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All set for Data Journalism PH15!

July 10, 2015July 10, 2015 mcmangahas Leave a comment

IT’S ALL SYSTEMS go for the launch on Monday, July 13, of Data Journalism PH 2015, a project of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) and the Open Knowledge Foundation (OKF), with support from the World Bank-Philippines.

The event will be held at the HIVE Hotel and Convention Place in Quezon City with a panel of distinguished speakers — Commissioner Heidi Mendoza of the Commission on Audit, Budget Undersecretary Richard ‘Bon’ Moya, Kai Kasiser and Rogier van den Brink of the World Bank.

Mendoza will discuss the ground-breaking work of the COA, in partnership with civil society organizations, on their Citizen Participatory Audit (CPA) project.

Moya, who coordinates the government’s Open Data Task Force, will focus on the story of Open Data and Open Government initiatives in the Philippines.

Kiser will tackle the topic, “Open Roads: Transparency and Accountability in the Roads Sector.”

After the project launch, 34 journalists and bloggers from 11 media agencies will participate in a three-day training seminar to be conducted by OKF and PCIJ.

Through an open search for teams of content providers and techies with data-story proposals, the following participants were selected:

1. From BlogWatch:

* Noemi Lardizabal-Dado, known as @MomBlogger on social media, believes in making a difference in the lives of her children by advocating social change for social good. She is the editor of Blog Watch Citizen Media and the features editor of thePhilippine Online Chronicles, a platform for alternative viewpoints and a synthesizer of ideas.

* Jane Uymatiao is a citizen advocate and resource speaker on digital citizenship and social media crisis communication. She co-founded Blog Watch, a citizen advocacy group, and actively engages different stakeholders via social media on a wide range of economic, social and political issues.

* Carlos Maningat is a Manila-based labor researcher. He works on data stories that cover labor, official development assistance (ODA) and financialization.

2. From Interaksyon:

* Patricia Aquino is a correspondent at InterAksyon.com. She is on general assignment.

* Edilvan Falcon is a senior web developer at InterAksyon.com. He is working on his master’s degree in Computer Science at the University of the Philippines Diliman.

* Orlando Garcia is the Information Technology editor at InterAksyon.com. He has been a journalist for over 20 years, having started at Jingle Magazine.

3. From The Philippine Star:

* Alexis B. Romero has been covering national security for The Philippine star since 2010. He started his journalism career in 2006 as a reporter for BusinessWorld, where he covered finance, the Office of the President, the energy sector, House of Representatives and defense.

* Helen M. Flores is a reporter of The Philippine STAR covering politics and science issues. Aside from her regular beat, she also writes stories from survey data of the Social Weather Stations and Pulse Asia. Flores graduated from Centro Escolar University-Manila with a bachelor’s degree in Mass Communication major in journalism. She completed her master’s degree in Communication at the University of Santo Tomas.

* Jan Victor R. Mateo, 24, is the education beat reporter of the Philippine STAR. He is a graduate student of development communication, and has an undergraduate speech communication from the University of the Philippines. He is a participant of the 2010 Study of the US Institutes on New Media Journalism held at the Southern Illinois University-Carbondale.

4. From the Calbayog Post:

* Rommel L. Rutor is a multi-platform Journalist based in Samar, works for Print, Radio, TV and Online, he is on his 20th year in the profession this year. A prime mover of local issues in his own right, he desires to provide more in-depth stories to the public, and be a catalyst of change in Samar.

* Jennifer Sumagang – Allegado graduated with a degree in Bachelor of Arts major in Communication Arts from the University of the East, Manila. Has been in the media work for more than 12 years now, correspondent of Calbayogpost.com and a radio broadcaster in the City of Calbayog, Samar.

* Jose Gerwin Babon is a media practitioner and communication instructor at the same time.

5. From inquirer.net of the Philippine Daily Inquirer:

* Frances Mangosing is a multimedia reporter for INQUIRER.net for four years. She mostly covers defense, disasters and weather.
Nestor Corrales is a multimedia reporter for INQUIRER.net. He writes breaking news and covers urban transportation, politics, among others.

* Dan Paurom is the one-quarter of INQUIRER.net’s social media team. He consumes reports based on big data almost daily.

