
5 minute read
A looming El Niño
PEOPLE in this tropical country are no strangers to periodic droughts, even as the planet has been getting progressively warmer over the past decades. The adverse impacts of the regular dry spells, however, have worsened with each passing year as the population booms with no corresponding expansion in fresh water resources.
This week the United Nations warned the world about a return of El Niño, which last occurred before the pandemic in 2018-2019. The weather phenomenon brings unusually heavy rains in some parts of the planet, and a dry spell that can become extreme in most other areas including the Philippines.
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Even during the normal dry season in this country, there is stiff competition for fresh water allocations for human consumption and agricultural use. The failure of the government to develop new sources of fresh water for the National Capital Region has led to shortages in the years before the pandemic, with water rationed in large sections of the NCR.
These days, 24-hour water supply is again not available in many areas in Metro Manila because of high turbidity as water levels go down, requiring more intensive treatment. The water concessionaires are upgrading treatment plants and rolling out additional ones including modular facilities, but El Niño is likely to aggravate the supply problem.
The UN warned that the looming El Niño could bring record temperatures and persist until next year as it urged governments to prepare mitigation measures. For the long term, the Philippines must fast-track the development of new fresh water sources, not only for Metro Manila but also for other areas in the country. There are still many families with no water piped directly to their homes. For the short term, more effort is needed to promote efficient water management, including the use of recycled gray water. This is being done by countries like Singapore without their own fresh water source.
The most obvious response is to limit the use of water for non-essential purposes. Some quarters are urging local government units to encourage curbs on the use of water for swimming pools, carwashes and golf courses. What is clear is that water consumption cannot continue with business as usual. (Philstar.com) of solid economic growth over the past decade, attributable in significant part to its hospitable attitude toward free enterprise and private initiative.”
The May 2 White House welcome for Marcos Jr. was devoid of frills and soaring rhetoric.
(ODA).
“IT’S been a while since you’ve been here,” U.S. President Joseph Biden greeted President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr., 65, as he and his official party were welcomed at the White House on May 2, Tuesday, Manila evening time.
Forty-one years ago, in 1982, Bongbong Marcos was a dashing young man when his father, President Ferdinand Edralin Marcos Sr., and mom, the First Lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos, were treated with a pomp-and-circumstance South Lawn welcome ceremony (I was there), a substantial one-on-one talk with U.S. President Ronald Reagan and a glittering garden state dinner later in the evening.
Reagan was an unabashed Marcos admirer. “The Philippines and you, Mr. President, play an important role in addressing the problems of economic development in the world,” he told the Filipino leader. “Under your leadership at home, the Philippines can boast a record
Reagan also acknowledged Marcos’ and the Philippines’ role in this world. He said:
“Our security relationship is an essential element in maintaining peace in the region and is so recognized. This relationship, one of several we have in the Western Pacific, threatens no one but contributes to the shield behind which the whole region can develop socially and economically.”
The American leader added:
“Mr. President, under your leadership the Philippines stands as a recognized force for peace and security in Southeast Asia through its bilateral efforts and through its role in ASEAN, which is the focus of our regional policies in Southeast Asia.”
In reply, Marcos Sr. declared from memory: “Destiny has decreed that the United States of America be the trustee of modern civilization against the threat of a possible second Dark Ages. And America cannot fail,” he told Reagan. “If America fails, then the world is lost.” challenge the meaning of mutual benefit when emergencies and emotions are running high.
Philippine-U.S. relations have evolved, “as we faced the challenges of the new century,” Marcos Jr. has said.
Biden agreed. He told his barong-clad guest: “We are facing new challenges. I can’t think of any better partner to have than you... This relationship has to continue to evolve. And together, we’re tackling climate change, we’re accelerating our countries’ transition to clean energy and we’re standing up for our shared democratic values and workers’ rights and the rule of law. And together, we’re deepening our economic cooperation, which is going to continue to deepen and I think is mutually beneficial.”
Biden declared what is music to Marcos Jr.: “The United States also reminds ironclad in our – remains ironclad in our commitment to the defense of the Philippines, including the South China Sea, and we’re going to continue to support the Philippines’ military modernization goals. Mr. President, our countries not only share a strong partnership, we share a deep friendship –one that has been enriched by millions of Filipino Americans in the communities all across the United States of America.” Marcos replied: “In the difficult times that we are facing, ahead of us, we need to find many ways to strengthen our alliances and our partnerships in the face of the new economy that we are facing post-pandemic. Beyond that, there are also the issues, geopolitical issues that have made the region where the Philippines is, possibly, arguably the most complicated geopolitical situation in the world right now.”
BBM explained: “It is only natural that – for the Philippines to look to its sole treaty partner in the world, to strengthen and to redefine the relationship that we have and the roles that we play in the face of those rising tensions around the South China Sea and Asia-Pacific and Indo-Pacific regions.” Today’s Filipino American friendship is not all about war and geopolitics, however. There is the question of money. Money that creates jobs and economic activity – as in trade, investment, official development assistance
In 1979, Marcos got compensation for the two major bases, Clark Air Base and Subic Naval Base: $500 million a year – $200 million in economic support, $250 million in military credits and $50 million in grant military aid. That agreement expired in 1999.
Marcos Jr. has allowed the US access to four more military bases in the Philippines where it can store weapons and rotate troops, on top of the five agreed to previously by past administrations, for an unprecedented total of nine. The four new bases include two in Cagayan, one in Palawan and one in Cagayan de Oro where there are already operating ports or airports.
Aware perhaps that the U.S. must have gotten much (nine bases) by paying virtually nothing, Biden told Marcos Tuesday: “I’m sending a firstof-its-kind presidential trade and investment mission to the Philippines” with the highest caliber U.S. business leaders and, as the White House explained, “to enhance U.S. companies’ investment in the Philippines’ innovation economy, its clean