EDITORIAL

EDITORIAL

Unity and Coalition against Aggressive Action

CARTOON BY: LIGAYA

In response to the escalating conflict on the West Philippine Sea and China`s rising aggression, the Philippines is planning to establish a coalition with other countries to help exercise their rights over the WPS. According to Director of the UP Institute of Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea Professor Jay Batongbacal, the Philippines is opting to create a sub-ASEAN group with the objective of seeking allies to help exercise and protect their rights in the WPS by garnering the support of other ASEAN countries which will be proposed to in this year`s ASEAN Summit held in Laos next month. The idea of creating such a coalition is truly clever and with enough consistency, time and unity, this sub-ASEAN group could greatly help the Philippines in fighting for its rights against China`s aggression in the West Philippine Sea.

First of all, seeking the support of foreign countries plays a vital and beneficial role for the Philippine`s side of the conflict. Of course, seeking aid from other countries in dealing with an issue is necessary in attempting to deal with country-on-country conflicts. Having the backing of other forces not only gives you a leg-up on your foe but it also presents partner who can help strategize a solution to solve a problem in the most peaceful way possibly, in this case, the West Philippine Sea conflict.

In addition to this, such support could also provide the country with foreign moral and material assistance to aid the country in the conflict. China, both politically and physically, is one of the largest countries on the face of the earth and compared to the Philippines, leaves the country vulnerable to another Chinese “gunboat policy”. The support and backing of the International community in this case could prevent the Philippines from being pushed around by Chinese jurisdiction by giving them their support against Chinese claims and.

Moreover, creating such a group could help the Philippines better earn the trust of the International Community and sway them into siding with the country`s side. Creating a group openly welcome to other countries that are “devoted to the law” according to Jay Batangbacal can greatly help the Philippines convince other countries to stand by their side of the conflict. As stated before, the international community and its support play an imperative law in this conflict and this sub-ASEAN group could be their one-step closer to that support.

Although creating such a coalition with other countries could end up just dragging other countries into a conflict with China and even potentially damaging them materially and diplomatically, the situation is still dire and seeking allies in the international community plays a vital in helping with a conflict, both diplomatically and physically.

Lastly, the West Philippine Sea conflict is a war fought both physically and diplomatically, where allies and foreign ties play a significant role in winning. It’s important to address this because both fronts of this conflict each have their own needs, physically and diplomatically which can be addressed or backed with the help of foreign nations. As stated before, foreign support in this conflicts, regardless of form have an important role in helping the Philippines win their case, may it be providing the country with equipment to countermeasure china`s physical aggression or diplomatic support from foreign ties to help the Philippines overpower China`s influence and claims diplomatically through political solutions and talks.

To conclude, creating this sub-ASEAN group could help the Philippines fully preserve its control and rights over the West Philippine Sea and even possibly end the conflict altogether by undermining china`s prowess through the use of diplomacy and the support of the International Community. On the Philippine`s side of the entire conflict, the support it could get from other countries is their only way of achieving their goal of fighting for their rights in the West Philippine Sea. While it does indeed pose a risk of tangling other countries into this topic, creating this sub-ASEAN group could just be the solution the Philippine needs to not only win but to protect the right to what is theirs.

Education, the foundation for the future

03/09/24 | HIRAYA

The municipal mayor of Lasam, Cagayan, Danter Dexter A. Agatatep revealed his plans to further focus on Lasam`s educational prowess, stating that their administration would further focus on education for Lasam`s people and creating new programs and initiatives to further intensify their goal in improving education. Of course, this would be great news for all ears to hear but is it really necessary to focus primarily on education? and what about Lasam`s other sectors? As one would know, a municipality would have different sectors for different services, products and business such as the educational sector, industrial sector, agricultural sector and others. Although the news of the municpal mayor focusing his and accompanies` sights on the educational sector brought joy to many of its people but that doesnt help to bother the question, “Is education really that important?

