Philippine Context Research Articles

Development of Authentic Information Education and Communication (IEC) Materials to Increase Public Awareness on Mt. Matutum Protected Landscape (MMPL) Conservation Initiatives in the Philippines

Environmental conservation advocacy forms an important step towards environmental preservation. It serves as a benchmark in coming up with strategies to protect and preserve species that have been marked as threatened or endangered. In the Philippine context, pressing concerns on overexploitation of biological resources and caustic harvesting techniques in Mt. Matutum have been altering the distribution and abundance of its flora and fauna. Thus, the preservation of Mt. Matutum Protected Landscape (MMPL) is considered an imperative. In response, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) has recently funded a program for the biodiversity assessment of MMPL. However, provision for a more responsive initiative is needed. It is on this premise that this study was conducted to develop IEC materials to increase the biodiversity conservation awareness of the local people in the MMPL. In addition, the developed materials were validated by various experts in order to ensure that local people became more environmentally knowledgeable and dedicated to maintaining or sustaining the quality of life and biodiversity of the MMPL. Nonetheless, there were 130 randomly selected respondents from the local communities in MMPL. The research design is descriptive and utilized quantitative and qualitative methods of data gathering. The findings of the study showed that the IEC materials had a high extent of content validity (wm=4.03 for video and wm=4.14 for printed). Moreover, the evaluators considered the materials as very highly usable (wm=4.10 for video and wm=4.25 for printed materials). This indicates that IEC materials were very useful to increase the public awareness of the local people in conserving MMPL. Keywords - Information Education and Communication (IEC) Materials, public awareness, Mt Matutum Protected Landscape (MMPL), conservation in the Philippines

Assessment Literacy of Pre-Service Teachers and the NCBTS Domain

Assessment Literacy is a requisite skill pre-service teachers need to develop to ensure the quality of teaching and learning. Teacher Education Institutions (TEIs) are the best venue where this skill is developed. This study seeks to find out the classroom assessment literacy of pre-service teachers of Xavier University utilizing the Classroom Assessment Literacy (CALI) Tool of Dr. Craig Mertler. This tool was revalidated using the Rasch Model and items were revised in the Philippine context. Standards for each item in CALI were matched with the Strands of Domain 5 (Planning, Assessing & Reporting) of the National Competency-Based Teacher Standards (NCBTS) of the Philippines. Fifty-nine pre-service teachers participated in the study. The descriptive analysis included frequencies and percentages. Results show highest performance on choosing appropriate assessment tools with 81.36% while least in developing valid grading procedures with 8.47%. Furthermore, five out of seven assessment standards in CALI were well represented in the NCBTS. However, the standards for developing valid grading procedures and recognizing unethical practices were least addressed. The need to re-examine how assessment concepts were taught to pre-service teachers emerged. This study provided an avenue to suggest to the NCBTS Team the necessity of revisiting the strands of the NCBTS Framework. Keywords - Education, assessment literacy, NCBTS standards, Rasch Model, descriptive research design, Philippines

Psychological distress and attempted suicide in female victims of intimate partner violence: an illustration from the Philippines context

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to assess the prevalence of, and determined the factors associated with self-reported symptoms of suicide attempts and psychosocial distress among female victims of intimate partner violence (IPV).Design/methodology/approach– Using cross-sectional data from 13,594 women aged 15-49 years from the 2008 Philippines Demographic and Health Surveys, the authors measured univariate prevalence, conducted bivariate and multivariate analyses using logistic regression models to examine the associations between outcomes, exposures, and potential explanatory variables.Findings– In total, 47 and 8 per cent of the women reported psychological distress, and suicide attempts following IPV, respectively. Physical and psychological IPV occurred in 7 per cent of the women, respectively, whilst sexual IPV occurred in 5 per cent of the women. Multivariate analyses showed significant association between physical and psychological IPV and suicide attempt, as well as psychological distress.Research limitations/implications– This study extends the knowledge about the interaction between IPV, suicide attempts, and psychological distress by redirecting the attention to more systemic expressions of the excess burden of IPV among abused women.Practical implications– It highlights the significance of screening for the presence of, and accumulated effect of IPV exposures as a risk factor for suicide attempt and psychological distress.Social implications– Since IPV is a product of gendered norms and power relations, the extent to which exposure to IPV results in poor mental health outcomes is determined by the interplay between societal gender norms and attitudes, poverty, and psychological distress.Originality/value– Given that most of the literature on the association between traumatic events, psychosocial stress, and suicidality derive from high-income countries, they do not reflect cultural differences within the context of low-middle-income countries like the Philippines, or be generalizable to the low-middle-income countries.

