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Permalink Reply by francine on September 16, 2011 at 6:55pm

I've been away for a quarter of a century and only discovered the Filipino channels recently.  One day a variety show had on air a visit to a classroom in a nearby province of Manila to deliver donated chairs.  Apparently, there was an issue with the classroom chairs and, with school about to open, help from the private sector (who else?) was needed.  I thought the old chairs actually looked better than the donated ones because they appeared to be made from wood, versus the donated chairs made of plastic. The main issue was, most of the old chairs were totally messed up!  In any country but the Philippines, those chairs would have been discarded a long time ago and considered unfit for use-- even hazardous to humans- as nails were sticking out, armrests were missing, and some of them were even tipping over!  (You just try giving that chair to a kid here and you'll get sued to your eyeballs if that kid gets so much as a scratch!) I guess the show took pity on the kids- and so the donation.  I thought that was very nice, though I felt that they could have done better as those plastic chairs don't look like they'll last longer than a year or two.

 

Anyway, the point of the discussion is, the public school system there appears to be in great despair.  When I readthe article about this budget discussion over the cost of chalk and supplies, I was beyond belief.  Do you honestly, honestly hold a budget discussion on chalk and school supplies?  That is absolutely stupid.  Those are necessities that must be met, no vote needed.

 

There was another TV show that highlighted the misery of the public schoolsystem there.  This show was some kind of documentary on the difficulties faced by communities in the southern part of the Philippines.  The teacher was writing- asking, practically begging, for supplies for her students. It didn't even look like they had enough chairs, or that they had a real classroom.

 

It's horrible.  What I see here is an ugly disparity in educational opportunities between families who can afford private education and those who, for no fault of their own, are forced to make-do in the public school system.  It shouldn't be that way.

 

So where's your P-Noy on this issue? 

 

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Permalink Reply by Cesar Redito on September 16, 2011 at 9:57pm

if P-Noy succeeds in "persecuting" and/"extracting" some allegedly stolen money from the previous administration, then we might have more chalks and chairs at the schools. otherwise, the next president will try to do the same. i hope the vicious circle ends with p-noy or we will see the same zarzuela.

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Permalink Reply by francine on September 17, 2011 at 6:29am

Hi Redzar, my response to that is, at the same time that they're trying to shake the tree and go after corrupt politicians, Aquino and his administration must make improvements in the way they do the people's business going forward-- like close loopholes that allow corrupt practices to flourish, strengthen their processes and controls to make sure that these sort of ugly things are not allowed to happen or at least are detected when they do and stopped.  Corruption should be punished with serious jail time - like they do in other more civilized societies.  I don't think anyone there has ever had to face serious jail time for corruption.  And, of course, the problem with associations.  There is too much emphasis on the 'who you know' there.  I say who cares who you know--- if you do wrong, you should be punished by the legal system like everyone else.

I think in the Philippines, you will never run out of people to prosecute for corruption.  But you can and should stop the cycle by instituting real reforms and passing no-nonsense laws that will teach people lessons they don't want to learn the easy way.

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