In the words of the municipal mayor himself, “Yes”, Lasam`s education is indeed important to Lasam and its people and the mayor made a wise choice in further imrpoving it. Education is a significant staple in paving the way for a bright future for the municipality and its people alike. It serves as a foundation for the people`s future as it serves as their walkway to be succesful in life and with this said, they should continue with their focus in improving education. Of course other sectors need to be considered as well and there are those just as significant as the other but education is something that needs to be hastily improved and maintained.

First and foremost, focusing solely on education doesnt necessarily mean abonding other

sectors of the municipality. Its a well known fact that Lasam needs all of its sectors to fully function as a municipality. Sure the mayor of Lasam wants to improve the education sector but that does not necessarily mean that they will abandon the sectors as well. There are seperate people to deal with seperate sectors and each have their own sector to attend, maintain and imrpove. In short, each have their own job to do and focusing on the educational sector won`t necessarily affect the others.

Moreover, education truly is an important sector in any givern municipality, Lasam included as it help students succeed in their future careers as the second and up and coming new generation of Filipinos. Education prepares them for their future by eqquiping young and blossoming children with the neccessary skills, knowledge and morals to effectively pave their future to be a succesful one. Because of education, people have a chance to become successful in life, aqcuire a stable and well paying career and make their country and their family proud and that the beauty of what education can give. Its not only a staple for success, its a foundation for a successful future.

To conclude everything said, education is really an important matter for the mayor to tackle as it is vital to the lives of countless people of Lasam. No one needs to worry if the mayors decision to tackle education first will desolate Lasam`s other sectors because it wont slow down any progress, let alone it might even further improve other sectors respectively. Besides this, education serves an important role for the people as it gives them a foundation to lay their future on. Education is the foundation of the future and its important to tackle this as soon as possible.

Developing agriculture, helping the masses

03/04/24 | HIRAYA

Recently in a press conference, the Municipal Mayor of Lasam, Cagayan highlighted their achivements and plans for Lasam`s agricultural sector, stating their most recent accomplishments in the sectors with the recent revivval of their cacao, bamboo and its coconut industry. According to the mayor, the reason behind this advancment in agriculture was that most of Lasam`s people lived off the land as farmers of numerous produce such as palay, vegetables and some fruits as well as other plants such as bamboo. He later on added that reviving and improving these parts of Lasam`s agrficultural sector could further help the people as well as a source of additional income as mentioned before, many of them live as farmers.

Evidently, this was a great initiative made by the mayor and they should continue to further expand and develop their sights on even bigger and better projects for Lasam`s agricultural sector. Agriculture is an important sector as it serves as a staple for providing food and employment to people and developing this sector could even further help the agriculture industry and its output as well as the people and the farmers who work in it, its a win-win. Agriculture is important to the people in many ways and the mayor of Lasam and the Local Government Unit (LGU) should continue to to improve it.

Firstly, heightening the agricultural power of Lasam could increase the quantity and quality of its natural products. Of course, developing the agriculture industry could mean a lot of things from training its farmers to garner the necessary skills to work more efficiently and do greater task to allocating better

quality and qauntity of seeds and plants to cultivate on the land, whhich in general greatly improve the income, quantity and quality made from natural produce. This could further boost the sales of local produce from farmers as well as serve as another good source of income for shopowners, farmers and even countless citizens.

More importantly, many people live off farming the lands of Lasam and improving agriculture could further help the livelihood of countless farmers. Of course with better agriculture, farmers could make more money and even more could be employed to the agriculture business. Developing the prowess of the agricultural sector could provide more farmers with an even more stable income as well as ensure that more farmers could be employed to further work in the fields, cultivating various produces.

To conclude everything said, developing the agriculture of Lasam would be beneficial to two sides at the same time as it could help the masses of farmers in the municipality by developing their one source of income as well as boosting their production in natural products such as fruits and vegetables which could be sold as profit as the municipality`s source of natural produce to its people. In short terms, developing the agricultural sector of Lasam is a total win-win solution for both the farmers and the municipality as it benefits both sides of the same coin. The mayor and the LGU of Lasam should continue to further expand and find news ways to better improve this sector because by developing agriculture, they also help the hundreds of farmers.