The True Face of Paradise

The True Face of Paradise:

The Philippines and Its Struggle Between Life and Death 

            The funeral was bittersweet as tangible sorrow welled in reddened eyes and slid down the cheeks of the bronze natives, the creams and caramel faces of the international volunteers. It was one of those warm, sunny days in the Philippines where the wind blows in gentle gusts; and the summer breeze breathed on the faces and through the hair of the mourners as they sang in unison. The year was 1993, and the soft blend of voices was comforting as the words spoke of hope even in death.

            The child who was buried that day was one of four infants in the Gunderson Baby Home (the name I know it by) in Antipolo who died over a single week that December from a measles epidemic. The policy, in the Philippines, made it mandatory for each hospitalized baby/child to have a helper, who would stay with them in the government hospitals to change them, clean them and to provide overall care for them. Because the hospitals did not stock medical supplies (or only carried a bare minimum), they would present a list of necessary materials—such as medicines or intravenous drips—to the patient’s caretaker, or friends and family, who would then need to purchase and present them to the hospital before any medication could be administered. In some cases, the sick children were so far from the hospital, that nothing could be done in the first place. With other children, as was the case in the Gunderson Baby Home—officially entitled: “The Little Children’s Home,” (or “Shiphrah Bahay Paanakan”)—a general lack of resources and people to care for the young children meant that they could not be treated at all.

            The 1993 World Development Report, published by Oxford University Press, said that in the Republic of the Philippines, insurance accounted for less than 5 percent of total health spending, and that an overwhelming number of nurses—counting 2,000 to 3,000—are exported from the Philippines per year (155). The Philippine Nurses Association estimated at that time that “of 150,000 registered Filipino nurses, 90,000 [were] working overseas” (Broad and Cavanagh 13).

            The Philippines’ health-care system suffers tremendously, as it is the number one exporter of nurses and the second highest exporter of doctors in the world (Broad and Cavanagh 13). Robin Broad and John Cavanagh explain that “despite a desperate health crisis in the Philippines in which 30-40 percent of the need for nursing personnel is unmet, and despite the fact that the majority of Filipinos live and die without receiving any kind of professional health care at all,” those lucky enough to be hired are more inclined to work overseas because the indigenous jobs are scarce and pay poorly (13).

