In my younger years as a social activist around the 1970s I came across and got fascinated with a Chinese saying, “Women own half the sky.” What that meant to me was that men can only make half of what could possibly happen.

Four decades have gone by since then. Today we see a world still very much dominated by men. It’s a world that counts more than a billion poor and hungry—majority of them women—caught up in the cross fires of wars and civil conflicts in different places and subjected to various forms of discrimination, social exclusion, political oppression.

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We at Halalang Marangal sat down to discuss the ad and realized that all the information contained there, analyzed carefully and taken together, actually meant that as of March 8, the AES probability of success had become unacceptably low. We even tried to be generous in our assessment, and gave the company some benefit of the doubt (where it was possible to do so!), but the numbers still led to a low probability of success.

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MANILA, Philippines – With less than three months to go before the country embarks on its first ever national-level automated elections, a group of farmers, fisherfolk, indigenous peoples, and community leaders were presented with a Precinct Count Optical Scanner (PCOS) machine that will be used during the May 10, 2010 national and local polls.

The Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM), the country’s oldest NGO, along with its partners the Citizens’ Movement for Good Governance (CMGG), organized a “Voter Education Forum and the Automated Election Systems” last February 19, 2010 at the PRRM National Headquarters.

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On January 16, 2010, at 1:00 in the afternoon, nine hopefuls, including two guides, finally reached the peak of Mt. Palay-Palay (Maragondon, Cavite) after six long hours of trudging and slogging up and down its steep and rocky slopes.

We were there, 664 meters above sea level, awed and charmed by the rewarding panoramic and picturesque view of the vast seas and mountain ranges. The sun was glaring hot but the tiredness and thirst drifted away with the cool and calming breeze that brought a genuine feeling of accomplishment.

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The year gone by was a singularly difficult year of transition. PRRM went through two major changeovers—at the executive and at the board level—while the world was shaking from an unprecedented global crisis that affected our nation, our local communities, our Movement.

We saw through these trying and troubled times and emerged stronger than we had imagined. Now, we look forward to another three years (2010-2012) of stabilization and further strengthening of our Movement.

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(Copenhagen, 20 December 2009). It started on high hopes and ended up heartbroken. The outcome of the Copenhagen event that drew the participation of more people than any seen in previous UN summits indeed broke the hearts of millions.

People around the world expected their leaders to help avert climate catastrophe. Which means coming out with nothing less than strong, bold, and legally-binding agreements to stabilize the global climate system.

But the Copenhagen climate conference (UNFCCC COP 15) might be remembered more as a rare summit of failure than Obama’s claim of a ‘step forward’. A rare gathering of 192 heads of states, and for what?

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To usher in the year 2010, PRRM hosted a three-day visit of two colleagues from the rural reconstruction family in the Asian region. Dr. Lau Kin Chi of the Chinese rural reconstruction and a professor at the Lingnan University in Hong Kong, and Dr. Arjun Karki, President of the Rural Reconstruction Nepal (RRN), were in the Philippines last January 4-6, 2010 for a series of meetings with the PRRM Board of Trustees and officers.

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Setting-up an ecological solid waste management system in GK Culiat

Since mid-2009, PRRM has been helping a Gawad Kalinga village in Culiat, Quezon City set up an ecological solid waste management (ESWM) system in the community. PRRM provided several trainings in partnership with GK-Green Kalinga on ESWM and will continue to monitor its implementation this year.

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Nine students from the University of the Philippines Los Banos have been assigned to PRRM branches in Cavite and Nueva Vizcaya under the UPLB Supervised Field Experience Program. The students are currently taking Human Ecology major in Social Technology, and will be interned in PRRM from January 20 to March 31 this year.

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On July 17, 2009, a new Board of Trustees to serve for the term 2009-2012 has been formed by the PRRM National Council. The new Board is composed of Former Senator Wigberto E. Tanada, Mr. Edicio G. dela Torre, Mr. Isagani R. Serrano, Mr. George K. Sanchez, Dr. Amelou Benitez-Reyes, Mr. Librado B. Abesamis, Mr. Ronald Allan A. Barnacha, Mr. Raul Roi B. Borejon, Alaminos City Mayor Hernani A. Braganza, Dr. Lorenzo C. Lapitan, Jr., Mr. Horacio R. Morales, Jr., Ms. Ana Maria R. Nemenzo, Mr. Marlon P. Palomo, Ms. Mary Racelis, and Mr. Joselito A. Tambalo.

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