INSIDE PCIJ: Stories behind our stories

PRESIDENT Arroyo’s unusual formula may have wiped out the demand for new classrooms this new schoolyear—at least on paper—but it’s premature to declare classroom shortages a thing of the past.

All over the country, thousands of classrooms are in bad shape, many of them beyond repair. These classrooms can be found even in the 23 provinces where the national government, local governments, the World Bank and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation have been pouring in millions of dollars into schools under the Third Elementary Education Project.

The 23 provinces are among the country’s poorest.

A school mapping done by TEEP in 1999 found only 6,098 or one-fourth of the 55,778 classrooms in these provinces in good condition.

The rest needed repairs: 23,609 classrooms (42 percent) needed minor repairs; 18,973 (34 percent) required major repairs; and 7,098 (13 percent) were totally beyond repair.

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EAST Timor (Timor-Leste to East Timorese) has again plunged into violence as a week of bloodshed has already claimed at least 27 lives while 70,000 people have reportedly sought refuge in churches, embassies, United Nations shelters, the airport, and seaport around the smoldering capital of Dili.

The latest round of violence brings to mind the orgy of violence perpetrated by militias identified with the Indonesian military that preceded East Timor’s declaration of independence from Indonesia in 2002 following a U.N.-supported referendum three years earlier.

Sparked by the firing of 600 disgruntled soldiers from the 1,400-strong East Timorese army last March, the unrest started with deadly riots staged last month by the dismissed troops, who are threatening to wage a guerrilla war if they are not reinstated.

On Tuesday, Associated Press reporter Anthony Deutsch said they attacked army soldiers, triggering the latest violence that has now spilled over to the general population, which is divided into pro-Indonesian and pro-independence camps. The AP report said that East Timor, one of the world’s youngest nations, is in danger of plunging into a civil war.

Caught in the center of the storm is a Filipina, Jacqueline Siapno, who works as a lecturer in political science at the University of Melbourne. She moved to East Timor in 1999 and is now married to an East Timorese, who happens to be a prominent opposition leader. East Timor Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri has called the violence a plot to overthrow him and accused the opposition, including Siapno’s husband Fernando de Araujo and her, of fomenting the unrest.

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THE next time Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo makes a public display of her impatience over slow-paced education reforms by scolding a Cabinet official about miscalculations in the classroom shortage, she should first take a look at how much her government allocates to the education sector.

While the proposed budget for Education, Culture and Manpower Development for 2006 increased nominally to P146.4 billion compared to last year’s P134.5 billion, per capita education expenditure in real terms has been declining in the last five years under the Arroyo administration.

The Civil Society Network for Education Reforms (E-Net) claims that as in previous years, the budget allocaton for the education sector remains hardly sufficient to cover for inflation and the projected increment in enrolment.

The proposed P146.4-billion budget represents only 13.9 percent of the national budget, down from last year’s 14.7 percent. This is way below the international benchmark of a 20-percent budget share for education.

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PRESIDENT Arroyo declared Tuesday that her government has licked the perennial problem of classroom shortage. This she did by applying a new formula to estimate the demand for classrooms.

Instead of the ideal ratio of 45 students to a class used for years by the Department of Education, Arroyo says the ratio of 100 students to a class should be adopted.

Overcrowded schools, she says, are supposed to do double shifts.

Recently resigned education undersecretary Juan Miguel Luz disagrees with the President. In the following piece, he gives the real score on the classroom shortage.

TO ALL WHO CARE TO HEAR: THERE IS A REAL CLASSROOM SHORTAGE IN THIS COUNTRY

Let’s do something about it, rather than wish it away

The outburst of the President and the tongue-lashing Acting Secretary Fe Hidalgo of DepEd received at the May 30 Cabinet meeting with reference to supposedly “wrong” information on classroom shortages belies a type of decision-making that is misguided.

There IS a serious shortage of classrooms nationwide that no amount of “manipulation of numbers” will do away with. And we better face up to this fact rather than try to wish that shortage away through economics or mathematics or whatever form of analysis there is in the highest office in the land.

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TWENTY-seven-year-old Raoul Bermejo III recently obtained his Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of the Philippines. He is currently taking up review classes for the medical board examinations this August. Like many idealist young adults, he says he thinks of engaging in public-health work once he hurdles the exams either with a nongovernmental organization or the provincial health office in his hometown of Capiz.

While he may be ecstatic over his personal future as a physician, Raoul cannot help but also worry about this healthcare subculture associated with pharmaceutical companies — the way they market drugs by lavishing doctors with a lot of perks. He finds the practice unethical but wonders if he and the 153 members of his graduating class can make a difference, even as they just allowed a drug company to host their class graduation party.