6. From The Financial Times-Manila:

* Hannah Dormido, 25, is a senior production editor for the Financial Times. She specialises on visuals and is currently a QGIS sorceress in training.

7. From BusinessWorld:

* Christine Joyce S. Castañeda is a researcher from BusinessWorld Publishing Corp. since July 2014. She finished her Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of the Philippines – Los Baños in April 2014.

* Kia B. Obang, earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism from the University of the East in 2013. She has been with BusinessWorld Publishing Corp. since June 2013, starting off as a Research Assistant before being promoted to Researcher in December 2013.

* Leo Jaymar G. Uy graduated from the University of the Philippines School of Economics in 2013 and is a researcher from BusinessWorld Publishing Corp. since January 2014. He has a strong interest in history – particularly with the economic, social and political histories of East Asia, United States and the Philippines.

8. From Forbes Philippines:

* Lala Rimando is a business journalist with expertise in political economy and understands the dynamics of new and traditional media. She headed the business and other news units of investigative media publication Newsbreak, the online news site of Philippine media giant, ABS-CBN, and social media news network Rappler.com before joining Forbes Media’s Philippine edition as managing editor.

* Paul John Caña is a writer for Forbes Philippines and a contributor for various online and print publications. A Journalism graduate of the University of the Philippines Diliman, he is a former newsdesk operations staff of GMA Network Inc. and was also the managing editor of a leading lifestyle magazine.

* Lorenzo Kyle Subido is the data journalist of Forbes Philippines, crunching numbers and scouring data bases online and off for the research needs of the magazine’s visual and text stories. He has a Creative Writing degree from the University of the Philippines Diliman and is keen to hone both his right- and left-brain skills.

9. From Bloomberg TV-Philippines:

* Regina Hing co-anchors the daily morning shows First Up and Starting Gate on Bloomberg TV Philippines. The shows aim to connect the dots for a broad audience–between politics and the economy, between macro and micro, between the movement of billions of dollars in the capital markets to the buying power of OFW remittances. Before joining Bloomberg TV Philippines, Regina was a Senior Producer/Evening Editor on the Business Desk at Channel NewsAsia in Singapore, helping oversee the channel’s coverage of business and financial markets globally. She holds a Masters in Business and Economic Reporting at New York University.

* Katria Alampay is a writer and segment producer for Bloomberg TV Philippines. She graduated from the University of the Philippines Diliman with a B.A. in Journalism and previously worked for almost two years at the Korean Embassy in Manila.

* Alay Magno is a segment producer for Bloomberg TV Philippines’ evening news show In The Loop and weekly talk show on Startups, Igniters. Alay obtained his Masters degree in Finance from the University of the Philippines, where he also studied Computer Engineering before working in the tech industry.

10. From ABS-CBN:

* Marie Mamawal is the currently the Associate Dean of the Journalism Academy, ABS-CBN University. Currently a professor/lecturer at the Communication Department of the College of Liberal Arts, De La Salle University-Taft. Has been an Executive Producer for ABS-CBN Current Affairs’ investigative programs since 1988. Among them “Magandang Gabi Bayan” and “Assignment”.

* Gigi Grande, Multi-platform journalist for ABS-CBN’s Investigative and Special Reports Group, concurrently news presenter for ANC (the ABS-CBN News Channel.) Since 1997, covered a variety of beats including the Defense department, Commission on Elections, the Catholic Church and Department of Foreign Affairs. Produced documentaries for “”The Correspondents”” between 2003-2006. Proficient in English and Filipino, knowledge of Spanish.

* Rowena Paraan is a former Research Director of PCIJ and currently handling Bayan Mo IPatrol Mo, a citizen journalism/crowd sourcing arm of ABS-CBN. A journalist of more than 25 years.

11. From Rappler:

* Michael Joseph Bueza, or Mike, is a researcher/reporter for Rappler. He geeks out on books, maps, and pro wrestling.

* Gwen de la Cruz is a researcher from Rappler’s online disaster platform, Project Agos. She loves to write inspiring stories.

* Gerard Raymond Lim is a researcher for Rappler’s #PHVote. He hopes to teach philosophy someday.

A three-person team from PCIJ that will assist in the seminar completes the list of participants.

The seminar will be followed by months of mentoring for the participants by OKF and PCIJ so they could continue research and development work on their data-story projects. A public presentation of the participants’ completed projects will be held toward the close of 2015. – PCIJ, July 2015

Apply now to be a SEAPA Fellow!

