Urban water demand,climatic variation,and irrigation-water insecurity: interactive stressors and lessons for water governance from the Angat River basin (Philippines)

Climatic variation and intersectoral water competition increasingly challenge the effective provision of irrigation services. This article explores their combined effects on irrigation allocation from the Angat Reservoir (Philippines), where domestic water use in Metro Manila has overtaken regional irrigation as the dominant right-holder. Rules protecting Metro Manila’s large right to water ‘interact’ with dry spells to affect irrigation security in wet and dry seasons. Historically, irrigators were uncompensated because re-allocation’s cause was contested as (1) an unforeseeable climatic event (releasing domestic utilities of liability), or (2) produced by urban demand (requiring compensation). Trade-off rules must be prepared to navigate combinatory effects.     

Futures of Crisis,Futures of Urban Political Theory: Flooding in Asian Coastal Megacities

Coastal megacities across Asia have experienced devastating floods in recent years. Studies project dramatic increases in populations prone to chronic flooding and potential permanent inundation of densely populated urban areas in future decades. The uncertainties presented by future flood risks disrupt prevalent state visions of globalization‐driven prosperity. The emerging reality of a shift in relationship between water and urban settlements has begun driving recalibration of power relations around a range of issues, including longstanding contestations over infrastructure delivery, housing, land rights and political representation. Flood mitigation efforts have played out in debates over displacement and eviction, and distributional concerns about the costs and benefits of these initiatives. This article develops a conceptual framework for assessing the implications of projections of flood risk for urban political theory. The article begins by identifying political contestations that emerge around the varied ways water intersects with urban processes—through dynamics of permeability, flow and drainage, aquifers and pipes, and coastal defense. It then explores how projections of the crisis of flooding have reshaped three contemporary debates in urban politics: those around property rights and the question of ‘informality’; around neoliberalization and financialization; and around the rescaling of the state. Finally, it briefly deploys this framework to examine the case of Jakarta.     

Farmer Gone Fish'n? Swidden Decline and the Rise of Grouper Fishing on Palawan Island,the Philippines

Considerable research has focused on understanding how upland farmers adjust land‐based livelihoods to the influences of agrarian change in Southeast Asia. In the process, an ‘upland bias’ has emerged where researchers focus narrowly on the uplands as localities with distinct, coherent features, neglecting how families engage place, social relations and ethnicity as they access opportunities in proximate spaces. This paper considers how the Tagbanua – long considered an upland swidden people – have ‘stepped back’ from swidden agriculture due to declining yields and debt to harvest the lucrative grouper (e.g. Plectropomus leopardus). We show how Tagbanua families on Palawan Island have adjusted swidden as they negotiate social relations, ethnic cleavages and economic barriers to effectively engage the grouper industry. Rather than cast such farmers and fishers as ideal types in place, we argue that how they negotiate social relations creates new livelihood opportunities in varied environments, reinforcing the dynamic, recursive context of agrarian change.     

Neighbourhood Effects in Pesticide Use: Evidence from the Rural Philippines

This study investigates how pesticide use by neighbouring farmers affects a given farmer's pesticide use. Although it is common knowledge that pesticide use has spatial externalities, few empirical economic studies explicitly analyse this issue. Applying a spatial panel econometric model to plot‐level panel data for Bohol, Philippines, this study shows that pesticide use, especially for herbicides, is spatially correlated, although there is no statistically significant spatial correlation in unobserved shocks. This implies that farmers apply pesticides by referring to the behaviour of neighbouring farmers rather than responding directly to the intensity of their own infestation.     

Assessing the Reliability of Self‐reported Income Information in Informal Small Business Lending through a Bogus Pipeline Experiment

Coping with asymmetric information plays a major role in successful small business lending. Our purpose is to determine if small business applicants report their income information correctly when requesting a loan. We use a randomised controlled trial bogus pipeline experiment, established during a typical cash‐flow analysis of a bank for small businesses in the Philippines. The bogus pipeline approach is commonly applied in social science and aims to increase the rate of truth telling by informing participants that answers will be verified by a lie detector. The experimental data, which include 243 observations of credit clients that are mainly from the agricultural and food value chain, served to identify asymmetric information. Additionally, debtors’ repayment behaviour for approved loans was observed by the bank. Our results indicate that loan applicants of the treatment group report lower incomes, an effect which is most pronounced in lower income quantile. Our analyses also reveal higher loan delinquencies in the control group.     

Self-targeted food subsidies and voice: Evidence from the Philippines

This paper studies the targeting outcomes of a self-targeted rice subsidy program in the Philippines. We find modest within-community targeting outcomes, but weak between-community targeting. This appears to be because, controlling for the direct influence of household characteristics, participation was lower in poorer communities. These inter-community differentials are strongly correlated with several proxies for citizen “voice”, including education, income, and access to other public services. This suggests that self-targeting outcomes are not simply a function of the good selected for subsidy, but are also influenced by variations in communities’ access to usable services; that these variations favor richer communities; and that efforts to enhance consumer voice in disenfranchised communities would facilitate targeting improvements.     

Landcare and Livelihoods: The Promotion and Adoption of Conservation Farming Systems in the Philippine Uplands

Slow adoption of conservation farming systems in the Philippine uplands is a major problem. To address this, the landcare approach, based on community landcare groups, is being piloted in several locations. The results of a study to evaluate the impact of the Landcare Program in Barangay Ned in Southern Mindanao are presented. The sustainable rural livelihoods approach was used as a framework for the evaluation. The study focused on two impacts, the adoption of conservation practices and the formation and development of landcare groups, drawing on four data sources—project reports, key informants, a questionnaire survey, and case studies of landcare groups. The Ned Landcare Program has been associated with rapid adoption of conservation farming practices and the rapid formation of landcare groups linked in an association. The main effect of the Program was to enhance human capital through practical, farmer-led training and extension, enabling farmers to incorporate soil conservation and agroforestry technologies in their farming systems, with desirable outcomes for livelihood security and environmental sustainability. The social capital formed, especially through the landcare association, was crucial to these outcomes. Ongoing partnerships with adequately resourced facilitating agencies were required to maintain the Landcare Program in the long term.     

Employee reactions to voice and choice in the workplace: the influence of culture

The present study investigated the effect of culture on a much-prescribed management practice, that of employee participation in decision making. A survey was conducted among employees from two countries culturally distinct in the dimensions of power distance and individualism, namely Canada and the Philippines. Given eight decision-making scenarios that varied in terms of whether voice and/or choice was given to the employee and in terms of the importance of the outcomes, the respondents were asked about their perceptions of fairness of the procedures and outcomes, satisfaction with the procedures and outcomes, and preference for the decision-making procedures. Results show a highly significant country decision-making mode outcome importance interaction effect, but not in the directions expected. Overall, the Philippine sample registered more positive reactions to participation in decision making, although the Philippines' higher rank in power distance and lower rank in individualism than Canada seem to indicate otherwise. The results, together with a previous study conducted in high power distance-low individualism Mexico, forcefully suggest that employee participation in decision making may be successfully transferred.     

菲律宾海外劳务经营模式研究

菲律宾是世界上第一个运用"分布式经济"模式的国家,出国劳务有力支撑和推动了该国经济的发展。菲律宾对劳务输出的健全管理、系统培训、政策支持、法律保护等各种措施,都值得中国借鉴。