Author Archives: Ingming Aberia, ingmingaberia.com

About Ingming Aberia, ingmingaberia.com

Ingming Aberia is a student of baby talk.

Remembering Sisa

In Jose Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere, Sisa (some historians say the name was taken from his older sister Narcisa) is the mother of two teenaged boys—Crispin and Basilio. The boys worked as Sacristan apprentice in a parish where the priest—Father Salvi, among others, accused them of stealing church collections. Sisa’s husband was a pest, drunkard… Read More »

Open Government Contracting

A relatively new discipline pertaining to procurement and contracting bodes well for government and other organizations that spend public funds, such as non-government organizations. This emerging field is called Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS), developed in 2014 by the World Bank with support from the Omidyar Network. OCDS, according to open-contracting.org, is an open data… Read More »

Even a Fool Would Know

My love for you is obvious, says an Air Supply song, that even a fool would know. The government’s resolve to clean government, kill criminality and move the country to first world status is clear as daylight, suggests the satisfaction rating surveys, that Sal Panelo’s brilliant paternosters are easily understood even when you mute the… Read More »

Balangiga and the IDPs in My Mind

From mid-2003 to sometime in 2006, I was part of a team that facilitated community meetings in Balangiga, Eastern Samar. Ours was one of several teams working in poor municipalities selected by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) for its KALAHI CIDSS Project. The project applies community participation processes to the planning, implementation,… Read More »

Traffic, Imagined from Afar

The vehicular traffic problem in major cities, particularly Metro Manila, has gone from bad to worse. It has crippled everyone—commuters, motorists, private companies and public agencies, among others. A 2018 Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) study estimated the economic cost of traffic congestion in Metro Manila alone at 3.5 billion pesos daily, which can be… Read More »

From the Philippines to the World, with Love

Within a span of 4 or 5 generations from now, the Philippines can conquer the world, not with missiles and bullets, but with the loving presence of its care givers and health care workers. To achieve this long-term goal, the government must take basic steps now. By 2050, it is possible that a hectare of… Read More »

In the Wild, the Fittest Survives

There are two approaches by which the Philippines can free itself from China’s tightening friendship grip. One can be completed over the short term; the other one can be done over the long term. Both will take a process that needs to be started now. But before we proceed, let us take a glance at… Read More »

Stopping the Dragon

Following last week’s contention that while China now thinks it is time to pounce on its prey, like what a Komodo dragon does when it hunts for a meal, I wish to add that the strategies by which China is trying to establish regional hegemony are still evolving. Gone was reformist leader Deng Xiaoping’s advice… Read More »

The Way of the Dragon

China invading the Philippines? That’s old news. A long, long time ago, even before the Europeans reached our shores, the Chinese were already making fortunes from barter trade with the natives. These “chinky-eyed” invaders—no need to disclose anything: I am chinky-eyed too—adapted to places wherever their journeys brought them. They assumed local-sounding names, especially for… Read More »

Senator Jose Dira Avelino

The name of Jose Avelino is mentioned—almost invariably—with contempt. That is because he is largely remembered for this quote: “What are we in power for?” He came down in history books as the guy whose candor exposed the creepy nature of what he and his kind do for a living, which is quite apart from… Read More »

PDP Laban: A Fake Ruling Party in Agony?

For the first time since its founding in 1982, the Partido ng Demokratikong Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan, or PDP Laban, found itself swept to power when its candidate for President—Rodrigo Duterte—won by an overwhelming majority vote in 2016. But his association with the party is at best illusory; by all indication, the PDP Laban which is… Read More »