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FOCUS EVENTS IN THE VISAYAS

An ASEAN We Can Aspire To? Where is ASEAN Now and Where is it Taking Us?
August 19, 2008 (Tuesday), 9:00AM-5:00PM

Eduardo Aboitiz Development Studies Center (EADSC) Plenary Hall

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The Development Rountable Series (DRTS) Thematic Working Groups on Trade and Industrial Policy and Agrarian Reform and Rural Development invite you to:

Trabaho, Saka, Pangisdaan, Negosyo: Ramdam mo ba ang asenso?
on Thursday, July 10, 9 am - 5 pm UP SOLAIR Auditorium

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Internship Announcement

The Development Roundtable Series (DRTS), a project that aims to provide space for building alternative policy options and instruments on various developmental issues, opens its 2008 Summer Volunteer/Internship Program. The internship is designed to provide exciting opportunities and exposure to highly-motivated college students, graduate students and fresh university graduates.
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FOP Number 5 : Debt and Denial

Debt and denial : Or how to make sure that the Philippines will end

by Walden Bello

FINANCE Secretary Cesar Purisima recently characterized the Philippines’ debt burden as a “lingering issue.” This reflects not so much the nature of our debt problem but that the government is in denial. The truth is, the Philippine national debt that has now reached 3.8 trillion pesos, or 69 billion dollars, is out of control. Total public sector debt is now estimated at 130 percent of GDP as of the end-2003.

Of the 3.8-trillion-peso debt, 1.8 trillion pesos, or nearly half, is foreign debt, according to the official story. However, according to some sources, about 80 percent of the total debt is owed to foreign creditors, including resident foreigners.
These are indicators not of a “lingering problem” but of the biggest economic problem we face. We are staring default in the face. Yet our policymakers are paralyzed.

FOP Number 4: Desperate Martians Now Wooing Venusians

In this issue In FOP 4 we feature Walden Bello's Desperate Martians Now Wooing Venusians, an article adapted from speeches during a week-long speaking tour of Italy from Feb. 22-27, 2005 coinciding with the Bush visit to Europe. Bello is Executive Director of the Bangkok-based Focus on the Global South and professor of sociology and public administration at the University of the Philippines.
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FOP Number 3: Chronicles of Kyoto

In this issue

We feature Red Constantino's Chronicles of Kyoto. The Kyoto Protocol came into effect last February 16 with two notable dissenters- The United States and Australia. Constantino points out the extent of these two "hooligans"
contribution to global warming, " The US is the biggest greenhouse gas polluter in the world, period; Australia is the biggest emitter per capita. Australia continues to be the number one exporter in the world of coal, the dirtiest of fossil fuels, and has also sent fresh troops to Iraq, the frontline of America's petro-conflagration."

Red Constantino is Greenpeace Energy Campaigner. This article originally came out in his weekly column in the TODAY Newspaper last February 28, 2005.