Capitalising on the financialisation of agriculture: Cargill’s land investment techniques in the Philippines

This paper has two objectives. First, it aims to analyse how transnational agricultural traders are positioning themselves in, and capitalising on, the financialisation of agriculture. Second, it seeks to position land investments in this process. This is done by situating Cargill – one of the largest agricultural trading companies in the world – into the transformation of agriculture in the world economy and by assessing its strategies of adaption through private equity-driven land investment in the Philippines. The article notes, following Burch and Lawrence, that the transforming position of agriculture is created by reshaping relationships in the agri-food supply chain and is based on the logic of finance capital. An example of this process from the Philippines is provided, where Cargill’s private equity arm – Black River Asset Management– is investing in land through equity acquisitions of a Philippine company, Agrinurture, in a manner that allows the company to adapt to national and local dynamics. The evolving and deepening connection between finance and agriculture is presented first, followed by a discussion of how Cargill fits into this transition in the Philippine context.

Impact of Selected Insolvency Indicators on the Recoveries of Creditors’ Claims Against Closed Banks in the Philippine Context

Impact of Selected Insolvency Indicators on the Recoveries of Creditors’ Claims Against Closed Banks in the Philippine Context

Popular Geopolitics, Audiences and Identities: Reading the ‘War on Terror’ in the Philippines

Audience research has traditionally been neglected within the subfield of popular geopolitics. However in recent years, geographers are increasingly focusing on the making of geopolitical meanings by audiences as they consume popular culture and related texts. Drawing on recent assemblage thinking in geopolitics, this paper argues that audiences form part of the animators of a network that links the human body with places, environments, objects and discourses related to geopolitics. By investigating Filipinos’ critical readings of and engagements with the ‘war on terror’ in Mindanao as represented through the national newspaper, the Philippines Daily Inquirer, the agency and power of audiences in the creative enactments of geopolitics and geography are illuminated. As such, understanding the complex interactions between popular media and its audiences can prove useful in casting insights into the everyday, geopolitical ‘playing out’ of issues of terrorism, violence and peace in the Philippines context and beyond.

Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages: The Case of the Philippines

In the Philippines, English is an official language. It is used as a medium of instruction. Yet, most Filipinos learn English as an additional language because they have various mother tongues. The diverse linguistic backgrounds of Filipinos create a challenge for both English teachers and learners of English as an additional language. As all linguists continue to think of innovative ways to teach English to speakers of Filipino languages, the Philippine context presents some particular factors that must be taken into consideration today. This study explored the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) to the teaching of English as an additional language in the Philippines. Results show that English teaching and learning in the Philippines has been successful in general but has areas for improvement. Results are based on data collected from eight individual written interviews conducted with English educators, linguistic leaders and experts of Teaching English to speakers of Other Languages in the Philippines. The study also presents some practical recommendations for English language education policies in the multi-lingual societies of the Philippines.

Equity in cross-cultural gifted screening from a Philippine perspective

This paper discusses issues on cross-cultural gifted screening from a Philippine perspective. Research on gifted education in the Philippines, and Southeast Asia in general, is still nascent. The main focus of this review of literature is on equity of the gifted education screening process across wide socioeconomic, cultural, and linguistic differences within the student population. On account of the relative lack of specific literature on Philippine gifted education, this review links the findings in gifted education research from Western-based countries and relates the findings to the Philippine context. For example, although the Philippines do not have as much of an issue of racial inequity in schools as the United States, the same inequity because of socioeconomic factors can be tackled similarly. The implication of alternative assessments, and their utility in cross-cultural gifted education, are also examined.

People’s response to disasters: vulnerability, capacities, and resilience in Philippine context

It is said that disasters, depending on the scale and magnitude, have the propensity for policy change. In the case of the Philippines, Typhoon Ondoy (international name Ketsana) served as the poli...

