Agham

What we need in our legislative houses are people who will craft legislation and advocate national policies and programs that will advance science and technology for sustainable development and well-being of Filipinos and the country.

That is one of the objectives of AGHAM, a national sectoral organization that is seeking, at this point, accreditation from COMELEC, so it can field candidates for positions in the coming elections in May.

AGHAM, meaning Alyansa ng mga Grupong Haligi ng Agham at Teknolohiya para sa Mamamayan, Inc., is an organization of Filipino science and mathematics teachers, field and laboratory research technicians and laborers, extension agents, engineers, inventors, health professionals and science media practitioners. It includes "ordinary" Filipino citizens who strongly advocate a science and technology-explicit national development agenda.

It’s a non-stock, non-profit corporation registered with the Securities Exchange Commission, and seeking accreditation with COMELEC in the party list system. Word of the organization of AGHAM has attracted the science-minded. It has now 30 chapters nationwide, and counts as of this writing, 950 members. Its officers are Emil Q. Javier, former Department of Science Secretary and president of the University of the Philippines, president; former SEARCA and IRRI deputy general Fernando Bernardo, vice-president, and former UPLB chancellor Ruben Villareal, national coordinator.

Among the priorities of the organization are the establishment of science centers and museums nationwide and assisting and supporting Filipino science workers engaged in research and development, in invention and popularization of technologies and products. It wants to provide scholarships for young and bright students in science and mathematics, engineering and in the technical and teaching professions.

With representatives in Congress, AGHAM will work for realistic budgets for science, mathematics and technical education in the public schools and state colleges and universities. It will see to the implementation of the benefits under the Magna Carta for Science and Technology Workers (RA 8439), as well as support distance and open learning to broaden access to quality education.

Persons who want to become members of AGHAM can contact the National Capital Region Office, tel. (63-2) 7470288; Southern Tagalog Regional Office, 0926-6724255, and the national president Emil Q. Javier, at tel. 5360177 and 0915-5633071 or email [email protected]

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One still shudders upon remembering the stampede that occurred February 4 last year at the Philsports Arena, formerly Ultra. Seventy-one persons were killed and scores hurt as people made a dash for the gates before the opening of the noontime television show Wowowee. A year after that fatal accident, what has ABS-CBN done for the families of the victims?

This columnist had lunch with Fr. Carmelo Caluag, managing director of 71 Dreams Foundation, Inc., which was created by the television network president, Gabby Lopez, to assist the families of the deceased. The main goal of 71 Dreams, said the priest, is "to help individuals, families and communities who have less in life to fulfill their dreams." The partnership between ABS-CBN and the beneficiaries is to make the latter "self-sufficient, with a sense of autonomy, freedom, and most especially, gratitude – teaches them to fish rather giving them fish."

The partnership covers the areas economic, psycho-emotional, moral-spiritual, civic (good citizenship) and family. Accordingly, the foundation builds a network of "compassion and hope, a means towards personal and communal transformation and development."

A profile of the 71 deceased, one was a child, 67 female adults, and three male adults. The age category was one six years old; eight between the ages 31 and 40; 16, 41-50; 31 51-60, 134 61-70, and two above 71. Three of them were male and 68 female. That there were more female than male victims affirmed that many women are actually the family breadwinners.

The expenses of schooling members of victims’ families are taken care of by 71 Dreams Foundation. Thirty-five of them are in elementary schools, 28 in high schools, 17 in college (13 are taking two-year courses, and four, four-year courses), and one is enrolled in a special education program.

In the livelihood program, 29 partners graduated from a one-month livelihood training course. Twenty-six families received assistance in setting up sari-sari stores (with bigasan), a carinderia, a fruit stand, an auto surplus shop, a tire recapping shop, a cellphone repair/load retail outlet, balut and cigarette vending, owning and operating a pedicab, buying and selling of charcoal, and peanut vending.

Father Caluag and his staff (deputy manager Menchie Silvestre, and deputy director Vicky Libos, two case workers and an administrative officer and secretary) based at the ABS-CBN offices in Quezon City, were deluged with people claiming they were relatives of victims. Painstaking investigation by the staff sifted the chaff from the grain, however. One of the victims had no family, so the employer tried, but did not get, the compensation. In some cases, siblings of victims quarreled over who should manage the monetary compensation given by the Foundation.

The medical program had clients treated for respiratory problems and diabetes. Neuro-developmental assistance continues to be given to one child with mental retardation. Father Caluag said that home visits, counseling, family conferences and monitoring are extended. Intensive counseling is made among 11 families found to be engaged in child sexual abuse, wife battery and verbal abuse, infidelity, juvenile delinquency (vagrancy, gangs, petty crimes like stealing), teen problems (early sexual orientation/relationships), Overseas Filipino Worker issues such as incarceration, same sex relationships, and non-support), and family issues.

Last Christmas may have been the most plenteous for the poor families since the Foundation gave them Noche Buena gift baskets and items donated by corporations and individuals.

The day must come when the families should be self-sufficient, and not dependent on the Foundation for aid. For now, he said, "71 Dreams hopes and endeavors to be a low-key, focused, sustainable effort."

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SM Prime Holdings, Inc., through the SM Foundation, has adopted the Philippine Children’s Medical Center as one of the Felicidad Sy Wards. A neo-natal intensive care unit is an area in a hospital specializing in the care of ill or premature newborn infants. It provides better temperature support, isolation from possible infection, and specialized feeding to the newborn. It also provides mechanical ventilation for a number of days and cardiovascular monitoring.

Other Felicidad Sy Wards are the East Avenue Medical Center Neonatal Intensive Care Unit; Dr. Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital Children’s Ward and the Philippine Children’s Medical Center Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. To date there are 31 Wellness Centers of the Foundation, including hospice centers for the terminally ill and centers for the elderly. SM Foundation was founded in 1983 to support projects geared to promoting health and education.

The latest Felicidad Sy Children’s Wellness Center was inaugurated and turned over by SM Foundation Inc. to the Valenzuela General Hospital. The whole pediatric ward of the hospital, including its hallways and comfort rooms, was renovated and provided with equipment and furniture. The four-room pediatric ward is composed of an adolescent room for age group 13 and above; miscellaneous room for non-infectious illness; isolation room and gastro-enteritis room for diarrhea patients. According to Connie Angeles, SM Foundation, Inc. executive director, the conversion of the pediatric ward aims to ease the burden of both patients and hospital staff.

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