You Want To Learn How To Write Better? First, You Have To Learn How To Read! Second, You Have To Learn To Rewrite!

No, good writing is not easy but it’s delightful to the heart once you master it. (image from quotefancy.com)

I’m talking this time to would-be writers, or would-be better writers – you have to be a good reader first before you can be a good writer. That’s based on my wide,documented experience of 50 years, 1975-1980, from being writer & Editor In Chief (yes, instantly) of the 4 publications of Forest Research Institute (FORI); yes, all of them were my brainchildren: 3 FORI publications: monthly newsletter Canopy, quarterly technical journal Sylvatrop, and 1 quarterly color magazine Habitat. Note: All those 4 printed media, as The Editor In Chief, I made appear in 1975, or 50 years ago – that’s half a century! (Yes, FORI Director Filiberto S Pollisco approved them all.) Those were pre-Internet years.

Special Note: I did not study journalism or any related course – writing came naturally to me, promdi, from the pronvince! (A clue: My mind was full. In my hometown Asingan, Pangasinan, at the Rizal Junior College (RJC) high school department, with its free library, I became an avid reader of books – in the 1960s yet. When you are a wide reader, your world is wide, very wide.

You really want to be a writer? Then you really have to be an indefatigable writer and rewriter!

Yes: Writing is first writing, then reading, then writing, then rewriting.

If you want to be the best you can be, you have to rewrite. Even today, I the “Outstanding Alumnus for Creative Writing” for the UP Los Baños College of Agriculture (UPCA) in the 1980s (and the one-and-only so far), I always have to rewrite; you always have to rewrite. Whether you are an accomplished writer or an apprentice, you always have to rewrite.

And yes – you have to read. You have to learn from the well-known ones in history. In high school, in Asingan, Pangasinan, I was an indefatigable writer. Here is a short list of whose writings I loved to read, no need to be told: Emily Dickinson, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, William Shakespeare, John Steinbeck, Mark Twain, Walt Whitman …

You have to encourage yourself too!

How about religion? I am a Roman Catholic – does the hierarchy, from the priests to the Pope, encourage writing? Not that I know. (For me, I do not wish to write to show that Catholics serve God better than non-Catholics – Pride is a sin!)@517

So? Try and try until you succeed! (I cannot emphasize this enough.)

 

Having just celebrated my 85^th birthday Wednesday, Sept 17 (I ask to live to 117, Lord), I pledge to teach anyone who wishes to enjoy her/his writing for the public good – avoiding negatives against specific people left or right. You can disagree but don’t be disagreeable!

Why have I not mentioned “Learn how to think”? Because if you learn how to search for more info or opinion, to rewrite, you will surely learn to think more! So? Think more!@517

My Unselfish Love. At 85: Frank A Hilario

On 2025 September 17, I Frank A Hilario is exactly 85 years old, thank God! Now then, I pledge “Like More, Live More, Love More!” The above love image (from Dreamstime, de.dreamstime.com) says, “Royalty-Free Vektor”; thus inspired, immediately i say this, “The victor in love cannot be loyalty-free.”

More!

(1) Saint Augustine: “Love is the beauty of the soul.”

(2) Aristotle’s love expanded: “Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting all bodies.”

(3) H Jackson Brown Jr: “You cannot make someone love you. All you can do is be someone who can be loved. The rest is up to them.”

(4) Jimi Hendrix: “The sweet love between the moon and the deep blue sea.”

(5) Timothy Keller: “Our culture says that feelings of love are the bases for actions of love. And of course that can be true. But it is truer to say that actions of love can lead consistently to feelings of love.”

(6) New International Version: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.”

(7) John Updike: “We are most alive when we’re in love.”

(8) Mantak Chia: “In ancient China, the Taoists taught that a constant inner smile, a smile to oneself, insured health, happiness and longevity. Why? Smiling to yourself is like basking in love: you become your own best friend. Living with an inner smile is to live in harmony with yourself.”

(9) Aristotle: "Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies."

(10) Robert Mitchum: “Maybe love is like luck. You have to go all the way to find it.”

(11) Kathy Baker: “There's different kinds of love, darling. Some people you love no matter what, and others you love when the situation is right. To me, the best kind of love is no matter what kind.“

(12) Joseph Campbell: “Love is perfect kindness.”