            One positive side to this is that large remittances or tax revenues from overseas workers, such as these exported health professionals, can improve the standard of living in the nation as a whole (Oxford University Press, 155). In fact, in 1998, it was partially because of these remittances from overseas workers that the Philippine archipelago was “less severely affected [than its neighbors] by the Asian financial crisis” of that year (“Philippines”). However, one might wonder if the lack of an autonomous economic system, per se, has a detrimental effect on the sense of self-worth of the nation’s children when in comparison with those living in other nations of the world. In measuring a nation’s future success by the extent by which its citizens believe in it would be unfavorable in the case of the Philippines. Broad and his colleague noted that while visiting the nation, when they occasionally asked a child what she or he desired to be as an adult, many claimed the desire to be American (Broad and Cavanagh 17). In fact, “when asked in a 1982 survey what nationality they would want to be, only 10 out of 207 Filipino elementary students chose Filipino” (17). Even a renowned Filipino movie director admitted that “at a young age, [his] ambition was to be an American” (17).  Not only is there a tremendous lack of national pride, but many Filipinos are inclined to go elsewhere to work, because there is also a greater sense of pride in having a job in such areas as Saudi Arabia, Japan, Hong Kong and the United States, as examples (Broad and Cavanagh 14). People know that if somebody works in one of these places, they must get a better income and have a better-off financial situation than most. The effect of the large migration of workers to areas outside the Philippines is detrimental to the family unit, as a parent returns home after spending years overseas to find that his or her nearly-grown children are practically strangers (Broad and Cavanagh 15).  Another factor that has an effect on workers’ decisions to migrate or stay at home is the number of jobs available in their field of expertise. Almost half of the Filipino labor force works in service, with agriculture—primarily farming and fishing—at 36 percent and industry at 16 percent, according to the CIA’s “The World Factbook” (“Philippines”). In their travels to the Philippines, Broad and Cavanagh (on separate occasions) asked a fisherman and a peasant woman what their children would do when they grew up, and both gave similar answers: For the man, “…there will be no fish for my son to catch,” and for the woman, “There will be no soil left by the time our children are grown” (17).  The problem for future generations of fishermen is that the nation’s fish are dying quickly from pollutants being dumped into the water. The drastic consequences of this will lower the number of fish that can be harvested and thus lessen the demand for fishermen. The problem for rice growers such as the peasant woman—and as she said—her children, is that “the forests are disappearing, and so the soil of [their] rice field is being washed to the sea” (Broad and Cavanagh 17). Environmental degradation has an enormous impact on the nation’s resources and labor force—depleting jobs, ruining the landscape with filth and pollution, and creating health problems that put more pressure on the poorly-stocked hospitals and already-lessened number of health professionals available to work.  Four years after Broad and Cavanagh’s report, in the October of 1997, an article in The Filipino Express stated that out-of-control forest fires in Indonesia were causing smog that at the time had “persisted for nearly a week in the southern Philippines” (“Farmer”). The smog was causing eye irritation, and Ofelia Rondina, a public information officer of the Palawan province, shared that “in the town of Bataraza, [they] received complaints of children suffering eye pain” (“Farmer”). Fishermen were also having difficulty seeing the mountains that they use as guideposts, because of the thick smog shrouding these familiar beacons (“Farmer”). Farmers also noted an increase in insect attacks on their rice fields because of the reduced level of sunlight, the cloudy environment forcing locusts, butterflies and moths out from their natural forest habitat, as noted by University of Philippines entomologist Eliseo Gadapan (“Farmer”). Again, in August 2005, fires burned deep into the underlying peat layer in Indonesia, and smoldered for weeks, spreading smoke across Southeast Asia (“Smoky Haze”). These fires, however, were the result of hundreds of smaller fires set by local farmers in the Indonesian grasslands to clear their lands (“Smoky Haze”).  While wind currents in Southeast Asia carry this form of air pollution to the Philippines, one of the major causes of air pollution within the nation is emissions from tricycles and jeepneys. The jeepney and tricycle are the most recognized and the most unique modes of transportation in the Philippines. In 1988, 38 percent of all motor vehicles in the nation were utility vehicles, a large number of these being jeepneys—post-war, ex-US “jeeps converted for hire to carry passengers” (Library of Congress). However, “nearly a third of jeepney drivers are afflicted with a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease such as emphysema, bronchitis, and scarred lungs, making them the leading victims of air pollution,” said an article in Asia Times Online (Garrido). Despite the negative effects on their health, motorists are also responsible in a way for causing the heavy tailpipe emissions, as “80 percent of air pollution is generated by mobile sources” such as cars, jeepneys, buses, and motorcycles (“Dirty Air”). Reporter Marco Garrido described the commuting experience in this way: “Buses and jeepneys belch clouds of black smoke that feed the heavy smog permanently blanketing the hazy city. At rush hour, the pollution spewed by creeping vehicles can almost obscure the other side of a wide road. Handkerchiefs have become necessary accessories for commuters, who must cover their mouths to minimize inhalation. Still, too long in the open air – an hour or two will do – will likely leave one with a sore throat and itchy eyes, dizzy and disgusted” (Garrido). The nonprofit organization, Envirofit International, focused on the million-plus 2-stroke tricycles used as taxis in the Philippines, to develop a technology that “reduces pollution and enhances energy efficiency,” saying that it hoped “its endeavors would ‘promote environmental benefits, improve public health, foster economic growth, and alleviate poverty throughout its areas of operation’” (Hudson). The organization focused on reducing the highly pollutant tailpipe emissions, “enabling a cleaner, direct-injection alternative that can improve air quality by reducing hydrocarbon emissions by 90 percent, carbon monoxide emissions by 70 percent, and particulate emissions by 80 percent” (Hudson). 

            In an article by the Vietnam News Agency, in conjunction with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the Vietnam Environment Protection Agency (VEPA), the World Bank warned that the level of air pollution in the Philippines is alarming, saying that “it costs the country 400 million USD in relevant healthcare” (“Air Pollution”). Air pollution has contributed to, or caused, a wide range of diseases, such as asthma—which affects over six million children in the Philippines (“Indoor Pollution”), as well as skin ailments, respiratory infections and cardiovascular diseases. A presentation given at the “Synthesis Workshop on Climate Variability, Climate Change and Health in Small-Island States,” organized by the World Health Organization, claimed that these diseases have increased at an alarming rate in heavily populated cities (Knight 11).