June 17, 2015June 17, 2015 mcmangahas Leave a comment

THE SOUTHEAST ASIAN PRESS ALLIANCE (SEAPA) is now accepting applications to its Annual Journalism Fellowship (SAF) for 2015 focused on the theme “Hunger in the (ASEAN) Community.”

An alliance of independent media organizations from seven countries in the region, SEAPA has selected the theme in the context of the formal launch of the ASEAN Community by the end of 2015.

(The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, the Center for Media Freedom and responsibility, the Thai Journalists Association, and Indonesia’s Alliance of Independent Journalists and Institute for the Study of Free Flow of Information are SEAPA’s founding members.)

Selected Fellows are expected to critically investigate and report on food security issues in the context of regionalization, including policies, initiatives, and their impact on the population, the environment, and human rights.

As ASEAN formalizes its regional community with a strong emphasis on economic cooperation aspects, SAF 2015 aims to highlight the situation of sections of the ASEAN populations that have been or are likely to be left out.

The Fellows are also expected to critically assess issues of access to information and public participation related to the theme of food security and hunger.

Now on its 14th year, the SAF is a flagship of SEAPA, which has hosted a total of 114 fellows from Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Timor Leste and Vietnam.

The SAF 2015 program will be held between 9 September to 1 October 2015, including orientation, fieldwork and debriefing sessions.

Interested applicants may apply at saf.seapa.org, or email fellowship@seapa.org.

The application deadline is July 24, 2015.

About the SAF 2015 theme:

As the countdown begins for the launch of the ASEAN Economic Community, questions arise as to whether the vision is merely a political construct and to what extent the peoples of Southeast Asia will factor in this community.

At the most basic level is the threat that ASEAN could be a community dominated by hunger and poverty. The 2007-2008 global food crisis hit most societies badly, not least those in Southeast Asia. It is estimated that, in a region of 620 million people, at least 60 million Southeast Asians are currently undernourished.

This is the despite the formulation of the ASEAN Integrated Food Security (AIFS) Framework in response to the crisis and its Strategic Plan of Action on Food Security (SPA-FS) for 2009-2013. It coincided with the first Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), particularly on the aim to reduce hunger and poverty in half by 2015.

Ahead of the MDGs deadline, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), in collaboration with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP) released its report “The state of food insecurity in the world 2014).

It said that the prevalence of undernourishment had fallen from 18.7 percent to 11.3 percent at the global level between 1990–92 and 2012–14, with developing countries seeing the problem go down from 23.4 percent to 13.5 percent. Southeast Asian countries recorded a drop of more than 20 percent from a staggering rate of 30.7 percent at the start of the 1990s. Nevertheless, the percentages fail to mask the glaring reality that as many as 850 million people around the world are still chronically undernourished.

Theoretically, food security refers to a concept and practices to fulfil people’s needs for food by considering the dimensions of availability, access, quality, and stability. The ASEAN AIFS can be seen a part of the food security movement that emerged in the 1970s. Many, particularly developing countries, took food security for granted as a way to address hunger and poverty.

On the flip side is the question of who benefits from the policies and practices of food security. Critics say the main beneficiaries are not the people most affected by the threats of hunger and poverty, but big businesses and investors — either from the introduction of large scale agro-industries that lead to land conversions and the use of chemical materials, or the control of supply chains from farming to distribution and marketing. Cases of land grabbing, pollution and environmental disasters, displacement of indigenous peoples and threats to biological diversity are among the negative consequences of food security policies.

In evaluating the success of programs intended for the population, it is also important to assess the indicators used and if adequate information is available on how they impact different groups and individuals differently. There is limited gender disaggregated data in reports and policy documents so far, while critics have pointed out for the need for more social and environmental impact analysis of programs designed to treat hunger and undernourishment.

Journalists reporting on these challenges and malpractices have also come under threat, sometimes from state bodies and corporations in the form of legal threats or censorship, and physical violence by non-state actors associated with either the state or businesses.

The theme encourages journalists in the region to investigate and critically report on the issues surrounding food security policies, initiatives and impact on the population, the environment and other related human rights. Fellows are also encouraged to critically assess questions of access to information and public participation in the context of food security policies and implementation.