(13) Bob Phillips: “Love is a state of mind which has nothing to do with the mind.“

(14) Henry Van Dyke: “Love is not about getting, but giving.“

(15) Marilyn Monroe: “I believe that everything happens for a reason. People change so that you can learn to let go; things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they're right; you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself; and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.“

(16) Anne Morrow Lindbergh: “Love is a force.... It is not a result; it is a cause. It is not a product; it produces.”

(17) Wayne Dyer –- “Love is forgiving and Love is for giving.”

(18) Leo Buscaglia: “Love is trusting, accepting, and believing, without guarantee. Love is patient and waits, but it's an active waiting, not a passive one. For it is continually offering itself in a mutual revealing, a mutual sharing. Love is spontaneous and craves expression through joy, through beauty, through truth, even through tears.”

(19)  Hermann Hesse: "If I know what love is, it is because of you."

(20) Anne Morrow Lindbergh: “Love is a force.... It is not a result; it is a cause. It is not a product; it produces.”

(21) Robert Breault: “Some say that true love is a mirage; seek it anyway, for all else is surely desert.”

(22) Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: “Love does not dominate; it cultivates.”

(23) David Viscott: “To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides.”

(24) Joseph Campbell: “Love is a friendship set to music.”

(25) Mahatma Gandhi: “Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.”

(26) Dr Seuss: “You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.”

(27) Rumi: “Love is the bridge between you and everything.”

(28) Eleanor Roosevelt: “The giving of love is an education in itself.”

(29) Oscar Wilde: “You don’t love someone for their looks, or their clothes, or for their fancy car, but because they sing a song only you can hear.”

(30) Elbert Hubbard: “A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you.”

(31) John Lennon: “Love is the flower you’ve got to let grow.”

(32) Albert Schweitzer: “Love is a better teacher than duty.”

(33) Harry Potter: “The best love is the kind that awakens the soul and makes us reach for more, that plants a fire in our hearts and brings peace to our minds.”

(34) Nicholas Sparks: “Love is like the wind; you can’t see it, but you can feel it.”

(35) Timothy Keller: “Our culture says that feelings of love are the bases for actions of love. And of course that can be true. But it is truer to say that actions of love can lead consistently to feelings of love.”

(36) Khalil Gibran: “One day you will ask me which is more important: My life or yours? I will say mine, and you will walk away not knowing that you are my life.”

(37) Paulo Coelho: “Life is short. Kiss slowly, laugh insanely, love truly and forgive quickly.”

(38) John Updike: “We are most alive when we're in love.”

(39) Mark Twain: “Love is not a product of reasonings and statistics. It just comes: none knows whence, and cannot explain itself.”

(40) Jules Renard: “Love is like an hourglass, with the heart filling up as the brain empties.”

(41) Chidanand Saraswati: “Love has no conditions. When we put conditions, when we put barriers and boundaries, then we lose love. Love is condition-less. Love is barrier-less. Look at the moon, sun, stars, trees. . . they are just on for everyone. When our love also flows for everyone, you become very natural.”

(42) John Keats: “I have so much of you in my heart.”

(43) Paulo Coelho: “We don't need to explain our love. We only need to show it.”

(44) e. e. cummings: “Love is the whole and more than all.”

(45): Charles Dickens: “A loving heart is the truest wisdom.”

(46): Everett Ruess: “Happiness lies in a large measure of self-forgetfulness, either in work . . . or in the love of others.”

(47): Loraine Boettner: “Although the sovereignty of God is universal and absolute, it is not the sovereignty of blind power. It is coupled with infinite wisdom, holiness and love. And this doctrine, when properly understood, is a most comforting and reassuring one. Who would not prefer to have his affairs in the hands of a God of infinite power, wisdom, holiness and love, rather than to have them left to fate, or chance, or irrevocable natural law, or to short-sighted and perverted self? Those who reject God's sovereignty should consider what alternatives they have left.”

(48) Bradley Cooper: "I hope it's okay if I love you forever."

(49) Joseph Campbell: "Love is a friendship set to music."

(50) Juno: “In my opinion, the best thing you can do is find a person who loves you for what you are. Good mood, BAD mood, ugly, pretty, handsome, what have you.”

