SENATE President Manuel Villar Jr. is set to ask the Inter-Parliamentary Union IPM to use its collective clout in calling worldwide attention to the plight of countries encumbered by external debts and set in motion renewed efforts to push for “moratorium, condonation, or any other financial arrangements that enable debt-burdened countries to survive and rise again.”

“What happened in Africa, where the external debts of some African countries were condoned by a group of lending nations through backdoor diplomatic channels and with the intercession of celebrities noted for their antipoverty advocacy, may also be replicated in Asia and Latin America,” he said.

In a statement, Villar disclosed he is, likewise, making a personal appeal to fellow legislators from more than 140 countries attending annual IPU assembly to help solve the food and poverty problems besetting developing countries around the world.

Moving to maximize the country’s membership in the influential organization of parliamentarians to help address the nation’s pressing needs, Villar said he intends to bring the lack of food and medicine in developing nations to the attention of the IPU.

Villar added that he would also urge countries with advanced agricultural technologies and systems to help those which are perennially confronted with food shortage. “They may share their expertise in irrigation, coastal-resource management, modern-farm practices and appropriate crop nutrition and protection methods,” Villar explained.

The Senate President said he would also make an appeal to parliaments in more advanced economies to “consider modifying the international application of patents for drugs such that the duration of the protection of intellectual property rights may vary from one country to another based on the incidence and level of abject poverty.”

Villar leads the Senate delegation to the IPU 118th Assembly in Cape Town, South Africa, where he is set to deliver a speech supplementing the assembly theme “Pushing Back the Frontiers of Poverty.”

Established in 1889, the IPU is the international organization of parliaments from democratic countries around the world. The Philippines is among the more than 140 member-countries that have been actively participating in the IPU’s efforts for peace and cooperation and the promotion of representative democracy,” Villar said.

“The lack of food and medicine may be an isolated problem in the countries in North America and Western Europe. But in many parts of Asia, Africa and Latin America, the problem is at a crisis level,” he added.

“To let the prices of these survival items be dictated by the interplay of impersonal market forces, which are driven by an overriding desire to get a good return on investment, is to ignore the plight of a majority of the world’s population.”

At the same time, Villar will also urge international parliamentarians to find better ways in fighting poverty. “Like climate change and terrorism, poverty is a global menace. The IPU should spearhead the declaration of war against poverty, which must be pursued with unfailing focus, passion and continuity.”

According to Villar, “This war should make allies of all nations. However, it demands more than a grand alliance. It calls for the solidarity of all stakeholders both big and small.”

The Senate President underscored the importance of the IPU in also providing for an effective forum to address issues such as child labor, women empowerment, combating terrorism, advancement in the increasing role of civil society, among others.

“In fact, for the Philippines, because of IPU participation, we enacted legislation to address these concerns to help our people. We expect to reap great rewards from our participation and help our citizens out of the maelstrom of poverty,” he said.

THE country’s export earnings in February continued to increase and posted a year-on-year growth of 10.7 percent, according to the latest data released by the National Statistics Office (NSO) on Thursday.

THE Australian government has expressed hopes that the free-trade agreement (FTA) with New Zealand and the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) will be signed within this year to facilitate trade growth in the region and remove trade and nontrade barriers.

MORE than half of the Philippines’ potential irrigable farmlands or 1.69 million hectares do not have irrigation and the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) estimates that it would take billions of pesos to provide irrigation to all these areas.

FRUIT and vegetable farming for Crispolo Galasa, 47, is an annual activity. The time to plant, harvest or \change the crops has been an agenda he knows by heart. All of a sudden, however, the whole schedule is in shambles.

THE Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) eyes a dramatic increase in mining investments in the next three years as local and foreign companies continue to support the government’s mining-revitalization program.

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT—A medical and wellness facility, complete with diagnostic, surgical and therapeutic wards, opened here on Tuesday to offer both out-patient and surgery services to customers in the Subic Bay area and the rest of Luzon.

THE ripple effect created by the government’s biggest tourism-development project, the Bagong Nayong Pilipino-Manila Bay Tourism City, would extend beyond the local hospitality industry and long after the year 2010, when locators in the project are expected to become fully operational.

SENATE President Manuel Villar Jr. is set to ask the Inter-Parliamentary Union IPM to use its collective clout in calling worldwide attention to the plight of countries encumbered by external debts and set in motion renewed efforts to push for “moratorium, condonation, or any other financial arrangements that enable debt-burdened countries to survive and rise again.”