Some questions that may be explored are:

* How are the governance and political climate in the country influencing decisions on the food industry and businesses, as well as the management of natural resources?

* How are human rights and gender equality reflected in the formulation and implementation of policies and plans to combat hunger and poverty?

* To what extent is the groups most vulnerable to hunger and poverty involved in policies and the implementation of food security plans?

* What are the experiences of local communities and smallholders in facing the competition with multinational and large businesses?

* How are the national food policy initiatives impacting on the sustainability of the environment and biodiversity?

* How successful and effective is the media in Southeast Asia in reporting on the topic of hunger and poverty and in investigating malpractices and corruption in the context of the food industry?

The Objectives of SAF 2015:

* To generate indepth reports on the regional issue of hunger and food security from the regional perspectives.

* To highlight the challenges of hunger and food security efforts in SEA countries.

* To enhance the capacity of SEA journalists in writing hunger and food security issues through the journalism work experience in neighboring countries.

Expected Results

* Fellows generate journalism work on huger and food-security for publication in their own media outlets and SEAPA’s online spaces.

* Fellows are willing to actively join the network for supporting SEAPA’s campaign initiatives.

CARP, CARPER: Failing, falling, dead?

June 11, 2015June 11, 2015 mcmangahas Leave a comment

TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS after the Philippine government launched agrarian reform in 1988 as its paramount social justice program, a significant majority of Filipino farmers have yet to own the land that they have been tilling for ages.

Innumerable problems, not least of them land survey issues, resistance from landowners, problematic documents and titles, and concerns of agrarian reform beneficiaries, keep pulling back results to insignificant numbers and impact.

Poverty remains the scourge of more than 1 in every three farmers, who count among the poorest of the poor sectors of the nation.

Fishermen, farmers, and children have consistently posted the highest poverty incidence among the nine basic sectors in the Philippines in 2012 — at 39.2 percent, 38.3 percent, and 35.2 percent, respectively — according to the National Statistical Coordination Board.

The three sectors, including the self-employed and unpaid family workers and women, have higher poverty incidence rates than the general population estimated at 25.2 percent in 2012, NSCB said.

Huge backlog

Indeed, a generation and seven years after its launch, agrarian reform’s backlog remains huge, and seemingly insurmountable.

The Congressional Policy and Budget Research Department of the House of Representatives, citing data from the Department of Agrarian Reform, reported that as of July 1, 2009, the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) “has yet to distribute the remaining balance of 1.6 million hectares to 1.2 million farmer beneficiaries.”

“Of the remaining balance, 60.08 percent (965,798 hectares) were private agricultural lands and 4.28 percent (68,863 hectares) are non-private agricultural lands under the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR),” it added.

Meanwhile, as of the same date, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) “has a remaining balance of 572.902 hectares to be distributed to 645,443 farmer beneficiaries.”

In 2009, CARP’s life was extended by CARPER, or the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reform. It received a budgetary support of at least P150 billion but also hardly improved land reform’s accomplishment numbers by leaps and bounds.

From July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2014, CARPER “has distributed a total of 1,052,259 hectares of land to 897,648 farmer beneficiaries of which 43.2 percent (454,134 hectares) are public arable and disposable lands and 22.1 percent (232,400 hectares) are privately owned lands.”

Yet still, “most of the distributed privately owned land are classified as voluntary land transfers (VLT), which is around 119,660 hectares, and only 48,184 ha. (4.6 percent) were distributed through compulsory acquisition.”

DENR on the other hand “distributed a total of 469,268 hectares arable and disposable lands to 549,169 farmer beneficiaries.”

A big balance of land for acquisition and distribution to farmers remains after 27 years of land reform, a period spanning the rule of the first to the second Aquino administrations.

As of June 30, 2014, the report said DAR has yet to distribute a total of 726, 421 hectares.

Compulsory vs. voluntary

By land type, lands under compulsory acquisition pose the biggest challenge at around 479,488 hectares or 66 percent of the total land left for distribution, even as the balance of voluntary offer to sell lands remain at only 112,681 hectares (15.5 percent).

The regions with the biggest land balance for distribution are those with significant hacendado and political clan presence — the Western Visayas, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, ARMM, the Bicol Region, SOCCKSARGEN (South Cotabato, Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani, and General Santos City, Eastern Visayas, Cagayan Valley.