(51) Zelda Fitzgerald: “Nobody has ever measured, not even poets, how much the heart can hold.”

(52) Hermann Hesse: “If I know what love is, it is because of you.”

(53) Jane Austen: “If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more.”

(54) Bob Reiner: “When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you wamt to rest of your life to start as soon as possible.”

(55) Jerry Maguire: “You had me at hello.”

(56) Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: “You are my heart, my life, my one and only thought.”

(57) Carl Sagan: “For small creatures such as we, the vastness is bearable only through love.” 

(58) Lee Brice: “Be a best friend, tell the truth, and overuse ‘I love you.’”

(59) Loraine Boettner: “Although the sovereignty of God is universal and absolute, it is not the sovereignty of blind power. It is coupled with infinite wisdom, holiness and love. And this doctrine, when properly understood, is a most comforting and reassuring one. Who would not prefer to have his affairs in the hands of a God of infinite power, wisdom, holiness and love, rather than to have them left to fate, or chance, or irrevocable natural law, or to short-sighted and perverted self? Those who reject God's sovereignty should consider what alternatives they have left.”

(60) Antoine De Saint-Exupery: ‘True love is inexhaustible. The more you give, the more you have.”

(61) Charles Bukowski: “If I never see you again, I will always carry you inside, outside; on my fingertips and at brain edges and in centers, centers of what I am, of what remains.”

(62) JRR Tolkien: "I would rather share one lifetime with you than face all the ages of this world alone."

(63) Milan Kundera: “Love is the longing for the half of ourselves we have lost.”

(64) Elvis Presley: “Take my hand. Take my whole life, too. For I can’t help falling in love with you.”

(65) Taylor Jenkins Reid: “If you are intolerable, let me be the one to tolerate you.”  

(66) Henry David Thoreau: “There is no remedy for love but to love more.”

(67) Leo Tolstoy: “All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love.”

(68)  Martin Luther King: “Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.”

(69) Nat King Cole: “The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.”

(70) Helen Keller: “The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.”

(71) Katharine Hepburn: “Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get: only with what you are expecting to give: which is everything.”

(72) Anonymous: “Thinking of you keeps me awake. Dreaming of you keeps me asleep. Being with you keeps me alive.”

(73) Helen Keller: “What we have once enjoyed we can never lose. All that what we love deeply becomes a part of us.”

(74) Elie Wiesel: “The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.”

(75) Lao Tzu: “Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.”

(76) Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: “Love and desire are the spirit's wings to great deeds.”

(77) Jules Renard: “Love is like an hour glass, with the heart filling up as the brain empties.”

(78) Kathy Baker: “There's different kinds of love, darling. Some people you love no matter what, and others you love when the situation is right. To me, the best kind of love is no matter what kind.”

(79) Oscar Wilde: “Who, being loved, is poor?”

(80) Mike Flanagan: "It's you. It's me. It's us."

(82) William W Purkey: “You've gotta dance like there's nobody watching, Love like you'll never be hurt, Sing like there's nobody listening, And live like it's heaven on earth.”

(83) Martin Luther King Jr: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”

(84) Friedrich Nietzsche: “It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.”

(85) Frank A Hilario: “Love is as deeply and as lovely as we make it!”@1923

Just being Editor in the field of Agriculture and neither an environmentalist nor a psychologist, I am quite disturbed to read “Human Connection To Nature Has Declined 60% In 200 Years, Study Finds” by Monique Moate (03 April 2023, End Time Headlines, wd  cnews6.com). That explains many bad/sad things to me!

I say”
“Not BAD” – If you “simply commune with nature” by “being there” in the open, you are not influencing Mother Nature, simply enjoying what she has or is for you.

“BAD” – A farmer is trying to play God by trying to influence the relationships of living beings that God created in the world and on his field – that he must appreciate, not exterminate.

I believe, given those examples, directly my well-being depends on me, primarily on me, not the Creator, not God, not Mother Nature.

Considering that, I say the well-being of a farmer depends primarily on him, not the Supreme Being. His behavior in the field greatly influences the outcome of what he does as a farmer, the Laws of Nature having been declared long before the farmer was born.

Farmer or not, according to Ms Monique:

“Computer modelling predicts that levels of nature connectedness will continue to decline unless there are far-reaching policy and societal changes – with introducing children to nature at a young age and radically greening urban environments the most effective interventions.”