A World Bank report stated that the cost of healthcare for diseases caused by pollutants in the air accounts for 0.6 percent, or 2.475 billion USD, of the Philippines’ gross domestic product (GDP) in purchasing power (“Philippines” and “Air Pollution”). The report suggested that reducing “air pollution in the four biggest cities of Manila, Baguio, Cebua and Davao should be placed high in the country’s investment priority list” (“Air Pollution”), reason being that “if the current levels of air pollution continue,” or worsen; by 2011, “Metro Manila will no longer be able to sustain life” (“Dirty Air”).

Roland Knight, of the Ministry of Health in Barbados, noted that the diseases are “becoming more virulent and drug-resistant,” and that there have been new strains of diseases identified (11). Such was the case in Antipolo, Philippines, in December 1993, when black measles, while not spread by air pollution, developed a new strain, which resisted the vaccinations that the children had received shortly after birth. “Human beings have become more prone to these diseases and health problems,” said Knight, “It is alarming that babies and children are particularly vulnerable” (11). Respiratory illnesses excessively affect children because of their body size, as they breathe faster and  “proportionally inhale several times more air than adults,” thus accounting “for 20 percent of all deaths” among children under the age of five (Garrido).

            “We owe our children nothing less than the legacy of breathable air," said Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary Angelo Reyes in November, 2006, when discussing the necessary steps to take in order to comply with the Philippine Clean Air Act of 1999 (Philippines News Agency). Among other things, the Clean Air Act (CAA) prohibited any source or emissions activity within the nation from emitting enough air pollutants to cause a failure of maintaining the air quality standards described in the CAA (Ch. 2 Sec. 8). The Clean Air Act, however, has overall been unsuccessful, as it “cannot be fully implemented” because of a lack of political will and funds—750 million pesos were promised as funding for the first year of the CAA, but never materialized (“Dirty Air”).

On 12 December 2006, the General Assembly of Clean Air Initiative-Asia met to discuss future plans for its institution and for reaching the clean air standards established in the Initiative and in 1999’s ineffective Clean Air Act (CAI-Asia). On 13 December, the Better Air Quality (BAQ) 2006 conference began, providing intensive and in-depth discussions on general air quality legislation, mobile sources of pollution, stationary sources of pollution, and global issues, to participants “from local and national government agencies, academic institutions, international organizations, civil society, and the private sector” (Better Air Quality).

