OF course, there are ways around the country’s strict organ trafficking law, which allows only organ donations. Under the law, the donation must be done out of the goodness of the donor’s heart or kidneys or liver. This means cash payment must not the primary consideration but, hey, the donor can accept payment in kind such as medical coverage, insurance and even educational plans for his/her children (should something wrong happen to the donor).

Some foreigners have gotten around this law by marrying a Filipino/Filipina who just happens to be willing to donate his/her organ or has a relative willing to do the same thing. The most common practice among Taiwanese and Singaporeans looking for Filipino organs is to pay for the round-trip ticket of the donor plus companion, board and lodging abroad plus some shopping money aside from P100,000 or so for the organ itself.

In some cases, Filipino doctors charge foreigners a package deal of P1.5 million, inclusive of hospitalization and donor’s fee, as part of the country’s medical tourism program.

Even as foreigners look to the country for organs, there’s a waiting list of 4,000 among Filipinos in need of somebody else’s kidneys. Unconvinced? Just look at the proliferation of renal clinics in Metro Manila.

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Government’s extended agrarian reform program started on Wednesday. Basically, that means government will be spending another P150 billion over the next five years to try even harder to dismantle huge agricultural lands and to distribute these to its tenant farmers.

Truth to tell, the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) hasn’t done very well so far. Of the 1.42 million hectares identified for distribution, it has still a backlog of 1 million hectares. This time around, the top two provinces targeted by DAR are the plantations of Maguindanao and Negros Occidental. On average, each tenant farmer ends up with 1.7 hectares under the program.

Oh yes, the Land Bank of the Philippines will continue as the program’s financial arm (read: money bag), a strategy that has, to some extent, pushed the bank to further focus on commercial banking activities to offset increased agrarian reform receivables instead of more, well, strategic or catalytic programs aimed at helping truly transform the countryside.

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Did you know 1: Persons with disabilities (read: that’s the politically correct phrase) have made inroads in the workplace. For one, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas specifically hire the blind to detect counterfeit money with their fingers. For another, the Department of Foreign Affairs use the deaf as encoders, speeding up the processing of passports.

As everybody knows, business process outsourcing companies already use persons with disability, mind you, not just as call center agents but also as medical transcriptionists (read: somehow, the Braille system is available only in English).

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Did you know 2: There’s a proposal bill coauthored by the six congressmen of Manila seeking the return of the port area to the local city government. Right now, the port area is under the Philippine Ports Authority, which doesn’t pay any lease or share any of its revenue with the city.

Mind you, this isn’t such a quixotic idea. After all, Cebu City has already won a similar battle.

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Did you know 3: There’s now a law that makes the illegal possession of explosives of any amount (read: this includes unlicensed manufacturers of firecrackers as well as farmers into dynamite fishing and illegal loggers) a non-bailable offense. Before Republic Act 9516 was approved during last year’s Christmas season, illegal possession of explosives was a bailable offence worth P41,000.

Basically, the law reinforces the country’s antiterrorism program. And yes, illegal possession of firearms is still a bailable offense.