Ah! Along with radically greening urban environments, I would insist on radically greening all those rural environments, especially the farms!

And how do we green the farms? Simple: Prohibit the farmers from burning anything on it, from spraying any chemicals on any “unwanted” species, We show them how “dead leaves turn into life-giving materials” by adding life to growing plants, farmer crops or not! In short: Natural Fertility.

And how do we get the farmers to obey such a command? Simple: Teach them to produce their own organic fertilizers!

In fact, I know of 13 ways by which we can farm successfully without using chemicals – without having to follow the strict rules in producing organic fertilizers that some environmentalists dictate. These 13 practices are called, collectively, Regenerative Agriculture (RA):
(1) Cover Cropping,
(2) Crop Rotation,
(3) Farm Crops + Tree Crops (Agroforestry),
(4) Green Manuring,
(5) Intercropping,
(6) Multiple Cropping,
(7) No-Till Farming,
(8) Organic Fertilization,
(9) Ratooning,
(10) Rotational Grazing,
(11) “Three Sisters” Planting,
(12) Trap Cropping, and
(13) Trash Mulching.

My personal list, I must point out. With such a list, not a single farmer has any good reason for avoiding Regenerative Agriculture.

Farmer, if you love Farming, you must love Mother Nature and not Chemicals loving Mother Nature!

The heart of the matter lies in connecting with Mother Nature, I Agriculturist say. If there is no such connection, there is no obedience to the laws of Mother Nature! (No, I did not learn that in school, at UP Los Baños College of Agriculture, now UPLB. It’s personal observation.) Mother Nature knows best!@517

 

 

Poor Logic! PH CA Justice Antonio Bruselas Jr Pushing For “Filipino” As Primary Court Language; As A UPLB-Taught Teacher, I Say “Justice Does Not Depend On Language But Logic!”

Jane Bautista writes in the 11 August issue of Inquirer.Net (newsinfo.inquirer.net):

“To bring judiciary closer to people” is the rationale for Associate Justice Apolinario Bruselas Jr of the Court of Appeals in Manila even as he has been trying for more than a decade to cause a ripple of change in the system by writing (his) decisions in Filipino.”

Atty Bruselas, this is not simply a question of justice. It is first a question of (1) truthfulness followed by the (2) ability to translate – #1 is more important than #2. Justice is all logic. (“Logic” image source Shutterstock, shutterstock.com, “2 heads” from Shutterstock.com).

(Also, the translators should have an Editor In Chief, no kidding.)

No Sir! It is not language that is important in giving justice to anyone anywhere – it is logic. And logic can be explained in any language.

Now then, how do we explain, with or without a court case finished or not finished, how justice is playing in the field of agriculture, where we find that millions of Filipino farmers are poor!?

My own answer to my own question is: “Justice is not playing in the farmers’ fields! Why should farmers be poor who toil night and day with the soil?”

“To bring justice closer to the people” is not simply to speak their language – especially in the Philippines where there are multi-languages, but to make sure that the people understand in their language what they are going through in and out of court, that which is in English.

More importantly – Forget the language, Atty! The Philippines has 5 million native speakers (Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org): Tagalog, Cebuano, Ilocano, and Hiligaynon. In addition, there are 7 languages with between 1 and 5 million native speakers: Central Bikol, Waray, Kapampangan, Pangasinan, Maguindanao, Maranao,  and Tausug.

What is more important than understanding the (English) language of the court is understanding the logic of the law. I can understand the logic of the court only if I can understand the logic of the law!

Example: What is most important to me right now, as an Editor In Chief in Agriculture (if self-appointed) – is to bring to the farmers the literature of farming that will bring about the prosperity of all farmers, big and small! That would be justice for all. Literature that they would understand. No, Sir, not simply a problem of translating from English to any of the Filipino languages.

Voltaire says, “It is better to risk saving a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one.” Applying that, it is better to risk saving the poor in their poverty than condemning somebody else for that poverty!

