Ched should improve not only Nursing!

As the old legal saying goes, "Dura Lex Sed Lex", the law maybe harsh, but it is the law. Now as to the question of who has the authority to appoint the directors of the Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) whether it is Governor Gwen F. Garcia or Mayor Tomas Osmeña, let me just say that if the creation of MCWD was by an act of law; therefore its implementing rules and regulations (IRR) may have the effect of a law. So if according to the number of its subscribers it is now the Cebu Governor that appoints the MCWD Directors then so be it. But there's no stopping anyone from asking the Courts their interpretation of this case.

I have always believed that changing the appointing power from that of the Cebu City Mayor to the Cebu Governor will not bring about cheap and available water. Mind you, it won't make the MCWD efficient either. People ought to be aware that the protagonist in this tug-o-war in MCWD have totally missed the real issue plaguing the MCWD that it is horribly inefficient and the only quick fix solution for MCWD is to privatize this inefficient government body. A case in point is the Manila Water System (MWSS), which is run by the Ayala Corporation.

Yes, MCWD's left-leaning union leaders would go bananas just to hear the word privatization… because they tag profit-making as ugly. But look at the Visayan Electric Company (Veco) today or Salcon Power, Meralco or MWSS… all these utility providers have profit motives an are all privately owned companies, thus they cut down redundancy and inept employees and still make a profit, while serving its consumers.

MCWD is woefully inefficient and like what I've been saying long ago, all one has to do is see how MCWD fixes a manhole and you will see at least six workers fixing something. In most modern countries like the US, problems like those can be fixed by only two people with the right tools.

As for Gov. Gwen and Mayor Tommy, I don't believe that this issue would cause a rift between the two. I would like to believe that Cebu's two political leaders are above such minor issues. I would rather see the two of them make this decision in a closed-door session with their lawyers so that once and for all this problem doesn't end in a bitter rift that nobody wants. But I do know that there are certain people who are working behind the scenes who are hoping for a serious rift between the two. Let's hope smarter and cooler heads would prevail.

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Did we not say in this corner a couple of days ago that the nursing controversy wouldn't be over until it is final and executory? Apparently, the University of Santo Tomas (UST) has filed a motion for recon to the 1st Division of the Court of Appeals (CA) but I doubt if their move would be granted by the CA. I can understand why UST had to do this because rightly or wrongly, their students would still have to do a retake, while the rest of those in the Visayas and Mindanao won't have to do so.

With the Nursing controversy almost behind us, I admire the move by Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) to veer away from the nagging controversy and focus in making steps to ensure that there would be no repetition of last June's cheating scandal. Yes, my daughter Katrina Charmaine and her classmate are slated to take that examinations come December. You better believe that part of their prayers is not just to pass this examinations, but that no more untoward cheating incidents would plague them which would drag them down like the cheating in last June's exam leakage.

That's not all. Director Enrique Garcia, Regional Director of the Commission on Higher Education (Ched) in Region VII has vowed that he would recommend the closure of nursing schools whose performance was below 10 percent for the last five years in the licensure exams. I'm not a great fan of Ched, but for as long as they're the agency tasked to handle these matters, then so be it. I know that schools that opened to service students studying Computer Science have been converted to nursing schools to the detriment of the entire nursing program in this country.

We need to improve the standards for Nursing in this country so that graduates from the Philippines would always be prized by their employers. Ched should never allow them to bring down the world renowned Filipino Nurses. But Ched shouldn't stop there. We also need to upgrade our standards on Accounting or Engineering. After all, with Business Outsourcing Process (BPO) spreading to India including Cebu, we need a lot of Accounting graduates, and yes, a lot of welders for the Shipbuilding industry.

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