BoholAnalysis

Damage of Typhoon Odette to Basic Infrastructure in Candijay, Bohol (Source:  Jean Celeste Paredes, based on Candijay MDRRMO's RDANA)   To rebuild the infrastructure of the town of   Candijay in Bohol, the Philippines, back to its situation before Typhoon Odette, it needs a whopping 922 million Philippine pesos .   Ninety percent (90%) of that requirement is for the reconstruction of 6,924 houses, 16% of which are totally damaged.   Candijay is home to 33,699 people living in totally or partially damaged houses.       The typhoon did not spare basic infrastructures.   Total damages estimated in schools amounted to Php20 million and in basic health facilities as clinics up to Php3.3 million.   Damages in churches and chapels were estimated at Php9 million, while in other public infrastructures, as barangay halls and covered courts, it was estimated at Php34 million.   Also,   total damages to roads nd bridge...

  When the whole province of Bohol was under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in March 2020,  all business establishments were ordered closed except public markets, slaughterhouses, supermarkets and grocery stores, hospitals and health facilities, pharmacies and drug stores, and other essential businesses.  When the province transitioned to general community quarantine, some two months later, restaurants, service establishments, and other businesses as bookstores, accounting and legal offices, publishing and printing, are allowed to open but at 50% capacity. Throughout this period, the island province was closed to tourists and ports of entry were closed to incoming travelers, except for locally-stranded individuals and returning OFWs.  With these restrictions, it is unavoidable that businesses will have significant losses in revenues. Based on our study on the socio-economic impact of COVID-19 on Tagbilaran City, the service sector reported the worst decline in...

Image grabbed from Wayne S. Grazio See link here . I volunteered to conduct a city-wide research on the socio-economic impacts of COVID 19 to the city of Tagbilaran. My team at Step Up Consulting just felt that if we want to chart a better future post-pandemic, we need to base our plans, projects, and even our day-to-day decisions on data. And we have to be part of or contribute to the solution however way we can.    I have been working on data for development for six years now and I strongly advocate for evidenced-based policy or programming, especially in a context where some of our leaders base their decisions on what they hear from their friends or what they see on social media. One of the things we did, as part of the multi-methods research, was to engage in short but deep conversations with tricycle drivers – one of those severely affected by the lockdown.   For most of the people in the city, we move around using tricycles and the tricycle drivers we intera...

“Some people ask me why I was very quick to deliver social assistance to people during this crisis. It’s simple. I have experienced myself having nothing. I can easily empathize with what people are experiencing on the ground.”      -  Atty.  Hilario “Lahar’ Ayuban              Mayor, Loay, Bohol The COVID-19 crisis that plagues the world is impacting adversely every sector and every individual globally . In the Philippines, the rate of infection has been steadily increasing, partly brought about by the availability of test kits, and the lack of compliance with strict preventive measures. The ability of the country to combat and survive this pandemic is put to the test.  Despite the missteps on the part of the national government, local government officials all over the country have been facing the crisis head-on, with some local chief executives finding creative ways to stem the spread of the virus throug...

I met Bishop Abet Uy for the first time online. Some three years ago, at the suggestion of a good friend of mine, Fr. Harold Anthony Parilla , I sent Bishop Abet a direct message via FB messenger.   He replied, within a day or two and told me how I could proceed with something I wanted to do.   I did as was instructed, and some few weeks later, he sent me, via messenger again, a thank-you note.   Such tech-savviness impressed me, especially for a prelate his age. I was not surprised that some weeks later, I learned that the Bishop was using social media to spread God’s message, in very accessible terms. I also personally witnessed events he presided where online footprint was created almost in real-time (or at least a few hours after the event concluded), making us aware of where he was, what he was doing in building God’s Kingdom here on earth.   Currently, his various Facebook accounts have thousands of followers ( Teba Yu has 11,744 followers...

The destroyed Abatan Bridge that connects Maribojoc to Tagbilaran City Maribojoc is a fourth class municipality in the province of Bohol. Located 30 kilometers southwest of Tagbilaran City, the provincial capital, the municipality is composed of 22 barangays whose residents are primarily engaged in farming and fishing.  The municipality is home to one of the oldest watchtowers in the country and one of the oldest Spanish churches in the province. Maribojoc has a total of 20,491 people with a population density of 2.6 persons per hectare as of 2010.  Urban population consists of 26.61% of the total town population.  The population is predominantly young, with 30% of the total population aged 0-14 years old.  The productive force of the municipality is 60%. Land formation of the municipality ranges from sea-level to very steep slopes. The highest elevation of the  municipality is 304 meters above sea level.  The municipality only has around 18.9...

Image courtesy of http://www.sjp.com A seminal work by Elder and others (2013) entitled “Information Lives of the Poor: Fighting Poverty with Technology” discusses in clear prose and through illustrative examples the promise of information and communication technology (ICT) in building the lives of the world’s poor.  It starts with a foreword by Mohammad Yunus , Grameen Bank founder and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, which highlights the Grameen Village Phone program that afforded poor people with access to telecommunication facilities while at the same time providing income for poor village women in Bangladesh. It highlights, among other things, how technology has penetrated society and even poor households.  Use of mobile phones, for example, spiked beginning in 2002, surpassing all other forms of technologies like television, personal computer, and the internet , a fact also pointed out in the paper. Its attendant effects were also highlighted in several studies ...

Image courtesy of Bangon Bohol. I was not in Bohol when the 7.2 earthquake hit the island in the morning of 15 October 2013.  Like most working weeks, and like several Boholanos unable to find job within the province, I was at the RCBC building along Ayala Avenue, preparing for a meeting with my contract manager at AusAID.  Like the Boholanos back home, that morning was the same as all other mornings – people woke up, took breakfast, did some household chores, read the papers, tended to farm animals, took a bath, went to church, reported for work. Then the ground shook.  That brief moment, that fearsome few seconds that has devastated centuries-old churches, destroyed many homes, traumatized children, damaged livelihood and business investments, and made useless several public infrastructure, can only be described by those who were there. While I was able to go home and experience the aftershocks days later, my own feeling of insecurity and fear is nothing compared ...