Fulbright lectures conducted at UPV Iloilo City campus
Fulbright lecturers, Arcala-Hall (leftmost) and Turingan
(4th from left) receive tokens of appreciation from Vice
Chancellor Saclauso while other Fulbright scholars witness.
Two lectures that are of crucial importance to the country were delivered on September 20, 2006 at the Training Room of the Graduate and Continuing Education Building of UP Visayas. Dubbed as the J. William Fulbright Memorial Lectures 2006-2007, the event brought in insights from two Fulbright scholars who have excelled in their respective fields.
Dr. Ralph Turingan, 2005-2006 Fulbright Senior Faculty Fellow talked on “Responsible and Sustainable Marine Fisheries for Small-Scale Fishermen,” while Dr. Rosalie Arcala Hall, 1996-1998 Fulbright Scholar, discussed “Between Sword and Ploughshare: Tracking the Philippine Government's Counterinsurgency Policy and its Implications to Panay.”
In his lecture, Dr. Turingan advocated a “sustainable and competitive fisheries that contributes to food security and provides optimum socio-economic benefits to Filipinos.”
He cited that 43% of the global supply of marine ornamental fishes come from the Philippines and $7.2B is the global contribution of coral fishes to the world economy, yet “marine aquarium fish collectors are among the poorest of the poor in the Philippines.”
Thus, he proposed a new technology called CBuGS for the production of ornamental fishes for export. The term CBuGS also refers to “Community, Business, Government and Science Partnership for Sustainable and Responsible Marine Ornamental Trade in the Philippines.”
Researched and developed in Dr. Turingan's laboratory at the Biological Sciences Department of the Florida Institute of Technology, the project tapped foreign funding for its pilot-test which produced positive results in a coastal community in Bicol. Other sites around the country have already been identified also for trial runs.
Moving on to civil-military relations in the Philippines, Dr. Rosalie Arcala-Hall traced the military strategies used by the different administrations in trying to solve the country's insurgency problem from the negotiating table in 1986 to the “total war” declaration of the Arroyo government in June 2006.
It was noted that the current alarming disappearance and assassination of leftist elements in the country is a major area of concern. She especially pointed out that there was no conclusive understanding between the government and the CPP-NPA in the open peace negotiations, except for an agreement with the communist faction RPA-ABB that allowed this group to maintain arms and retain strongholds.
Hall noted that counterinsurgency operations remain for the most part military-instigated and conceptualized. She also observed that Peace and Order Councils have not functioned as venues for civil-military discussions on threat assessment and strategy.
Dr. Isagani Cruz, President of the Philippine Fulbright Scholars Association, and Dr. Esmeralda Cunanan, Executive Director of the Philippine American Educational Foundation, were present in the forum. The lecture was facilitated by the Office of Continuing Education and Pahinungod with the Philippine Fulbright Scholars Association.