Letter to Agriculture Secretary Prospero Alcala

Our beloved Quezon Province now has a population of 1.82 M.With a low rank of no. 17 on Human development index ( a perennial laggard compared to other CALABARZON Provinces),and an unemployment rate of 7.3% we are facing the worst nightmare of economists:population explosion and widespread unemployment.

As your provincemate who believed that our people deserved a better future, please allow me to propose one project that will create positive maximum domino effect to our Quezon Province Economy.

As our agriculture secretary, kindly spearhead the creation of QUEZON PACKAGING SERVICES AND PACKING CENTER. This center will make generic packaging materials for micro, small and medium enterprises of the province. Packaging in boxes, bottles and vacuum packaging will make the product of Quezon Province available nationwide and can be exported with your full support.

Your provincemate will help you in the following ways:

1. The Quezon Chamber of Commerce and industry can identify what products can be included for packaging. They can help also on the marketing.

2. The colleges/universities can contribute like Sacred Heart College for the feasibility Study, Enverga University for design ,CEFI for marketing, and QNAS for food technology.

3. The Provincial Government of Quezon can look for financing of the QUEZON PACKAGING SERVICES AND PACKING CENTER since this entity will be government owned.

4. The DOST Quezon will train people for the packaging and will handle the initial operation.

5. The QUEZON PACKAGING SERVICES AND PACKING CENTER to maximize profit will be offered also to other SME in CALABARZON.

You see my dear Secretary Alcala, if we can combine the bright minds of Quezon Province, we can do a lot of things to make the lives of our provincemate better.

Very truly yours,

Arnel L. Cadeliña

How to make the Philippines prosperous?

Skilled workers are leaving the country to find work in foreign lands. Many of them were treated as slaves and thousands toiled in back breaking jobs. You can find them as household servants in palaces and homes of rich people.

With the myriad problems besetting the country, they lost their sense of dignity and just trying to survive in the midst of their powerful neighboring countries.

The Philippines?. NO. It was Israel during the time of prophet Isaiah.

The time when their race was looked down upon as inferior, incompetent and powerless.
In the midst of these heart-wrenching problems , Isaiah wrote an effective solution which after following it made Israel a prosperous nation.

The Solution?. Let us read, Isaiah 58:

" Remove the chains of oppression and the yoke of injustice, and let the oppressed go free. Share your food with the hungry and open your homes to the homeless poor. Give clothes to those who have nothing to wear.
Then the darkness around you will turn to the brightness of noon. And I will always guide you and satisfy you with good things. I will keep you strong and well. You will be like a garden that has plenty of water. Like a spring of water that never runs dry. Your people will rebuild what has long been in ruins, building again on the old foundations" .

The letter of Isaiah was proven and any country, organization or family can be prosperous if we will just listen and follow the prescribe solution

UPCAT,ACET,USTET:Letter to CHED

It's the time of the year when parents of high school students and their 3rd year HS daughter/son are busy preparing for entrance exams.
Of all entrance tests, the mothers of them all are the tests of the four universities: ADMU, UP, UST and DLSU. The exams are tough and getting in are tougher because usually they admit only whose scores are the top 20%.
Why the fixation on the four?. How about the "2nd tier" colleges/universities that also offer quality education?.
It is about time for CHED to help strengthen the colleges and universities in the provinces in order for them to earned the Center of Excellence (COE) or Center of Development(COD) seal. This seal will serve as quality assurance that will serve as guide for the parents of choosing a college based in the province. This will erase the fixation to the four universities in Manila and erase the belief that quality education is based only in the NCR.
Further, the CHED should regularly published the list of COE and COD in leading newspapers and provide also copies to the top 1000 corporation for awareness purposes.
If CHED will not act on this, they are perpetuating education for the elite that will eventually result on the slow motion demise of the middle class. The class who economists believed are the true backbone of democracy

Top Universities in RP

Top Universities in the Philippines for 2010, according to Times Higher Education-Quacquarelli Symonds or THE-QS are:

1. Ateneo de Manila ( No. 58th in Asia)
2. University of the Philippines (78th in Asia).
3. UST (101 in Asia)
4. De La Salle University (106 in Asia).

Congratulations! (especially to the Thomasians who surpassed the green archers!).
May other Philippine colleges and universities aspire to be included in the 2011 THE-QS survey

Leadership 101

A student of mine asked how he will select a leader in his college organization. I asked, why is he interested when being a leader means that the number of concerns will jump and criticisms will multiply.
But I remember my old professor who said to me “"For everyone to whom much is given, of him shall much be required." -- Luke 12:48 . Well , then it is second nature for us to seek leadership.
From working in the academe and in the corporate, I found out that there is no single "best" style of leadership. There is no set of characteristics that can describe the most “effective” leadership styles.
I also believed that leaders do not require a formal position and I as grow older it is very clear to me that leadership begins when the person start to love himself/herself and how this love is experienced by people around him/her.
This leader who emanates love is always tapping into other peoples' passion—and create an environment for innovation. This results in a world/organization/club to which people want to belong

Choosing wisely

A recent graduate is very lucky that he was offered 2 jobs from 2 corporations belonging to top 1000. In an era of joblessness, he is indeed in a very lucky situation.
His question to me is which company he will choose?. I remember an article from Fortune magazine on how to rate a company. If my memory serves me right, the following are the criteria. He need only to say yes or no:

The company is Innovative...........................
The company believes in quality
Of management ....................................

The company values long-term
Investment........................................

The company has the ability to
Attract & keep talented people....................

The products or services of the
Company is sound .................................

The financial condition is sound .................
The company is using wisely their
Corporate assets..................................

From the above scale, he can rank the 2 companies and decide wisely. Good luck to him!.
Arnel L.