Filipinos Selling, Eating Recycled Food
October 28th, 2008 by Ding G. GageloniaIf this is not heart-rending, and gut-wrenching, I do not know what is.
About Author: Ding G. Gagelonia has written 408 articles. Ding G. Gagelonia has been a journalist for some 30 years, having worked in both radio and TV news and public affairs since his teens. Ding Gagelonia now writes independently and does corporate communications consulting. He has two kids, Felice and Luis. His journalist blog is at midfield.wordpress.com
Filed Under: Society
Tagged Under: PHILIPPINE POVERTY, RECYCLED FOOD
October 28, 2008 at 8:44 am
I heard Isko Moreno narrated that he was into “pagpag” before. Iba ang tawag nya dito Bachoy.
At least ngayon vice mayor na sya pumirma at umapruba ng mga sanitary permits(siguro),di ko lang alam kung kaya pa din nya sabihin na malinis naman eh(ang pagpag).
patibayan ng sikmura lang yan.
bumili ka nga lang ng malamig na inumin,tubig kanal ang piananghuhugas sa mga baso. kaya nga tayo sinasabihan ng mga guro natin na durugin ang plastic cup pagtapos uminom.
sa rolling food stand lublob banlaw lang sa isang balde ang mga plato at kutsara, tapos babad lang sa isang beses na pinakuluan na tubig ang mga kutsara solved na.
maybe what you don’t know won’t hurt ang mottto ng iba.
pero iba tuloy pa din,basta buhay pa din.
Salmonella? ano yun,isda?
pano mo pipigilan ang mga yan magbenta at kumain,kahit ilan beses pa ipalabas ang show na pinakita.
October 28, 2008 at 1:48 pm
I believe that there is absolutely no reason why Filipinos should go hungry in their own land. That is why i proposed a social contract (in a previous blog entry) which (given everyone carrying providing share of tax contributions) would guarantee a food subsidy to every Filipino (via food stamps) who needs it. This food stamp would at the same time be used to fund farming initiatives aimed at the rural poor. This mechanism relies on market forces to ensure resources are used productively.
October 29, 2008 at 3:57 am
Let us focus on the positive side. Those “pag-pag” is the finest example of the “trickle down” economy.
At least there are some left-overs for the poor to eat. Imagine if the middle and upper class have no left overs? Imagine of the number of poor people who will be deprived of those left overs?
As in the trickle down principle of economy wherein we let some raking millions and billions in the hope that some of the cash will trickle down to the lower strata of the economic class, this also holds true in food consumption.
Long live Gloria. On with Cha-cha. More food for the middle and upper class = more pag-pag to squatters at Payatas.
October 29, 2008 at 10:29 am
glu gun,
Iu can tell you without violating confidences that in reaction to the pagpag report, a leading Filipino company in the food business is now re-examining its handling procedures for left over/discarded food so that such items are not recycled by scavengers. Am in the ptrocessing of crafting a CSR campaign along the sames lines to bring to the attention of like-minded corporations.
October 29, 2008 at 10:46 am
Ding, if those in the food business deny their leftover food to the scavengers, where will the latter turn to for food? I hope those in the food business think through this one and not shrug it off as someone else’s problem. (You know, unintended consequences and all that.)
October 29, 2008 at 11:14 am
cvj,
The question becomes, what prevents said scavengers from reselling the leftovers?
I’m more interested to see a program where uneaten/untouched leftovers are collected by an NGO or a civic group from food businesses at the end of business day (say, 9 or 10PM?) in several key areas, and put together in soup kitchens or the like where vagrants and beggars can line up for food.
October 29, 2008 at 11:18 am
Jon (at 11:14am), i agree. That’s a better idea.
October 29, 2008 at 11:26 am
I’d just like to add that in order not to compete with the smaller food businesses (and thereby distort the market), the recipients of such assistance from food kitchens should be registered (if we had a national Id, that would have served the purpose) and issued food stamps which could then be used to earmark funds to assist rural food production especially by dollar a day farmers.
October 29, 2008 at 11:32 am
CVJ, I think on this issue, the food business can and should shrug it off as someone else’s problem. It’s the food company’s obligation to properly dispose these unhygienic foods. NO ONE should eat garbage food.