CARP under the implementation of the DENR has yet to distribute a total of 33,171 hectares of public arable and disposable lands.

As of June 30, 2014, Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio de los Reyes, in testimony before Congress, said the following issues hound “problematic landholdings” under agrarian reform:

* ARB (agrarian reform beneficiaries0 Issues, 14,094 cases
* Basic Document Infirmities, 31,294
* Coverage Issues, 24,824
* For Reconstitution of Title, 29,001
* For Reissuance of Lost ODC of Title, 4,045
* Landowner Issues, 34,294
* LBP (LandBank of the Philippines) Issues, 2,456
* Peace and Order Issues, 6,717
* Survey Issues, 43,978

Government helpless?

Social justice through agrarian reform remains an elusive promise to a great number of Filipino farmers.

But most tragic of all, even the combined resources of national government agencies have sometimes proved useless, in the face of fierce landlord resistance to land reform.

A curious case in point is that of the coconut farmers of Hacienda Matias in Bondoc Peninsula, Quezon province.

The property is a coconut plantation in San Francisco, Quezon province, which spans 1,715.983 hectares. In December 2014, the government awarded Certificates of Land Ownership Awards (CLOAs) to a total of 283 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) of Hacienda Matias.

An “inter-agency task force” composed of the DAR, Commission on Human Rights (CHR), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Department of Justice (DOJ), and the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC), with support from the Philippine National Police (PNP), and Philippine Army, was formed to install the ARBs on May 15, 2015.

The pooled might and resources of government’s civilian agencies and uniformed agencies failed to achieve that. The owners of Hacienda Matias resisted, backed by armed men they have deployed across the hacienda’s perimeters, rendering the farmers’ CLOAs paper without weight or worth.

“Aanhin namin ang CLOA kung wala naman kami doon sa lupa,” Maribel Ausa Luzara, president of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Bondoc Peninsula (KMBP), told the PCIJ. She is one of the 283 CLOA holders of Hacienda Matias.

Luzara said all the points of agreement that the farmers have forged with the “task force” of national agencies prior to ARBs’ installation inside Hacienda Matias did not come to fruition.

The task force’s failure has prompted the farmers to pitch camp in front of the national headquarters of DAR in Quezon City a fortnight ago.

Should the next attempt of the interagency task force to install the Hacienda Matias farmers fail again, Luzara said the KMBP members plan to just return their CLOAs to DAR en massé.

Inertia, areglo

In the view of National Anti-Poverty Commission Secretary Jose Eliseo M. Rocamora, “inertia” seems to hound a number of government’s programs, including its asset reform initiatives like agrarian reform.

NAPC, Rocamora said, has been assisting the KMBP farmers in their quest for land and in “pressuring” the DAR to make good on its promise of successful installation.

“Pinaka-importanteng obstacle ng mga programa ng gobyerno, asset reform man ‘yan o iba ay inertia. Either binayaran ang bureaucrat o takot makasuhan,” Rocamora told reporters in a press briefing on June 2, 2015.
[Inertia is the most significant obstacle to government's programs. It's either the bureaucrat has been bribed or threatened with cases.]

In jest, he added, the problem is public officials have to deal with “criminal law, civil law, at areglo (compromises).”

The Philippine Network of Food Security Programmes (PNFSP) and the Kilusan ng Magbubukid sa Pilipinas (KMP) have repeatedly pointed out a simple farmer to land ratio 27 years since CARP was enacted. Until now, seven of ten farmers in the Philippines still do not own the land they are tilling.

CARP’s backlog triggered the passage of Republic Act No. 9700, Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reform (CARPER), which extended the Land Acquisition and Distribution (LAD) program for another five years ending June 30, 2014.

A study commissioned by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) in 2011 titled: “Commercial pressures on land in Asia: An overview,” CARP had included in its implementation schemes “such as the voluntary land transfer (VLT) provided a convenient solution for landed families to keep their lands.”

“The new law (CARPER) eliminated the VLT scheme and made compulsory acquisition the primary mode of acquisition. Despite the extension and adaptation of CARP, much opposition is expected from landed elites who wield power over government policies,” the IFAD study, funded in cooperation with the International Land Coalition (ILC), read in part.