Now then, instead of condemning the current set of technologies of farming, I prefer to offer a qualitatively and quantitatively different set of technologies for agriculture. It’s called “Regenerative Agriculture.” No, I did not invent that set; the term was masterminded by Robert Rodale.

and yes, RA reinvents Agriculture eveywhere. Brilliant logic!@517

President Fidel Valdez Ramos – The One President I Would Have Supported If He Declared Another Martial Law, That Time To Modernize Philippine Economy!

We are talking here of heroes in the field and on paper, both Ilocanos like me – Ferdinand Edralin Marcos (FM) from Ilocos Norte was a Hero on Paper and Fidel Valdez Ramos (FVR) from Pangasinan was a Hero in the Field. Now, FM was a good President, but ambition got the better of him; FVR was a good President too, but ambition failed him. (image from YouTube.com)

FM held on to his ambition of power;
FVR could have en-Visioned a New Philippines: like Nasyon nga Naraniag ken Umili nga Naragsak (Bright Country and Happy People). FM had the first in his plan; he stopped short of the second. He may have been thinking outside himself and his family, but not thinking of Filipinos achieving for themselves.

And elsewhere, I myself was only thinking of my Ilocano family!

So, as a form of saying goodbye to my townmate President, who died yesterday, July 31, I have written this article, declaring:

Mr Ramos, you could have done more and better after Mr Marcos!

I’m talking now of Visionary Leadership.

What the Philippines needs today is a Blueprint for Archipelagic Development (BAD). (BAD would have been good for FM.)

If I have learned anything from former PH Secretary of Agriculture William Dar, who played the unmatchable & stellar role as Director General who brought the nternational Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) from last place to first place in the achievement list of members of the international CGIAR Group, it’s this:

·      You need Vision (institutional ambition)

·      Your Mission will bring you to the achievement of that Vision.

·      Your Vision & Mission will bring you to your desired Destination.

So!

What Ferdinand “BBM” Marcos Jr needs to do is demand that his Secretary of Agriculture come up with a blueprint for a New Philippine Agriculture – Agrikulturang Pataba ng Pilipinas! (Agpataba!)

Fertilize the soul of this country, not simply the soil!

Of course, you will need a new and experienced and determined and visionary Secretary of Agriculture to do that: my candidate is “old” William Dar, from Ilocos Sur. BBM, of course you know him – Dar was the one whom you unceremoniously replaced when you became PH President. Please correct your mistake now!

What did Mr Dar say then?

"Ang legacy po natin ay may direksyon ang sektor ng agrikultura (Our legacy is that the agriculture sector has direction), ‘yung (the) thinking, it led to a new food security development framework. There was the global summit of the food systems approach so we made our own version of that, sinama na natin ito lahat sa (we rolled everything into the) OneDA Reform Agenda. That's a legacy. We have a direction for the future. It will be the solid foundations of the sector."

What my townmate and PH President FVR had not seen, and what current President BBM has not grasped, is that the Philippines needs an enriching mind managing the whole agriculture of the nation. Total agriculture!@517

“Farmer Poverty & The Philippine Crisis” According To UPLB Prof Ted Mendoza. Here Comes Me, The Editor In Chief!

On the Internet, our UP Los Baños science friend Prof Teodoro C Mendoza has just come up with a book-length treatise on what ails Philippine Agriculture, titled “Farmer Poverty & The Philippine Crisis.”

No, he did not ask me to edit that manuscript. Excuse me, but once an editor, always an editor,

Since I graduated with a BSA Ag Edu from UP Los Baños in 1964, with a background reading English and American literature starting in my high school days at the reading-rich Rizal Junior College in Asingan, Pangasinan –  I slowly began to become The Editor In Chief (TEIC) who questioned everything in sight. Well, that’s the perfect attitude of a TEIC!

Prof Ted cites many factors associated with Poverty:

1.     Corruption in govt spending

2.     Overpopulation

3.     Corrupt leaders

4.     Children leav(ing) farms

5.     Rent-seeking political allies

Prof Ted’s is one way of looking at Farmer Poverty – from the Inside of government – I look at farmer poverty from the Outside. But as the ideal TEIC, I always want to simplify, and it’s as simple as this:

Modern Farming: High Costs = Low Returns.

1.     Farmers don’t know how to save? They have nothing to save! How can you enjoy Much Returns when you are burdened by Much Costs?

2.     Farmers are not enjoying the best harvests they can get from their farms – instead, they incur so much damage from pests. That is because the crops do not grow naturally and the insect pests love the chemically grown crops!