Call me heartless but I will not fault the food company if they just opt to put Dora Rat Killers on their garbage food. Slap a Bio-Hazard/Poison sign on it to avoid a lawsuit.
October 29, 2008 at 11:49 am
This a Waste Management Issue:
London: Food for All provides recycled food for homeless people in several London venues. Six days a week, the organisation collects 2.25 tonnes (832 tonnes p.a.) of waste food which would otherwise go to landfill, mainly from Sainsbury’s. Much of this is still serviceable but near to/on its ‘sell by’ date.
http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/CityBridgeTrust/News/NewsArchive/Food+for+All.htm
October 29, 2008 at 11:52 am
Mikey (at 11:32 am), that’s precisely the kind of mindset that i was hoping the food businesses should avoid. And it’s not entirely out of altruism that the food businesses should think of helping where they can(although imho altruism is a good enough reason). The self-interest part comes in building up Social Capital (what Fukuyama calls ‘Trust’). A Society where those who are capable of helping do help is one that promotes an environment where business enterprises can better thrive.
October 29, 2008 at 9:55 pm
when melamine poisoning hits the headline, pinoys went back to the basic; drink milk from cows, carabaos, and goats. that goes to show only that we do not have to import our dairy needs from china and other countries. we have just develop our own dairy farm. yes we can be self-sufficient on food but producing our own food appears too expensive, therefore we tend to import them.
so the issue is how to make food production less expensive so that our commodities become competitive in price with the imported food products.
October 29, 2008 at 10:53 pm
cvj, leytenian,
Your inputs can be merged into a viable sop kitchen program of entities such as the umbrella entity of corporate foundations composed of the CSR officials the big Philippine companies, It’s official name eludes me right now but yes the org can integrate your concepts, particularly London Food for All.
October 30, 2008 at 4:58 am
Google Search
Food Scrap management , or Food waste management
October 30, 2008 at 5:05 am
again, CVJ, re your 1:48 — welfare state?
how viable?
November 20, 2008 at 8:50 pm
do you guys have any picture of this? i’ll be having a report/documentary about this as my final project in my english subject. please e-mail me
salvecarmela.poche@gmail.com
tnx..
November 20, 2008 at 9:21 pm
uneaten/untouched leftovers are collected by an NGO or a civic group?
The next thing you’ll see in food courts are Kamayan Seconds or the food will find its way on local carinderia.
The idea of making use of uneaten/untouched food will just breed laziness and parasitism.
November 20, 2008 at 9:43 pm
napanood ko minsan ito sa isang news program na pinakita nila yun mga taong nagrerecycle ng mga tinapon na pagkain sa mga fastfood. hinuhugasan nila at niluluto uli at binibenta sa mga mahihirap at walang perang pambili ng maayos na pagkain…pero itong ganitong situasyon ay makikita mo lamang sa mga area ng metro manila. Itong mga taong ito ay hindi mga taga manila, ito ay mga taga ibang probinsya ng pilipinas na kagaya ko…galing ako sa isang maliit na munisipyo sa mindanao, wala kaming pera noong araw, ang sweldo ng nanay ko bilang guro ay napakaliit at naka loan-shark pa…pero di ko maalala na wala kaming kinakain..laging may prutas, gulay at mais na kanin..napakamurang pagkain pero napakapuno ng sustansya..ito ay tanim lang namin sa aming bakuran..nakapag-aral kami lahat at nakatapos.
Ang punto ko ay dapat yun mga taga-ibang probinsya na naninirahan sa isang syudad at sobrang naghihirap, dapat silang bumalik sa probinsya..dahil doon sa probinsya ang isang masipag na tao ay hindi magugutom at hindi kailangan kumain ng mga pagkain na tira tira o galing sa basura.
at higit sa lahat, hindi sila magamit ng mga politiko pagdating sa election…
November 20, 2008 at 10:01 pm
Juwan,
Kahit sa Maynila, hinde ka magugutuman kung magbabanat ka ng buto. Oo nga, at hinde ka rin yayaman, but you will not be like askal dogs eating shit and leftovers.
At kahit sa probinsya, you need to stretch those muscles to result bread in your mouth.
Mga tamad lamang ang nagbibigay ng justification sa irresponsableng kilos nila.