Agrarian Reform Commission

Amid the still significant backlog of agrarian reform beyond the life of both CARP and CARPER, Rep. Leni Gerona-Robredo of Camarines Sur and Rep. Kaka J. Bag-ao of Dinagat Islands have introduced House Bill No. 4375, which seeks to create an Agrarian Reform Commission.

“It is, therefore, necessary for this purpose to create an independent Commission with legal powers of subpoena and of contempt, and with the cooperation of other relevant government agencies, to review the actual accomplishments of CARP/CARPER and to investigate circumventions and violations of the law and cause these lands to be compulsory acquired and distributed to qualified beneficiaries,” the proposed bill’s explanatory note read in part.

Groups of farmers aligned with Sulong CARPER coalition have expressed support for the bill, saying the “landed elite have maneuvered to make circumventions (in CARP/CARPER) possible.”

Sulong CARPER is a national multi-sectoral alliance led by peasants and religious groups. The KMBP is a member-organization of the alliance.

Luzara of the Hacienda Matias farmers’ group said Congress must ensure that government will crackdown on such circumventions by passing HB 4375. – With reporting and research by Cong B. Corrales, PCIJ, June 2015

Of dead androids, toxic cocktails

June 2, 2015June 2, 2015 mcmangahas Leave a comment

By Cong B. Corrales

WHERE do dead android phones go? Most certainly, not to android heaven.

Dead androids and other e-waste typically get dumped in the wasteland of developing nations,the Philippines included. The problem is, such waste generate toxin cocktails that are not without risks to human health.

A recent study by the United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS) titled “Global E-waste Monitor 2014″ posited that if left unregulated, e-waste will pose a serious threat to human health and the environment.

INFROGRAPHICS by Cong B. Corrales

Based in Tokyo, Japan, UNU-IAS is an autonomous unit of the UN General Assembly dedicated to generating and transferring knowledge and strengthening capacities relevant to global issues of human security, development, and welfare.

E-waste, the study said, refers to all items of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) and their parts that have been discarded by their owners as waste, without the intent of using these again.

There are six categories of e-waste, namely:

1. Temperature exchange equipment: refrigerators, freezers, air conditions, heat pumps

2. Screens, monitors: television, computer monitors, laptops, notebooks, and tablets

3. Lamps: flourescent lamps, high intensity discharge lamps and LED lamps

4. Large equipment: washing machines, clothes dryers, dish washing machines, electric stoves, large printing machines, copying equipment, photovoltaic panels

5. Small equipment: vacuum cleaners, microwaves, ventilation equipment, toasters, electric kettles, electric shavers, scales, calculators, radio sets, video cameras, electrical and electronic toys, small electrical and electronic tools, small medical devices, small monitoring and control instruments

6. Small IT and telecommunication equipment: mobile phones, GPS, pocket calculators, routers, personal computers, printers, telephones

Photo by Angelica Carballo-Pago

In 2014 alone, the study estimated the total amount e-waste that the world churned out to be a monstrous 41.9 million metric tons.

The “intrinsic material value” of the e-waste generated last year is at least 48 billion euro. It further postulated that by 2018, the total volume of e-waste will rise to 50 metric tons.

In 2014, the world generated e-waste that consisted of:

* 1.0 metric tons of lamps,
* 6.3 Mt of screens
* 3.0 Mt of small IT (such as mobile phones, pocket calculators, personal computers, printers, etc.)
* 12.8 Mt of small equipment (such as vacuum cleaners, microwaves, toasters, electric shavers, video cameras, etc.)
* 11.8 Mt of large equipment (such as washing machines, clothes dryers, dishwashers, electric stoves, photovoltaic panels, etc.) and * 7.0 Mt of cooling and freezing equipment (temperature exchange equipment).

“The annual supply of toxins from e-waste is 2.2 Mt of lead glass, 0.3 Mt of batteries and 4 kilo tonnes (kt) of ozone-depleting substances (CFCs),” the study said.

In addition, “a cocktail of other toxic substances such as mercury, cadmium, chromium, arsenic, selenium, among others, which can stream into the environment when not properly managed. Health problems associated with such toxins include impaired mental development, cancer, damage to liver and kidneys, miscarriages, and even death,” the study added.

The Philippines reportedly generated 127 kilo tons (kt) of e-waste, or about 1.3 kilogram per Filipino on average.