Prof Ted says:

“… the Philippines’ endemic poverty, unchecked population growth, labor export dependence, and spiraling indebtedness are (neither) natural phenomena nor failures of isolated governance – but the result of deliberate structural sabotage.”

“Sabotage” – I will leave the reply to government experts. Me, I’m simply convinced that if our farmers practiced Regenerative Agriculture (RA), they will redeem themseleves from the eyes of their families, as with their country.

Under RA:

(1)  Crops grow with low costs.

(2)  Crops yield high harvests.

(3)  No need for pest & disease control by chemicals.

An enumeration of RA should be enough:
(1) Cover Cropping,
(2) Crop Rotation,
(3) Farm Crops + Tree Crops (Agroforestry),
(4) Green Manuring,
(5) Intercropping,
(6) Multiple Cropping,
(7) No-Till Farming,
(8) Organic Fertilization,
(9) Ratooning,
(10) Rotational Grazing,
(11) “Three Sisters” Planting,
(12) Trap Cropping, and
(13) Trash Mulching.

Prof Mendoza mentions “unchecked population growth” – that argument becomes personal because I have thirteen (13) children with only one (1) wife! In any case, “unchecked population growth” assumes that the economy is doing well – and I know that my country’s economy is unwell under current national leaderhip.

What I know based on my UPLB training and personal outside-UPLB readings & learnings is that in agriculture, we insist on scientist-determined crop growth patterns and products and not nature-based results such as crop outputs from organic matter-enriched soils.

Prof Mendoza? Perhaps we can conduct a side-by-side actual study comparison of the actual ways we believe should be practiced by farmers?@517

The Internet As An Open Library – Why Are The Young Ones Evidently Enjoying It While We The Old Ones Are Largely Ignoring The Hidden Treasures?

The Internet is an open door to any kind of information, or dis-information. We adults eveywwhere via the Internet should be learning more while the children are all scrolling & schooling!

What’s missing in the above image of young ones focused on their individual digital spaces in the Internet, no crowding? (image from sg.images.search.yahoo.com). The Search for Entertainment is obviously there, if invisible; the Search for Knowledge is anything but obvious.

If you ask me, what’s missing is an adult with his/her gadget roaming the vast spaces of the digital “universe” – not simply “world” – pursuing one’s own agenda of knowledge.

And the above image, which I now title “Internet Youth,” you can view it this way:

You see how I look at the same scene as the person selling any of those gadgets? I’m selling knowledge while s/he is selling devices!

The Teacher that I am says: “Today, Learning is not simply Schooling. It is roving the vast digital world of knowledge and determining for yourself what is True and what is False – or Maybe.

Scrolling is exploring the vast, largely unexplored universe of the Internet – and you don’t know what you learn until you do!

The Internet companies are not really targeting the families, only the ones whose members they believe would be most interested in modern gadgets: young son, eldest daugther, young daughter, eldest son… not to mention friends from faraway places.

At first glance, the top image is a welcome scene – everyone busy in one’s own world, not disturbing anyone else!

Do we now have enough gadgets in the Philippines? Says our source:

“In the Philippines, “households with access to the Internet rose to 13.56 million nationwide last year, or 28.8 percent, from the 17.7 percent in 2019, according to a survey conducted by the Philiippine Statistics Authority and the Department of Information and Communications Technology.“

Here is the news, “No Internet Access,” Philippine Star 21 July 2025:

Households with access to the Internet rose to 13.56 million nationwide last year, or 28.8 percent, from the 17.7 percent in 2019, according to a survey conducted by the Philiippine Statistics Authority and the Department of Information and Communications Technology.

While any improvement is a positive development, it’s still disheartening to know that more than half of households nationwide still lack Internet access in the digital age. This lack of access to one of the basic learning tools can only aggravate the education crisis that the country faces.

To this digital hound, I am more concerned about cultivating the soil with those who have gadgets and yet use them merely or mostly to talk to people and while away the time.

Schoolteachers have to teach beyond the classroom!

And local governments have to assist families so that they can have Internet anytime!

What the teachers can teach in terms of excavenging the wealth of the Internet is how a student can discover one’s wished-for riches in terms of knowledge and skills!@517