            The Philippines’ sprawling metropolises like Manila and Baguio, ideal grounds for air pollution to thrive, are also huge culprits in the declining levels of water quality in Asia’s rivers (Commonwealth of Australia 1). A report entitled, “Pasig River—Life After Death,” was published by the Australian government to provide a description of, and information about, the Pasig River, upon which Manila was first situated (Commonwealth of Australia 5). The report shows that the Pasig has suffered greatly “as a result of decades of pollution,” and “is currently considered unsuitable for any use” (5). A resolution to this serious problem has been difficult to determine, as water pollution is the result of inadequate sanitation facilities, and finding funds to resolve this shortage is highly improbable on the short-term (US-AEP). In fact, only 7 percent of the “country's total population” is connected to sewer systems, and “only a few households have effective on-site treatment facilities” (US-AEP). The Clean Water Act, passed in early 2004, gave local governments the responsibility of providing “domestic sanitation facilities” to the people, but they still lack the necessary funding support to implement this new responsibility (US-AEP).  Because “just over 36 percent of the country's river systems are classified as sources of public water,” a major infestation of disease-causing bacteria and viruses in the nation’s water supply is extremely damaging (World Bank Group). Even out of the groundwater that was sampled, almost 60 percent was found to be contaminated (World Bank Group). “As an archipelago with a coastline longer than that of the United States of America, water is among the Philippine's most vital resources,” said Hon. Heherson T. Alvarez, when introducing to the Philippine House of Representatives at the Eleventh Congress, House Bill No. 2415—an “Act Providing For a Comprehensive Water Pollution Control Policy, and for Other Purposes.” Water pollution is the major cause for a reduction of available marine and freshwater resources because of the extent of the degradation (Alvarez). There is a need, because of this, to conserve and to decrease the amount of waste being flushed into the nation’s water systems. In Manila, Philippines, “3,500 tons of the 5,000 tons of daily garbage generated” are emptied into rivers and other water channels (Alvarez). A combination of human and industrial waste constitutes the majority of water pollutants in the Philippines, even though Philippine law tried to prevent this from happening by stating, for example, that “no structure should be built within 10 metres of the banks of the Pasig” (Commonwealth of Australia 8). In this case, the law was disregarded as squatter camps, industrial buildings, private lots, petroleum depots, “and even the Malacanang Palace, usurped every spare inch of space along the waterway” (Commonwealth of Australia 8). This article stated that although the urban poor—squatters, who set up makeshift dwellings or shanties along the riverbanks—are a major cause of the water pollution and violated this recently-mentioned law, the government is concerned for their welfare and is unwilling to force them to move unless another place opens up for them to go to (Commonwealth of Australia 6,8). However, at the same time, the government did look into a two-year relocation idea for the squatter community (Commonwealth of Australia 6,8).  When famine and malnutrition scourged the nation in the 1980s, “urban poverty [increased] between 1971 and 1985 by 13 percentage points to include half the urban population” (U.S.). A 1988 “World Bank report concluded, and many economists associated with the Philippines concurred, that the country's high population growth rate was a major cause of the widespread poverty, particularly in the rural areas” (U.S.). Poverty is so prevalent that it is a problem the government cannot ignore but needs to find a way to address and actively implement a solution for it. Some of the major effects of water pollution in the Philippines include health problems, unsanitary conditions in which to live, and the destruction of coral reefs and mangroves, which affect the large fishing industry in the nation, making the water unfit to drink and the fish unfit to eat. “To date, a UP Marine Science Institute study has estimated that about 75 percent of coral reefs and 70 percent of mangroves have been destroyed” (Alvarez). The House Bill that Alvarez introduced in front of the Filipino Congress declared its purpose “to protect all that is left of the nation’s water resources,” promoting the establishment of a Water Quality Fund to provide immediate responses in times of need (Alvarez). “With sustainable development as the guiding principle, it institutionalizes mechanisms for monitoring, regulating and controlling human and industrial activities, which contribute to the continuing degradation of [the] marine and freshwater environment” (Alvarez).  According to a press release from the World Bank Group, the number of water pollution-related deaths is rising, as 2.5 million young children die every year globally from intestinal diseases caused by ingesting bacterially contaminated water (Ahmed, A. and Abraham George).  Some known diseases caused by poor water include gastro-enteritis, diarrhea, typhoid, cholera, dysentery, hepatitis, and more recently, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) (World Bank Group). The fact that pollutants in the nation’s water supply and air are causing starvation and malnutrition, unsanitary living conditions in which to raise a family, a rise in health problems, and premature death—is tragic. Yet what is more tragic is that in researching these reports, it is really not difficult to notice that the most-often discussed demographic is that of children. 

            There are some organizations and programs that have been established to address the health issues, both local and international. President of the Global Children's Health and Environment Fund in Washington, D.C., A. Karim Ahmed, said that the consequential benefits of childhood disease prevention programs outweigh the cost enormously (Ahmed), but really—in the end—the cost should not matter. One overseas organization that has focused its attention on the Philippines’ problems is AusAID, Australia’s aid program to the Philippines, which aspires toward the advancement of the national interests of both nations (“Economic Governance”). One project that AusAID took part in was the “Water Supply and Sanitation Performance Enhancement Project.” While executed in collaboration with the World Bank Water and Sanitation Program for East Asia and the Pacific, Australia gave a $3.1 million grant, which lasted from 2000 to 2006, to the Philippines (“Economic Governance”). The aim of this project was “to improve the access of the rural and urban poor to adequate water and sanitation services,” and overall, “made a significant contribution to the passage of the Clean Water Act 2004” (“Economic Governance”).

            In the semi-local scene, members of the Philippine Congress and the Secretary of the Philippine Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) actively motivated their members to travel to the United States to meet with officials and find out about “water pollution regulation and enforcement” in a successful nation, and also to share their own success-and-failure stories about the processes (“Supporting Enactment”). This event spurred support from the United States – Asia Environmental Partnership, who worked closely with the Congress and the DENR in order to determine the overall best international environmental methods in practice so as to incorporate them into a plan to drastically lower, and eventually, get rid of water pollution completely (“Supporting Enactment”). The US-AEP was another noteworthy contributor to the passage of the Clean Water Act of 2004 in the Philippines; and it is important to realize that national Philippine organizations are taking a role in promoting a cleaner and safer society for their citizens. 