An environmental group BAN Toxics (BT), however, noted that since the Philippine Congress has yet to approve laws on e-waste regulation, the country is highly susceptible to e-waste dumping from richer countries.

Photo by Angelica Carballo-Pago

“As a developing country, the Philippines is very vulnerable to e-waste dumping of richer countries and the poor are taking the brunt of this phenomenon. Our government should ensure proper safeguards are in place to prevent this looming catastrophe of e-waste dumping in our country,” said Angelica Carballo-Pago, BAN Toxics! media and communications manager, in an online interview last week.

A point in case, Carballo-Pago added, is the continuing presence of 50 40-footer container vans of garbage from Canada which also contains e-waste among used adult diapers.

“Money lost on storage and demurrage is P144,000 per day, and it has been more than 700 days since it first arrived here in Manila port,” he said.

A Waste Assessment and Character Study (WACS) on the Canadian imported wastes by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) at the Manila International Container Terminal Yard conducted on November 10, last year decided that there is nothing wrong in disposing the wastes here in the Philippines.

It should be noted, however, that the DENR opened and inspected only three (ZCSU 821145, 819370, 842595) of the 50 container vans, Carballo-Pago said.

“The trend does not show any signs of slowing down and most wastes do end up in a landfill of a poor country such as ours. We call on government to strictly enforce existing laws against waste trade and to act on the Basel Ban Amendment.” - PCIJ, May 2015

Of dead androids, toxic cocktails

June 2, 2015June 2, 2015 mcmangahas Leave a comment

By Cong B. Corrales

WHERE do dead android phones go? Most certainly, not to android heaven.

INFROGRAPHICS by Cong B. Corrales

E-waste, the study said, refers to all items of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) and their parts that have been discarded by their owners as waste, without the intent of using these again.

There are six categories of e-waste, namely:

1. Temperature exchange equipment: refrigerators, freezers, air conditions, heat pumps

2. Screens, monitors: television, computer monitors, laptops, notebooks, and tablets

3. Lamps: flourescent lamps, high intensity discharge lamps and LED lamps

4. Large equipment: washing machines, clothes dryers, dish washing machines, electric stoves, large printing machines, copying equipment, photovoltaic panels

5. Small equipment: vacuum cleaners, microwaves, ventilation equipment, toasters, electric kettles, electric shavers, scales, calculators, radio sets, video cameras, electrical and electronic toys, small electrical and electronic tools, small medical devices, small monitoring and control instruments

6. Small IT and telecommunication equipment: mobile phones, GPS, pocket calculators, routers, personal computers, printers, telephones

Photo by Angelica Carballo-Pago

In 2014 alone, the study estimated the total amount e-waste that the world churned out to be a monstrous 41.9 million metric tons.

The “intrinsic material value” of the e-waste generated last year is at least 48 billion euro. It further postulated that by 2018, the total volume of e-waste will rise to 50 metric tons.

In 2014, the world generated e-waste that consisted of:

* 1.0 metric tons of lamps,
* 6.3 Mt of screens
* 3.0 Mt of small IT (such as mobile phones, pocket calculators, personal computers, printers, etc.)
* 12.8 Mt of small equipment (such as vacuum cleaners, microwaves, toasters, electric shavers, video cameras, etc.)
* 11.8 Mt of large equipment (such as washing machines, clothes dryers, dishwashers, electric stoves, photovoltaic panels, etc.) and * 7.0 Mt of cooling and freezing equipment (temperature exchange equipment).

“The annual supply of toxins from e-waste is 2.2 Mt of lead glass, 0.3 Mt of batteries and 4 kilo tonnes (kt) of ozone-depleting substances (CFCs),” the study said.

The Philippines reportedly generated 127 kilo tons (kt) of e-waste, or about 1.3 kilogram per Filipino on average.

Photo by Angelica Carballo-Pago

A point in case, Carballo-Pago added, is the continuing presence of 50 40-footer container vans of garbage from Canada which also contains e-waste among used adult diapers.

“Money lost on storage and demurrage is P144,000 per day, and it has been more than 700 days since it first arrived here in Manila port,” he said.

It should be noted, however, that the DENR opened and inspected only three (ZCSU 821145, 819370, 842595) of the 50 container vans, Carballo-Pago said.