A synthesis of Pope John Paul II’s “Theology of the Body”

This article is an introduction to John Paul II’s catechesis on human love, also known as the Theology of the Body. In this essay, the authors highlight and explain twenty essential themes from the original text and relate some of these themes in the Philippine context. These themes revolve around the principle that the body is gift, and as such, is capable of revealing the divine image, in which every human being is made. This positive view of the body becomes possible by recapturing man’s original experience in Genesis which, according to John Paul II, has three dimensions: original solitude, original unity and original nakedness. The article summarily explains what he means by these three concepts, and then re-echoes the Holy Father’s claim that the body’s capacity to make visible the divine reality is fulfilled in Jesus Christ, who is the Incarnate Word of God. This is why the understanding of marriage found in the original text reminds us that the vocation of married love is to imitate Christ’s self-giving love for the Church. This reminder helps elevate the common secular understanding, and in this way, helps recapture the deeper beauty found in being created male and female.

Going Organic in the Philippines: Social and Institutional Features

Social, organizational, and institutional factors are important elements in the growth of organic agriculture. Through case studies of organic farms and a review of policy developments, this article examines the role of these factors in the Philippine context. Different social arrangements and a supportive environment, for example, training opportunities, resource access, and organizational support, have accompanied the growth of organic farming. The private sector and civil society groups have placed organic agriculture in the policy agenda, but the dynamics in the policy and administrative contexts has influenced as well the sustainability of policy initiatives.

Ang Landas ng Pagtatanong ni Heidegger ukol sa Teknolohiya: Pagtatalas sa Tanong sa Sein

This paper attempts to expound the thoughts of Martin Heidegger in the Filipino language. It focuses on an aspect of Heidegger's philosophy which has tremendous relevance to the modern world and the modernizing Philippine context. This paper aims to show the connection between Heidegger's philosophy of technology and his main task of elucidating the Question of Being (Seinsfrage). It argues that Heidegger's rediscovery of the historical truth of Being from the early Greeks brings him to his questions concerning technology. The paper begins with Heidegger's deconstruction of the whole history of Western metaphysics in order to retrieve a kind of thinking that is responsive to the call of Being. It also discusses Heidegger's exposition of the danger of modern technology that challenges nature to produce something for stockfilling and use. His way out of the danger is by creating an ever awake condition on the part of man. Man, as he responds to the call of Being, must retrieve his origin-al role in the destining of Being. He must be watchfull, for sleeping in a bank is a very dangerous vice.

Family size, household shocks and chronic and transient poverty in the Philippines

This research is one of the few attempts to analyze chronic and transient poverty in the Philippines. Results indicate that poverty in the Philippines is largely comprised of chronic poverty with households in rural areas and Mindanao regions being the most affected. Using quantile regressions, results show that both chronic and transient poverty are affected by negative shocks to households. Shocks in the labor market such as job loss or income reduction affect chronic poverty while natural disasters such as droughts affect transient poverty. Results also indicate that a higher dependency burden due to a large number of younger children positively affects chronic poverty but not transient poverty. Policy suggestions to lower both types of poverty in the Philippine context are provided.

Validation of the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale and an examination of a model of career adaptation in the Philippine context

This paper presents the validation of the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (CAAS) in the Philippine context. The CAAS consists of four subscales, with six items each, measuring self-regulative psychosocial resources (e.g., concern, curiosity, control, and confidence) for coping with occupational tasks and transitions. Filipino university students (N=289) and working adults (N=495) participated in the study. Internal consistency estimates for the full scale and subscales ranged from .87 to .97. Confirmatory factor analyses supported the multidimensional and hierarchical model of career adaptability. The factor structure was similar to that obtained from the CAAS international validation from 18 countries. Results also suggested that career adaptability was positively associated with adaptivity in the form of tenacious goal pursuit and flexible goal adjustment as well as with adaptation outcomes of career satisfaction and promotability. Overall, the findings confirm the utility of CAAS in the Philippine context and support the model that states higher levels of personal adaptivity (willingness) and career adaptability (competence) relate to better adaptation outcomes in terms of career success.

Equality, Justice and Identity in an Expatriate/Local Setting: Which Human Factors Enable Empowerment of Filipino Aid Workers?

