AT THE BACK of Philippine driver’s licenses, you will find information whether or not the owner of the driver’s license is an organ donor or not.
Kudos to the Land Transportation Office (LTO) for making that possible, but there appears to be no existing queuing system that will enable prospective donees to be informed if and when organs are available to be transplanted.
Maybe it’s just me who does not know whether there is a queuing system or not, but if there really was, I would know about it because I am always watching the horizon for it to emerge.
To put it simply, a queuing system is merely a database, therefore if there was really such a database, the information communications technology (ICT) industry would be abuzz about it.
I was told that every day, there are many people who die from road accidents and in all likelihood, most of them are holders of driver’s licenses such that emergency workers at the scene would know whether they are organ donors or not.
If only there was a system, their remains could be brought to the nearest hospital where their organs could be harvested before they become useless.
In many countries, there are systems wherein prospective donees are immediately notified if viable organs are available. The notification is done via internet, mobile or even pagers in some cases.
I know how to build such a system and I am willing to help whatever government agency wants to sponsor and host it.
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LOCALIZING FOOD SECURITY
As far as I know, mayors and governors do not have any responsibility or accountability when it comes to food security. Some of them might be doing something about it on their own, but it is purely voluntary on their part, and there is no compulsion for them to do anything regarding that.
One ironic reality that is happening now is that the national government is importing rice and is supplying it to the cities and provinces, without even consulting the mayors and governors whether there is really a shortage of rice in their own jurisdictions or not.
In theory, some of these cities and provinces could probably produce and supply their own rice requirements, if only the national government would support them in terms of irrigation, harvesting, drying and milling. Rice production is not rocket science, therefore our local executives can surely do it.
Now that the President has called for studies about which national functions to devolve to local government units (LGUs), our economic team should look into the possibility of devolving the food security function downwards to the cities and provinces. This could be a good way to create local employment also.
In the same way that the government has created electric cooperatives under the National Electrification Administration, perhaps it could also create food cooperatives possibly under the Cooperative Development Authority or even the Department of Trade and Industry, since CDA is now under DTI./PN
