Why “Project 541” and “Medical Moonshot” Will Succeed Beyond Wildest Dreams

Fingerprint ID Technology | Photo by NIST via Wikimedia Commons

Part XVI of the “Back-to-Basics Governance” Series

This journalist usually describes Sorsogon’s potential projects in his writings. He also tells friends like Numeriano Bouffard and Wilmar Ramos Suan, CPA, about them. Both gentlemen were introduced in this column last Wednesday.

On March 29, 2014, this journalist posted this Facebook Note: “How Sorsogon Province Can Be the Center of a ‘PH Railroad Renaissance.'”

During the 2016 election campaign for governor of Sorsogon, this columnist ran in it. His campaign was primarily conducted on radio, Facebook, and in some local publications. (A new Facebook friend from Sorsogon City paid almost the entire cost of the broadcasts on six local radio stations.)

This Overseas-Filipino worker/writer (OFW) of a candidate explained on the air and in small gatherings the problems of Sorsogon’s tourism industry. No matter how many tourist attractions Sorsogon has, not too-many tourists would come to the province. Why? Because the airports and train stations are located in the adjacent province of Albay, which also has equally attractive, if not more developed, tourist spots. It is located north of Sorsogon, the southern end of the main island of Luzon. This means that tourists and all folks would have to travel for about an hour by bus or car — from the adjacent province of Albay’s airport and train station — to Sorsogon City, which has an unfinished airport, the construction of which started in the early 1960s. It will take another hour to reach Bulan town, which has an unfinished airport that the Japanese Imperial Air Force originally started in 1943. Then visitors to Sorsogon must return to Albay for their connecting trip to Metro Manila.

Aha, Sorsoganons are known for their biting humor. Sorsoganons always joke that their two uncompleted airports are grazing land for carabaos (the Filipino version of a buffalo) during summer. And watering and swimming pools for the beasts of burden during the rainy season.

This writer also wrote in his column about the “train renaissance,” “The NuFY Can Turn ‘Brain Drain into “Brain Train,” published on August 22, 2021.

This columnist said that he coined “brain train” as the fielding of highly-educated and trained (pun intended) OFWs (beginning with rail workers and railway engineers) — from a country like the Philippines — to design and construct civil works and equipment for the prestige projects. Yes, projects like a railroad for the foreign nation(s) where they are assigned, or that hired them not merely as workers but also as contractors. And this author used the word “train” with literal and figurative meanings.

Mr. Bouffard tapped this columnist to handle the public relations and public affairs needs of his Pueblo Filipino (Retirement and Cultural Resort) in the Colima State of Mexico. It has a 1,200-hectare site in Manzanillo City. He has associates in Mexico and Spain that can work with this journalist’s Taiwanese associates (and other interested foreign stakeholders) in a consortium. Thus, talks followed about commuter-train and freight-train projects that may be needed in Mexico. The more stakeholders, the better for the railroad or other projects — on a turn-key basis — in Sorsogon Province. And in due time, modest-to-mega projects can be pushed for the entire Philippines, North America, or any other country. The next step will be sending a Sorsogon Trade Mission to Taiwan, Spain, and North America to discuss joint-venture agreements. More details of this suggested move will be in the coming parts of this series.

Many cooperatives and projects fail in the Philippines because of a lack of compliance with the ATIC policies that this journalist coined in 2000. ATIC means “Accountability, Transparency, Integrity and Credibility.”

It is proposed that Filipino-American CPAs, finance people, planners, and Information Technology (IT) experts form their own consortium to handle the financial system and, most significantly, an auditing process, including forensic auditing. The American-based consortium can have stakeholders from North America, the Philippines, and Taiwan. It can finalize or review project-feasibility studies, business plans, and environmental-impact reports. They can also handle the setting up the computerization of the entire province of Sorsogon, which can be the first in the country to become truly a “Smart Province.”

The IT-based idea has been proposed by this journalist for more than a decade now. Suppose Sorsoganon voters accept the visionary proposals, they — as natives of Sorsogon– and immigrants to the province and workers assigned in Sorsogon can be issued a Sorsoganon ID in less than five years (2025-2030). The SorID will be better than the Philippine National ID (NID). Folks can still have the NID that they can use if they travel outside of Sorsogon.

Why is the local ID better? The “Sorsogon ID” or SorID may also carry healthcare biometrics (that will guarantee immediate access to the Emergency Room of the hospitals and clinics of our Sorsogon HMO consortium or, heaven forbid, to a funeral parlor). It can be the ATM card to access a provincial credit union, the local pension fund, and life insurance coverage by a Sorsoganon mutual co-op. It can be the card for entrance to public libraries, WiFi connection, and other needs such as parking, bus fares, museum or movie, or ferry fees. The SorID can also pay the SORECO (Electricity Co-op), Water Districts, a restored Sorsogon Telecommunications Co., and provincial fees.

By then, Sorsogon may become the first “Smart Province” with all computers in Sorsogon — as hardened (to prevent hacking) — linked to each other. Yes, so that they can “talk’ with all electronic equipment linked to it through the Sorsoganon WiFi network. Even the poorest of the poor can get their safety nets through the SorID (pronounced “so-read”). The SorID card may be impossible to be duplicated or copy by scammers or hackers. How? The software would require the person carrying it to have his fingerprint scanned (for transactions involving an ATM or any machine especially needed for financial transactions).

Sounds impossible? Not if the province’s voters will give their political mandate to suitable candidates in the May 2025 election. The entire IT-based project can be funded by the U.S. Export and Import Bank, augmented by local and foreign investments and grants.

The ATIC formula may make groups of Overseas-Filipino stakeholders confident to invest, and participate, in the 10-20 projects that are viable and protected against crooks. Yes, the proposed 25-year period (2025-to-2050, as divided into five phases of five years each) will need CPAs, auditors, IT specialists, stakeholders, and technocrats like Numeriano Bouffard and Wilmar Ramos Suan, CPA.

By Wednesday’s next edition of this column, the making of “Sorsogon Province into a Little Taiwan” will be explained in more detail. The discussion includes the naming of an American of Taiwanese descent to serve as the trustee of this columnist’s holdings. This way, all will be assured that this journalist will not act like a politician to enrich himself or his family from local revenues.