volume-23-number-4

Editor-in-Chief: Joseph Ching Velasco

Preliminaries

Year: 2023, Volume 23 Number 4

Abstract: Financial inclusion remains a recurring problem that various governments need to address. Despite digitalization, financial institutions struggle to make their products and services available to the public. The Philippines has among the weakest financial inclusion coverages, as shown by the minimal account penetration of the population. This study used the 2019 Financial Inclusion Survey (FIS), specifically mobile phone usage in financial transactions and other socioeconomic characteristics as determinants of financial inclusion measured by bank account ownership. The findings show that mobile phones, financial literacy, and urbanity remain as significant players in accessing financial products and services, but in varying degrees of importance.

Keywords: financial inclusion, bank account ownership, urbanity, access, financial technology

Abstract: The study focused on establishing the knowledge, attitude, and behavior of Grade 12 learners about teenage pregnancy (TP). The study was conducted among students from different high schools in Los Baños, Laguna. As a municipality, Los Baños has manifested a relatively high case of TP over the last 10 years from 2009 to 2018. A mixed method was used, which started with focus group discussions (FGD) that were geared towards survey implementation. Three FGDs were completed with a mixture of male and female participants. The survey had a total of 42 respondents. Results showed that students had high knowledge scores about TP and a mix of responses to the various attitude and behavior statements presented to them. The survey results and analysis show that knowledge scores and attitudes have a negative monotonic association. Based on the theory of reasoned action, the role of peers and the Internet are crucial to the attitude and behavior of the youth regarding teenage pregnancy. Institutional support is needed at the municipal and national levels to address the burgeoning concern on TP. A concerted effort of the family, the school, the community, the local government, and the youth community will also be needed to come up with cohesive and appropriate interventions that genuinely address this phenomenon.

Keywords: teenage pregnancy, Internet, Los Baños, referent individual, comprehensive sexuality education

Abstract: This paper intends to (a) analyze whether the conflict in Papua meets the requirements to be categorized as a non-international armed conflict (NIAC) and (b) analyze the legality of the involvement of Indonesian National Armed Forces (Tentara Nasional Indonesia, TNI) in the Papuan conflict using the principles found in international human rights law and international humanitarian law. This normative juridical research employs the conceptual, statutory, and comparative approaches. The results of the study indicate that the threshold of NIAC has not been met in the Papuan conflict, especially the requirements for determining the organized armed groups, as well as the intensity of attacks. Attacks in Papua are sporadic, disorganized, disjointed, and conducted without a clear chain of command. Considering the NIAC status, which has not been achieved, what is then applicable in the Papuan conflict is law enforcement operation under international human rights law as opposed to conduct of hostilities under international humanitarian law. Under the standards of law enforcement operation, the involvement of TNI in the law enforcement operation against criminal armed groups is not absolutely prohibited as long as it satisfies the principles of law enforcement operation, namely legality, proportionality, accountability, necessity, and precautionary in carrying out their operations. This study establishes that the involvement of TNI in law enforcement operations against the KKB in Papua has not satisfied the aforesaid principles.

Keywords: Papua, Criminal Armed Groups, Law Enforcement Operations, Military Involvement, Legality

Abstract: Written corrective feedback (WCF) is utilized by language teachers to address learners’ mistakes in writing. Although WCF studies should strike a balance between the viewpoints of teachers and learners, studies that focused on learners, especially young learners, have been limited. This study investigated Malaysian primary school learners’ beliefs of how they would like to receive written corrective feedback to grammatical mistakes (GWCF) in their essays, as well as what teachers actually did when providing GWCF in learners’ essays. Findings from the survey showed that the majority of the learners believed all the grammatical mistakes in writing should be indicated and given direct feedback, while analysis of teachers’ GWCF provision in learners’ essays indicated that all the essays were given comprehensive feedback and the majority of the grammatical mistakes were given direct GWCF. The findings also revealed that the learners’ GWCF beliefs aligned with the teachers’ actual practice in terms of scope and types. This study hopes to probe primary ESL teachers to reflect on their current feedback practices in the classrooms while the teachers are encouraged to attend more WCF-related training to enhance the quality of feedback provision. Discussions with the learners can also be carried out to source for appropriate forms of GWCF.

Keywords: grammar-focused written corrective feedback, primary, teacher, beliefs, practice

Abstract: Governance’s concept is well-established, multifarious, and too considerable in meanings, indicators, and frameworks, making it distinct to different people and unappealing to apply in lakes. Under this, governance ought to be reductionist-parsimony to be manageable and straightforward in refocusing the primary reference—lake governance. Lake governance’s concept is rarely utilized in scholarly literature nor acknowledged in the lake’s discourse. To ameliorate, the article intends to be a discourse—elucidate, understand, and contribute to lake governance’s analytical framework, respectively, the constituent’s interrelationship among the lake’s people, development, conservation, and the government, its most influential compartment. With this, lake governance asserts (a) development and conservation are associated but often discord and stand-alone; (b) lake’s people are contingent but commensurate with many or few communities; (c) lake’s people are affected by context-specific situations and multiple-various interests, making decisions problematic; (d) the government requires to penetrate and ultimately decide on the lake; and (e) the government is of utmost function as the universal principle in a lake. On the whole, the precept is that the administrative and managerial government presides over and perpetuates to enhance economic development by the people and to protect ecological conservation in the lake.

Keywords: Concept, Conservation, Development, Framework, Government, Governance, Lake, Lake Governance