These are his thoughts:

No free lunch

I just received the degree of Doctor of Medicine and these days a new physician has many things to be bothered about — an eroding public image of the doctor, the crisis of health worker migration, and the lack of access of many Filipinos to health care. But while these issues have been often talked about, I would like to raise another that, because it is ingrained in our health care subculture, is often tolerated.

I am bothered by the fact that our class graduation party was largely paid by a drug company. They footed the bill of 150,000 pesos for dinner. Just to be clear about it. It was a party. It was not a scientific meeting. It was not a course of continuing medical education. People went there to eat, drink and be merry.

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ON the eve of the formal turnover and oathtaking of Antonio Kalaw Jr. as the new president of the Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP), a top-ranking academy official has tendered her resignation in protest of the selection process even as outgoing president Eduardo Gonzalez expressed hurt over a “deeply divided DAP” he is leaving.

Dr. Grace Gorospe-Jamon, acting dean of the DAP’s Graduate School of Public and Development Management (GSPDM), submitted her letter of resignation effective June 1, 2006 to Gonzalez yesterday. In one of his last official acts as DAP president, Gonzalez accepted Jamon’s resignation on the same day.

In her letter, Jamon called the manner of Kalaw’s assumption into office “unprofessional and unethical” and “a travesty of the very same values we teach and advocate to uphold not only in the school but also in DAP as a whole.”

“I can no longer continue to represent the school with the same moral ascendancy after this dark episode in DAP’s life as an independent and respected institution,” said Jamon, an awarded and esteemed associate professor of political science for 28 years with the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy at the University of the Philippines where she teaches and does research in the area of religion and politics.

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CORRUPTION in the country is said to have reached “serious levels.” Recently, a Hong Kong-based consultancy group named the Philippines as the second most corrupt country in Asia; the government’s own Ombudsman reported that massive corruption has cost the government a total P1.2 trillion (US$48 billion) in the last five years.

There are those, including President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who say that a shift from a presidential to a parliamentary form of government will lead to better governance.

But, for others, it remains arguable whether or not charter change will effectively address the problem of corruption in the country. At a recent roundtable discussion, two well-respected scholars offered different views.

Dr. Jose Abueva, political scientist and Consultative Commission chair, said an accountable and transparent leadership can be achieved under a parliamentary system of government.

But Dr. Clarita Carlos, also a political science professor, said she doubts if charter change will solve the problem of corruption.

The two spoke at a forum at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, organized by Transparency International-Philippines and the Center for People Empowerment in Governance.

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CIVIL-society groups have lauded last week’s announcement by the Senate of a P31-billion cut in the Malacañang-proposed P1.053-trillion national budget for 2006 in favor of additional allocations to basic social services, calling such efforts by the legislature’s upper chamber as particularly urgent in these times.

The Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC), Social Watch Philippines, Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP), Civil Society Network for Education Reforms (E-Net) and Kilusang Mangingisda also called on the senators to stand firm on the re-allocations promoting the country’s development needs in the face of an impending clash with the House of Representatives during the bicameral conference to reconcile differences in their budget versions, and a possible veto of the bill by the Executive.

Malacañang has already asked the Senate to reconsider its proposed budget cuts, which Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said, may prejudice the government’s crucial grassroots programs meant to “(increase) the fruits of economic reforms flowing down to the poor.”

Affected by the announced cuts in the 2006 budget proposed by the Senate are the:

• Kilos Asenso Support Fund amounting to P3 billion
• Kalayaan Barangay Program Fund amounting to P3.69 billion
• Compensation Adjustment Fund amounting to P13.1 billion
• P10 billion for the incentive package for employees availing of the Rationalization Program under the Pension and Gratuity Fund
• entire budget of the Presidential Commission on Good Government worth P65.53 million
• P2.72 billion of the budget of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC)

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THE San Francisco Chronicle has recently launched Pinoy Pod, a podcast channel for Filipinos in the Bay Area.

Heralding the first ever podcasting venture of a major American newspaper, the Chronicle calls Pinoy Pod “a bold experiment” and promises to connect the newspaper “very powerfully,” not only to the vibrant Filipino community in northern California, but “throughout the country and overseas.”

In its first podcast, Pinoy Pod airs poet Joey Ayala’s Tagalog version of America’s national anthem (and a couple of reactions to the tune.) The second segment is an interview with comedian Rex Navarette, who talks about his new sitcom, “Rex and the City.”

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AT the launch of the Ayos na Gamot sa Abot-kayang Presyo (AGAP) coalition early last week, Sec. Roberto Pagdanganan presented interesting facts about the state of the nation’s health vis-a-vis the growth of the Philippine pharmaceutical market.

As president and chairman of the Philippine International Trading Corp. (PITC), the lead coordinating agency tasked to “make quality medicines available, affordable and accessible to the greater masses of Filipinos,” Pagdanganan was among a few government officials who have publicly lent their support to the newly formed group’s initiatives.