            As previously noted, finding sufficient funds to pay for a lasting resolution for all of these problems is an endless process that, at first glance, appears drastically improbable. Especially taking into account the extent of the pollution and poverty in the Philippines, it is important to consider that there is a direct relationship between poverty (and limited options for the poor) and acute ecological damage, and with this, a pronounced inability to respond to environmental degradation due to limited finances (Commonwealth of Australia 1). Entwined into this relationship is the fact that the pollution in the environment caused by poverty constrains development, and thus reinforces poverty (1). It is an endless cycle, one that must depend upon outside forces to interrupt it. Undeniably, the sources of poverty should be addressed; hence, one should take note that it was the “failure of infrastructure to keep pace with [the] population expansion, [which] has seen rivers become dumping grounds for garbage, sewage and industrial pollution (1).

            The organizations AusAID and US-AEP are just two examples of outside organizations that collaborate with the Republic of the Philippines to slowly better the nation’s environmental and economic status. There are numerous organizations in the Philippines, and internationally, that offer a number of different volunteer opportunities, typically to college-age students or college graduates and older. For example, the International Partnership for Service-Learning and Leadership, a worldwide association of universities, colleges, and non-governmental organizations, designed a study abroad program that creates “a powerful dynamic between direct cultural exposure and academic study” (IPSL). This program results in a combination of real cultural understanding, human needs being addressed, and a powerful personal insight, which derives from “increased compassion, greater sensitivity to the needs of others, and a deeper understanding of [one’s] own values and aspirations” (IPSL). The IPSL Volunteer Service emphasizes direct human contact in the three primary areas of service that it offers—teaching and tutoring, healthcare, and community development, and gives “[teaching] hygiene to children in a squatters' community in the Philippines” as an example of one of the service opportunities available (IPSL). It does not necessarily have to be with the IPSL, or at a college age, that one is able to gain extensive insight into the lives of the hurting and the poor, however.  Shiprah Bahay Paanakan/The Little Children’s Home is a two-tiered project that focuses on women and their families. Volunteers (many certified as midwives or registered nurses elsewhere around the globe) provide pre-natal care, as well as “maternity, post-partum and well-woman check-ups” (Springboard). Shiprah also conducts a rural outreach to women on Talim Island, which is the largest of nine islands within Leguna de Bay, separating the West and Central Bays (Springboard and “Laguna”). “Because not a single municipality is equipped with a sewerage system,” pollution is carried through surface run-off to all 21 tributary rivers that empty into Laguna; polluted waters from the Marikina and Pasig Rivers also flow into the lake” (“Laguna”).  Thus, it serves as a “huge waste sink for solid and liquid waste coming from households, cropland areas, industries, livestock and poultry production, as well as fishery activities (“Laguna”). My parents, as volunteers with the Shiphrah program, worked with the squatter communities in Talim, while taking care of the children in the small orphanage of The Little Children’s Home—which holds a maximum of 25 children (Springboard).  The funeral in December 1993 was held for one of the two-dozen children living in this Baby Home that year; and it was in these surroundings, just having turned five years old, that I learned the extent of the need, the bitterness of death and the compassion of people willing to make a difference.  

Works Cited

  Ahmed, A. and George Abraham. “Growing Environmental Threats to Children’s Health In Developing Countries.”  The George Foundation (2000). 8 Dec. 2006. <http://www.tgfworld.org/critical-environment.htm>.  

“Air Pollution Alarming in Philippines.” Vietnam News Agency 5 Jan. 2003. Vietnam Environment Protection Agency. 26 Oct. 2006 <http://www.nea.gov.vn/English/nIndex.asp?ID=1812>.

  Alvarez, Heherson. “House Bill No. 2415: An Act Providing for a Comprehensive Water Pollution Control Policy, and for Other Purposes.” Eleventh Congress. House of Representatives, Quezon City, Republic of the Philippines. 8 Dec. 2006 <http://erbl.pids.gov.ph/listbills.phtml?id=62>.  

  Better Air Quality 2006. Pre-event information. To be held 13-15 Dec. 2006. Clean Air Initiative: Global. Yogyakarta, Indonesia (2006). 8 Dec. 2006 <http://www.cleanairnet.org/baq2006/1757/propertyvalue-26708.html>.

  Broad, Robin, and John Cavanagh. Plundering Paradise: The Struggle for the Environment in the Philippines. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 1993.

  CAI-Asia General Assembly. “Draft Agenda.” To be held 12 Dec. 2006. Clean Air Initiative: Global. Yogyakarta, Indonesia (2006): 1-2. 8 Dec. 2006 <http://www.cleanairnet.org/caiasia/1412/article-71193.html>.

