By Danilo P. Padua, PhD
April is the month for graduation exercises of schools under DepEd this year. It is a departure from the previous exercises of the recent years, as we are transitioning back to the former opening of classes in June.
And the following month unfortunately, it is also the unceremonious, unwilling, and maybe untimely graduation (probably, termination is the better term) of many re-electionists such as senators and congressmen. This is very evident in either their ludicrous performance or deafening silence, in recent televised Senate or congressional hearings in aid of re-election.
Such pitiful performances could be traced in part to how DepEd personnel, including teachers, handle their jobs. Look at this seemingly trivial thing which could give one a glimpse of how they treat little things. Last April 11, I accompanied by grandchild (from my wife’s family) to her school’s practice for the Commencement exercises. She was late as she and her mom visited the Health Center for an appointment.
I volunteered to take her to the practice, although the activity might have already been finished. True enough, the activity for their grade one section was just done with. Her class adviser was kind enough though to personally tutored the kid on what was practiced for the April 15th program. I had to patiently wait while the tutorial was done.
On our way back home, I casually flipped the pages of the graduation program paper handed to us by the teacher. To my surprise, the two first names of my grandchild was split, and in-between them is the real middle initial; one of the names was even misspelled. The family name was completely out of sight, nowhere to be found. To think that she is one of the 7 top students of her class!
We rushed back to the teacher and pointed out the error. She immediately admitted the mistake, saying that anyway it is just the program paper! No sorry at all. I was tempted to ask the teacher, if they are proof reading documents they made that will probably be archived or kept for posterity. Or, if they are evaluating properly whatever they had done in the school. I decided not to.
Such little things that are not given proper attention are testaments of how haphazardly the schools view things. No wonder, we are “kulelat” in the international assessment of our students-even in South East Asia.
Not yet late to reassess things and make necessary amends accordingly.
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It’s flabbergasting. The senate foreign relations committee hearings headed by Sen. Imee Marcos is blatantly not one for a hearing in aid of legislation, but in aid of re-election. It is also for 2 other things: one, to make PBBM look as though he is the cause of FPRRD’s incarceration at the ICC facility in The Hague, Netherlands; two, to show that some senators (at least 5 of them) are really not senators of the people but patently senators of the Dutertes.
Many legal experts, including Filipino lawyers accredited by ICC, have already explained that what happened to FPRRD was all legal. The former president even cautioned others that, “Don’t meddle with my ICC case”, and acknowledging that PBBM has no hand in his current case.
Anyway Sen. Imee was determined to have her show. Once she opened it, she was like a truck with a loose brake, apparently with the single purpose of discrediting her brother PBBM and hopefully enamoring herself to DDS voters. It showed in her three hearings.
Problem is, she was rebuffed even by FPRRD’s partner, Honeylette A., dismissing her show as “pa-ekek na lang yon “. What is more telling is the rebuke from the Senate President, Chiz Escudero who warned, “Don’t use the Senate for partisan politics platform”…The senate is an institution of reason and rule, it is not a tool to leverage for propaganda or self-promotion…He advised Imee to use her name, her title, her influence as a bridge towards unity, not a wedge or division. Well said.
Crack is showing in the Solid North?**