Pagdanganan opened his presentation with a look at the health situation in the country as borne by the following facts:

• The Philippines is ranked 126th out of 191 countries in terms of “level of health.” (WHO Health Development Report 2000)

• The Philippines is classified as among countries where less than 30 percent of the population have regular access to essential drugs. (The World Drug Situation, WHO, 2000)

• An estimated 40 percent of Filipinos never get to see a doctor in their lives.

• The Philippines is ranked 84th out of 177 countries in the 2003 UNDP Human Development Index.

The country’s leading causes of illnesses are pneumonia, diarrhea, bronchitis, influenza, hypertension, respiratory tuberculosis, and heart diseases. On the other hand, the leading causes of deaths are heart and vascular system diseases, malignant neoplasm (tumor), pneumonia, accidents, and tuberculosis (all forms).

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SAYING the Internet is “a new frontier in the struggle for human rights,” Amnesty International (AI) has initiated a campaign against governments that attempt to repress online freedoms, as well as corporations that aid them in doing so.

“The web is a great tool for sharing ideas and freedom of expression,” AI said yesterday, as it launched Irrepressible.info, an online campaign to gather pledges against the repression of dissent through the web.

“However, efforts to try and control the Internet are growing. People are persecuted and imprisoned simply for criticising their government, calling for democracy and greater press freedom or exposing human rights abuses, online,” said the group, which is celebrating its 45th anniversary with the new campaign.

The campaign, AI says, aims to call attention to the various ways that the freedom to use the net is limited by governments.

The pledges that will be gathered will be presented at the United Nations conference, on the future of the Internet, set for November this year.

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DESPITE the slowing down of deforestation rates in the Philippines in the last three decades, most of the country’s forests are still at risk with only around 1.6 percent being managed in a sustainable way, a new study has reported.

The International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO), in a report released on May 25, said that recent community-based approaches to forest management in the Philippines have yet to succeed “in restoring the country’s degraded landscapes.”

The report, called “Status of Tropical Forest Management 2005,” says that of the estimated 4.7 million hectares of production forests — forest lands that are used for the production of timber and other forest products — only 76,000 hectares are sustainably managed.

Protection forests meanwhile, make up some 1.54 million hectares, bringing the total forest estate to 6.24 million hectares. The ITTO report says available data were insufficient to estimate the area of the protection forest that is being managed sustainably. (Protection forests are forests on fragile lands, and those protected for plant and animal biodiversity conservation.)

The report notes that the control of illegal activities — such as continued logging in areas of old-growth forests — “remains a major challenge and is one of the main obstacles to sustainable forest management.”

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President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said she remains “full of hope,” that the country will be able to move forward and catch up with the economies of the First World, and is thus worthy of investments in the financial markets.

“I come here today bullish on our prospects as a nation,” Mrs. Arroyo told the Financial Markets Association World Congress at the Philippine International Convention Center this morning.

The President talked about the creation of five million jobs in the last five years, the easing of inflation, the increase in exports, and a budget surplus that she said is the highest in nine years.

At the same time, Mrs. Arroyo said, such hope is “tempered by realism.” She said she recognized that widespread hunger and corruption, if unchecked, will hold back the country’s progress.

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“AMERICAN Idol” is, well, American. But Taylor Hicks, the top-rated show’s latest winner, dominates the front pages — and not just the inside or entertainment pages — of today’s Philippine Daily Inquirer and the Philippine Star. Carrie Underwood, last year’s winner, was not accorded the same treatment by the Inquirer the day after she won. It is, perhaps, indicative of the show’s growing popularity in the Philippines that “Philippine Idol” will be debuting soon, despite the proliferation of singing contests here.

Meanwhile, on Inq7.net, where the Inquirer’s stories are posted for online readers, three of the 10 most-read articles from May 14 to May 20, 2006, are related to “American Idol.” In fact, the number one article — about a contestant’s dissatisfaction with his ouster — had more readers than the story about the first Filipino to reach the summit of Mount Everest. It must also be noted that eight of the top 10 stories were showbiz-oriented ones. The remaining two stories were about the Mount Everest climbers.

SIGAW ng Bayan has reiterated its position against a bicameral parliament, saying huge amounts of government funds are wasted because of gridlocks in the present legislature.

The group, which is set to file a petition before the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on a plebiscite for a shift to a parliamentary system of government, today placed advertisements in dailies calling for support for its “people’s initiative” for charter change.

“So that the Filipino people will not be misled and misinformed, here is what we mean when we say: Abolish the Senate and the House of Representatives,” said the group. “Since the 13th Congress was inaugurated, 51 bills of national application and 708 bills of local application already approved by the House of Representatives have been gathering dust for months in the Senate.”

The group said the Senate’s “inaction” on those measures, “majority of which are urgent, is an absolute waste of people’s money.” It quoted newspaper reports saying the cost of each law enacted by the two chambers of Congress is almost P700 million.

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