Lets, for once, not blame the politicians. They are not in power to empower you or to make you rich or make the nation healthy.
For once, let us look inward. We only have ourself to rely on.
November 20, 2008 at 10:18 pm
joma,
not blame the politicians????????? what are you talking about? Yes they are not in power to empower me or to make me rich but they are definitely in power to make the nation a better nation for the filipinos so jobs can be created and people will have work…and not in power to rob the people!!!!!!
what are you taking about not put the blame on politicians????????? are you out of your mind?????? cant you see the impact of the corruption and incompotence of these god forsaken politicians????
Are you a son/daughter or a relative of a politician? if you are, then I understand why you said that statement. If you are not…open your eyes!!!!
November 20, 2008 at 10:48 pm
nope, i am not out of my mind and not a relative of any current politicians.
what im simply saying is that you (and me) have cudgels to hold and it would do you good by not putting the blame of unfortunate eating shit and leftovers to callous politicians.
We, no matter what is our staus in life, have a resposibility to make ourselves a productive and respectable member of the society.
Let us do something for ourselves before we start cursing those politician, which is futile act.
If you blame the politicians for you eating shits and leftovers, then the difficulties are in you.
Politicians rob and plunder our pocket, but we can do something to improve ourselves and dont need to eat pagpag.
November 20, 2008 at 11:12 pm
joma,
you should read the post well. I reacted to what you said not blaming the politicians for they are not in power to empower me or you, not in power to make you or me rich and not in power to make the nation healthy…
and yes I agreed that they are not in power to make you or me rich and not in power to empower you or me…and I disagreed about them not in power to make the nation healthy…
I dint blame politicians why people eat shit..and I agree that this is about being tamad and not doing something….thats what I said in my first post…that we were poor but we had something healthy and descent to eat.
read the post well…or we will be just like them..the politicians…all they hear is them talking..they refuse to listen to what other people say refuse to open their eyes to see what other people see.
November 21, 2008 at 12:24 am
Hi Juwan,
I see that we have agreements in many points. And what remain is that we disagreed as to whether they, the politicians are here to make our nation healthy or not. I guess that is what you wish to point out.
If so, then that is clear and now we can discuss.
Let me now put my cards on the table. Our politicians are members of the higher-ups or those who are holding the vital economy and business of our country. They may in Municipality, City Hall, Congress, Senate or Malacanyang personally or their puppets. Their function is not to make laws and policy beneficial to the society but to protect their interest (properties). As an example is the Land Reform.
The President earn 60,000 pesos a month but spend millions in order to be in the running. From there, you can deduce their intention. Sabi nga, masakit man, kailangan tanggapin natin na kung meron man sila ibibigay pabalik, kadyut lang yung.
In papers, and I agree with you, their purpose is to lead us into the future just like the leaders of Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam Singapore and the like. Hey, mga corrupt din sila, but they have an agenda to bring their country in a better status. Nagaagawan sila kung sino ang magdadala sa kinabukasan.
Sa Pilipinas, we have a culture of ‘wag ka aamin, kahit nahuli kang nakapatong!’ Sampol dyan si Bolante, Burger Abalos, at alam mong marami pang iba. We have bright Senators para mag imbistiga, pero hanggang dun lang. At the end, inutil din sila.
And so the question: Are the present breed of politicians here to bring our nation into a healthy status?
Look around FV, ang daming individual na admirable na pagiisip, pero kapag nagdis-agree ka, they will report and ask Nick to remove your post. If these brand of opposition one day reign in power, what kind of governance do you expect?
The present, the future, even you and me – we have no tools to bring this country into a healthy state – thus we have only ourself to rely on and we keep on shouldering (o soldering, ba?) on.
Ngapala, Juwan, ingat ka sa mga “????” and madidiin mong !!!, maraming taga UP (and Atenyu) dito and you will be seen as low class.
November 21, 2009 at 5:43 pm
All I can say is we filipino’s has no concern of each other. If we really care then give share each blessings, but what do we do? we almost say to them a curse for them for there lazyness i guess not coz if there’s opportunities for them to take like livelihood programs and the governance would launch a thousand jobs dont we think that hunger would strike to those less privilege if only given an opportunity. lastly governtment should value the importance of education and how it solves the higher rate of unemployment if given a excelent education but bit that expensive.