This study explored which of social dominance, social identity and perceptions of organisational justice were most predictive of self-reported empowerment among aid workers in the Philippines ( N = 98). Responses to an online survey available in English and Tagalog were obtained from employees of diverse locally operating aid organisations in the Philippines. The survey included composite measures of empowerment, perceived social dominance, social identity and organisational justice. All measures except perceived social dominance performed as theorised in the Philippine context of this study. The best predictor of empowerment was the aspect of organisational justice centering on the fairness of personal interactions (interactional justice; β = .331). An interaction effect between interactional justice and aspects of empowerment and social (Filipino) identity was also observed (β = .233), implying that a secure Filipino identity may act as a buffer to consequences of injustice, all other things being equal. The overall pattern of results suggests that justice plays a more significant role than either social dominance or identity in contributing to empowerment amongst Filipino aid employees. Strikingly, interactional justice may matter more than distributive justice.

Home Away from Home: Acclimatization of Filipino Elderly from being Home to a Sense of being “At Home” in an Elderly Institution

This grounded study examined the process of acclimatization or the process of changing perspectives of a person so as to get used to or feel “at home” among a select group of Filipino elderly in a nursing care facility. As institutionalization of the elderly is not typical in the Philippine context, varied responses were analyzed to understand the factors and the course that an elderly person undergoes over a set period of time to achieve acclimatization. Twenty elderly (n = 20) residents were purposively recruited and subjected to an in-depth interview that chronicled their experiences on their previous and present lives and on the process by which they were able to adjust to a relatively new setting. Preliminarily, a robotfoto was devised to obtain demographic data including visitation frequencies and familial relationships, and this was followed by an in-depth interview. Through the constant comparison method, an interesting model called the Hourglass of Acclimatization emerged. This model yielded two distinct phases contributing to successful acclimatization. One is the Conversion phase, or imbibing the main notion of transforming one's perspectives of him or herself and his or her environment; there is also the Immersion phase, which describes how an elderly involves him or herself completely into the life he or she is supposed to live. This emerged model can contribute to the development of nursing interventions focusing on elderly experiences in the entire course of relocation to a new environment other than what they call “home.”

Sustainable sanitation in the Philippine context

During the past several decades, the word sanitation in Philippine context has meant different things to different stakeholders. For sanitation professionals, sanitation refers to any and all measures that protect human health from pathogens be it water borne, air borne or from other sources. To the water supply and sanitation service providers, it refers specifically to septage management. The MDGs and the 2008 International Year of Sanitation inspired all of us to reduce poverty by increasing access to sanitation, interpreted largely as increasing access to safe toilets. Today, the emerging definition of sanitation in the Philippines points to the hygienic and proper management, collection, disposal/reuse of human excreta (feces and urine) and domestic wastewater to safeguard the health of individuals and communities. This new definition resonates well with the new science of sustainable sanitation being promoted by a global expert group called the Sustainable Sanitation Alliance. The SuSanA defines sustainable sanitation as systems that protect and promote human health, do not contribute to environmental degradation and/or depletion of the resource base, and are technically and institutionally appropriate, economically viable and socially acceptable. This paper will trace the evolution and underpinnings of the concept Sustainable Sanitation in the Philippines context.

Liberating Dialogue: Religion, Science and integral Development

The dominant religion and science discourse has been shaped by the challenge to religious faith presented by scientific knowledge of the world as it has unfolded in scientific cultures of the West. Where science is not yet established, religious faith remains a key cultural force, and the reality of poverty and maldevelopment are the realities that shape theological discourse, what might a meaningful engagement in the discourse look like? This article presents the concrete situation of the Philippine context and looks to the works of liberation theologians for direction to reflect on religion and science in the context of work towards integral development.

