee-Cabinet Committee.


Will the plan for a new Dumaguete (Bacong) airport become a reality? 3rd District Cong. Arnie Teves and Bacong Mayor Lenin Alviola have been working hard to make this project a reality.


may not catch that virus, but we here in Negros Oriental will surely be feeling its impact in the global community in the months to come.


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T


Duterte will now need at least P4.3 trillion to complete all 100 projects.


As of this date, the Asian Development Bank and some Korean funding sources have extended loans to finance the


Presidential Adviser for Flagship Programs & Projects Vince Dizon presented the new list to the committees, and on motion of Finance Sec. Carlos Dominguez, the committees swiftly responded in the affirmative.


Dr. Ben S. Malayang III my take beniiim@icloud.com


here are 10. This week, two:


surface is heating up. Say what you want about why, but these are the facts: “In 2019, the average temperature across global land and ocean surfaces was 1.71°F (0.95°C) above the 20th century average of 13.9°C, making it the second warmest year on record. The global annual temperature has increased at an average rate of 57.0°F (0.07°C) per decade since 1880, and over twice that rate (+0.18°C/+0.32°F) since 1981.The five warmest years in the 1880–2019 record have all occurred since 2015, while nine of the 10 warmest years have occurred since 2005. From 1900 to 1980, a new temperature record was set on average every 13.5 years; since 1981, it has increased to every three


Celsius. Earth’s


years.” (R. Lindsey and L. Dahlman, NOAA Climate. gov. Jan 16, 2020). The implications of these? For one, seas are rising due to melting ice caps, and to the albedo effect (expansion of ocean water molecules when heated). Low elevation land areas would be eventually under water, some say by 2100. (T. Lakritz, 2019, in


https://www.weforum.org/ agenda/2019/09/11-sinking- cities-that-could-soon-be- underwater/).


heating up and raising acidity levels that are smothering corals, and impairing the productivity of shallow waters, which serve as gardens of our seas. These threaten our major


source of protein, and our food and nutrition security, worldwide, because for many people, especially


For another, seas are


those living in coastal areas, fisheries are a major source of food and nutrition. Still another implication: hotter sea surfaces are fueling typhoons. Stronger and more frequent typhoons are posing greater risks to lives and properties. Conflagrations. You


know this. Something to do with rising Celsius. Fires everywhere. In Australia,


The catastrophes we face


the Amazon, Siberia, western United States, Europe, Africa, even in the Arctic. With long spells of hotter days, wildland litter and debris get drier. Careless campfires, reckless flecking of cigarette butts, and lightning, could ignite large wildfires. Reports T. Schauenberg in December 2019: “Australia isn’t the only place which is burning… (there have been ) over 4.5 million fires


“Build, Build, Build” projects”. The new list divides projects into five categories: 1)transport and mobility; 2)water; 3)urban development and renewal (including disaster resilience projects); 4)information and communications technology; 5)power. The economic team had


New Dgte (Bacong) airport


three major considerations for the inclusion of 25 more projects: 1)its urgency which addresses a current problem or concern; 2) its national or regional significance which relates to the impact or benefits of the project that can be felt by more people in a wider area; 3) its game-changing nature which relates to the significant impacts on people’s lives and on the conduct of business in the country. The approved construction of the new Dumaguete-Bacong Airport project has raised expectations that this will result in the


opportunities.


rise of more socio- economic and tourism


This new airport will serve as an alternative international airport, and will require at least 250 hectares in the town of Bacong.


the


Again I ask: Will this project for a new international airport in Bacong materialize during our lifetime? Your guess is as good as mine.


worldwide that were larger than one square kilometer. That’s a total of 400,000 more fires than 2018… the number of fires and their size varies from year to year, but the big trend is that the risk of fire is increasing globally.” (c.f. Global Forest Watch Fires & S. Winter of the Forest Program of World Wide Fund in Germany, in https://p. dw.com/p/3Vswe).


The implication of this? For one, costs. Using the Keetch-Byram Drought Index, Liu et al. (2010) “suggest dramatic increases in wildfire potential that will require increased future


management efforts for disaster prevention and recovery.” (Forest Ecology and Management Volume 259, Issue 4, 5 February 2010, Pages 685-697).


good news is: people are doing something about them. Trying their best to reduce our risks and vulnerabilities to them. With faith on them, and on God, we look forward to their successes. Week after next, another two.... (To be discussed in a series of columns following this series on catastrophes we face.)


Two catastrophes. But the resources and


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