  Commonwealth of Australia. “Pasig River—Life After Death.” Australian Government: AusAID (2000). Overseas Aid. 8 Dec. 2006 <http://www.ausaid.gov.au/publications/pdf/pasigriver.pdf>.

  ---. “Economic Governance: Water Supply and Sanitation Performance Enhancement Project.” Aid Activities in the Philippines. 8 Dec. 2006. <http://www.ausaid.gov.au/country/cbrief.cfm?DCon=1148_8702_9418_7487_8517&CountryID=31>

  “Farmer, Fishermen Complain of Smog’s Effects on Crops and Fishes.” The Filipino Express 12 Oct. 1997: 9.

  Garrido, Marco. “Southeast Asia: Filipinos Hold Their Breath for Clean Air.” Asia Times Online 30 Jan. 2003. 8 Dec. 2006 <http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/EA30Ae03.html>.

  Hudson, Claudia. “Earthkeeper Hero: Envirofit.” The My Hero Project (2006). 8 Dec. 2006 <http://www.myhero.com/myhero/hero.asp?hero=Envirofit_Tech_2005>. 

  “Indoor Pollution Causes Rise in Asthma Cases.” The Manila Bulletin Online (2001). 7 Dec. 2006 <http://www.mb.com.ph/issues/2004/08/24/HLTH2004082417020.html>.

  (IPSL) International Partnership for Service-Learning and Leadership. “Program Design.” The Partnership Experience. 8 Dec. 2006. <http://www.ipsl.org/partnershipexperience/programdesign.html>. 

  Knight, Roland. “Conference and Workshop on Climate Variabilty and Change and their Health Effects in the Caribbean.” Synthesis Workshop on Climate Variability, Climate Change and Health in Small-Island States. World Health Organization, World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Bandos Island Resort, Maldives. 1-4 Dec. 2003. 7 Dec. 2006 <http://whqlibdoc.who.int/hq/2004/WHO_SDE_OEH_04.02.pdf >.

  Library of Congress Country Studies. Philippines: Transportation (1991). 7 Dec. 2006 <http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+ph0101)>.

  Oxford University Press, Inc. World Development Report 1993: Investing in Health. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 1993. Disease Control Priorities Project. 2 Dec. 2006 <http://www.dcp2.org/file/62/World%20Development%20Report%201993.pdf>.

  “Philippine Clear Air Act of 1999.” Tanggol Kalikasan: A Public Interest Environmental Law Office. 8 Dec. 2006 <http://www.tanggol.org/environmental_laws/cleanair.html>.

“Philippines.” CIA World Factbook. 30 Nov. 2006. 7 Dec. 2006 <https://cia.gov/cia//publications/factbook/geos/rp.html>.

  Philippines News Agency. “Philippines on Right Track Regarding Clean Air Act: Official.” 27 Nov. 2006. 8 Dec. 2006 <http://sg.biz.yahoo.com/061127/16/453ug.html>. 

  “Smoky Haze Chokes Southeast Asia.” Environment News Service 16 Aug. 2005. 7 Dec. 2006 <http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/aug2005/2005-08-16-06.asp>.

  The Springboard Foundation. “Shiphrah Bahay Paanakan/The Little Children’s Home.” News and Updates: Summary of projects funded by Springboard Foundation Mar. 2005. 8 Dec. 2006 <http://www.springboard-foundation.org/news_summary_mar05.htm>.

  U.S. Library of Congress. Poverty and Welfare. “Extent of Poverty.” 8 Dec. 2006 <http://countrystudies.us/philippines/74.htm>.

  (US-AEP) United States – Asia Environmental Partnership: Cleaner and Healthier Cities in Asia. “Local Initiatives for Affordable Wastewater Treatment (LINAW).” Philippines Initiatives. 8 Dec. 2006 <http://www.usaep.org/activities/initiatives/philippines.htm>. ---. “Supporting Enactment of the Philippine Clean Water Act.” Philippines Accomplishments. 8 Dec. 2006 <http://www.usaep.org/accomplishments/philippines.htm>. The World Bank Group. “Philippines: Poor Water Quality, Sanitation Services Highlighted in World Bank Report.” 4 Feb. 2004. 8 Dec. 2006 http://www.waternunc.com/gb/WB45_2004.htm.

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