Organic Agriculture: The logical sequence to modern chemical agriculture in the Philippine context

Organic agriculture, which is also described as less fossil fuel-dependent and agrochemical-free agriculture, is now perceived as the logical sequence to the food production systems which are dependent on agro-chemical inputs from production to processing. This paper discusses the situations and factors that should be considered in the crucial process of shifting approaches to food production systems to achieve food security in the new millennium. In the past, farmers shifted with government support to chemical agriculture to produce the food requirements of the burgeoning population. Soils are badly degraded from the use of chemical fertilizer and pest populations are so complex and crop failures associated with no application of pesticides are widely known. Withdrawal from agrochemical use will mean huge yield reduction without soil fertility restoration and any further yield decline is unacceptable both to the farmers and the consumers. The shift to organic agriculture requires soil fertility restoration, breeding/selection of seeds for organic agriculture, adoption of cultural management practices and shifting monocropping to diverse planting, integrated nutrient management and ecological pest management systems, among others. Farmers need full government support to shift to organic agriculture. Moreover, the society or the consumers need to realize that the shift to organic agriculture is for their own benefit, hence, they need to appreciate, understand, cooperate, patronize and put premium value to organic agriculture products. The superior quality of organic products should be appreciated and should be translated to higher price. Organic agriculture production should be complemented with a change in consumer preferences or consumption patterns. It should be translated into a demand that will lead to changes in the supply side thereby changing the agricultural production systems that our Filipino farmers currently adopt.

Populism and the Revival of Reform: Competing Political Narratives in the Philippines

The announcement by actor-politician Joseph Ejercito Estrada in October 2009 that he would run again for the presidency in the May 2010 election (dubbed his take candidacy) sent a collective shiver through the Philippine political elite and business oligarchy. Estrada had been deposed as President by an elite-led people power coup in 2001. Accused of massive malfeasance in office, Estrada was placed under house arrest, convicted and sentenced to a long-term jail term for plunder in 2007. Following the granting of an amnesty by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo a month later, he quickly let it be known that he had no intention of abiding by his promise not to seek the country's highest office again. (2) Yet with Estrada trailing far behind the front runners at the time of this writing, it appears his movie star does not have the same electoral appeal it once did. Instead, another presidential candidate, Senator Manuel Manny Bamba Villar Jr., has adapted to a changing political environment. Drawing on his own staggering wealth to finance what is probably the campaign's most extensive political machinery, he has developed what can be termed applied which employs his rags-to-riches story as a metaphor for his vision of a wealthy Philippines. Instead of appealing to voters based primarily on his screen personality like Estrada, he offers immediate financial assistance to poor contestants on televisions shows hosted by his actor allies. (3) As a political narrative, populism had long proved so powerful in the Philippine context that it could only be defeated by hook or by crook. With his direct appeals to the poor (known in the Philippines as the masa), Estrada was only one of two opposition Senators elected in 1987. In 1992, he easily won the Vice-Presidency (elected separately in the Philippines). He was elected President in 1998 by the widest margin of any candidate since the fall of dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos in 1986. Estrada's fellow actor and close friend, Fernando Poe Jr. (Ronald Alien Kelley Poe, best known as FPJ or simply as Da King) took up the populist fight after Estrada was ousted by contesting the presidential election of 2004. Although outspent, out-organized and out-muscled (Arroyo has proved to be a consummate master at guns, goons, and gold) as well as maligned by the mainstream media and loathed by the middle and upper classes, Poe nearly won the election. The Hello Garci scandal of 2005 revealed that Arroyo had been directly involved in manipulation of the presidential polls a year earlier. This suggested Poe had been cheated as had earlier challengers to the entrenched elite order, such as the elected congressional representatives of the Democratic Alliance--closely linked to the communist-influenced Hukbalahap rebels--who were unseated in a powerplay by the allies of President Manuel Roxas in 1946. (4) Philippine was so strong that it could only be stopped, like the Huks, by administration crooks. By 2009, there were signs that the dominant political narrative was shifting, however. The respected columnist and political scientist Amando Doronila has recently suggested that: there is no sign that masa [poor masses] politics is going to figure decisively in the next few months before the election ... This is 2009, not 1998, and the dynamics of the 2010 election are vastly different from those of 1998. Masa politics, or the rich-versus-poor theme, is not the name of the in 2010. (5) The sudden entry of the reformist Benigno Simeon Noynoy Cojuangco-Aquino III into the presidential race after the (politically fortuitous) death of his mother Corazon C. Aquino in August 2009 seemed to confirm this prediction. With his mother's mourners becoming his supporters, Aquino took a clear lead in the presidential opinion surveys when he entered the race in late 2009. His candidacy--which stressed the restoration of good governance in the country--was characterized as a political game changer. …