Unsung heroes

One of the things that impressed me about then Liberal Party presidential candidate Benigno Aquino III was his openly advocating the use of one’s conscience in the matter of family planning method choices. It was quite interesting that the Church hierarchy did not lambast him in pastoral letters for his stance on freedom of choice, as it ferociously did when then Health Secretary Juan Flavier ran for the Senate.

Now President Aquino has made an important move by appointing as his health secretary, Enrique Ona, who headed the National Kidney Institute for 11 years. While family planning advocates had hoped that either then Health Secretary Dr. Esperanza Cabral or Dr. Jaime Galvez-Tan, both reproductive health advocates, would be chosen to head the Department of Health, they got the surprise of their life when the president appointed Dr. Ona. What a pleasant surprise.

 Secretary Ona announced soon after his appointment that he is promoting reproductive health as a means to ensure the health and welfare of the family.

As STAR health reporter Sheila Crisostomo reported in yesterday’s paper, Ona said that the department would conduct an information campaign on responsible parenthood by giving all possible options to achieve family size based on one’s desire and capacity.

This development — of President Aquino and Secretary Ona holding the same view about population growth and planning – is music to the ears into which had been drummed the ill-gotten message that only natural family planning is “morally” acceptable.

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Amidst the perennial problem of classroom shortage, the DepEd continues to make lemonade out of the lemons the system keeps sending its way. True to its mandate, the beleaguered department has exerted its best to accommodate all children of school age in more than 45,000 public schools across the nation.

According to former DepEd Secretary Mona Valisno who has been replaced by De La Salle Brother Armin Luistro, “We want all school-aged children to be in school, but this increases class size prompting us to do classes in shifts due to the lack of rooms.” She shared some of the creative solutions the Department has developed, in order to provide the opportunity for learning to as many children as possible.         

One option is to negotiate with private school owners to arrange for reasonable fees for deserving public school transferees. Another alternative is to support the private education of select public school students through an expanded Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education (GASTPE). Under GASTPE, graduates from public elementary schools are given the opportunity to continue their education in private high schools through P5,000 to P10,000 government subsidies. DepEd reports that they currently have a total of 720,000 beneficiaries. A P6 billion GASTPE budget is proposed for 2011 to reach the target of one million beneficiaries.

DepEd officials say that if this scheme cannot be accommodated by its miniscule budget, in the interim, the Department will also look into the option of offering tax incentives to private schools that accommodate and support public school scholars.

From my stand, the Herculean task of striving to provide quality education for every Filipino child, through a very limited budget, truly makes the DepEd one of our unsung heroes.

The good news is, some of the DepEd teachers who have performed above and beyond the call of duty so to speak, were bestowed the recognition and honor they deserve by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo prior to her leaving Malacanang. Aliah D. Macabangun of Daramba Primary School in Matungao-Poonapiagapo District, Lanao Del Norte, and Jean Solis and Jennifer Sarsuelo, both teachers in Paloc Elementary School, Compostela Valley, were conferred Presidential Awards during a special ceremony held at the Palace.

Unknown to most, as members of the Board of Election Inspectors (BEIs) in the recent National Elections, these three teachers (and others who remain in the background) performed heroic acts beyond the call of duty. Amid grave threat to life and limb, they were resolute in their sworn duty to protect our ballots. These teachers braved gunfire and harassment by lawless elements who violently stormed their precincts or ambushed their vehicles.

Other DepEd officials who were awarded by the former President were Assistant Secretary Jonathan Malaya, Prof. Pilar Bautista and Director Milagros Talinio for their work with the Presidential Task Force on Education.

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We received a report from Astana, Kazakhstan, that former House Speaker Jose de Venecia told some 2,000 Eurasian political and business leaders of “new reformist” Philippine President Benigno Aquino III as likely “to lift the economy, fight poverty, transform society, and drastically reduce corruption.”

De Venecia was addressing the third Astana Economic Forum, led by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, United Nations and World Bank officials, European economists and Nobel Prize winners. He said the Philippines and most of Asia “need an economic and moral revolution.”

De Venecia may not be in Congress anymore, but he’s been busy in the international community, representing his country and discussing with leaders about Asia, including the Philippines, needing an “integrated energy policy so that Central Asian and Eurasian oil and gas, like Arab oil, should be flowing to East and West-bound pipelines, to Asean, East Asia, south Asia, and Europe.”

De Venecia knows whereof he speaks, having been a former president of the Philippine Petroleum Association, and current chairman of the International Conference of Asian Political Parties, which is composed of some 300 ruling and opposition parties.

He spoke of the need for the Philippines and the Asian nations to align with the G-20 powers and target budget “deficit reduction” by 50 percent while protecting safety nets.”

He drew sustained applause when he recommended that Kazakhstan, which is as large as Western Europe, and rich in oil, gas, metals and uranium, be designated as “the 21st country in an enlarged G-20, to represent Central Asia.”

He said after the Arab world and Canada, Filipino hydro-carbon technicians and infrastructure engineers are being drawn to the giant oil fields of Kazakhstan in the Caspian Sea.

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Going back to the subject of education, parents may be interested to know they can now offer their tech savvy grade school children an exciting alternative for sharpening their math, science, language and reading skills. Since countless mothers have been worrying about the excessive amount of time their kids spend playing computer games, Abbott Nutrition developed Eye-Q Academy to provide children 3 to 10 years old with a fun and interactive educational experience online. Both parents and kids alike will certainly enjoy the puzzles, memory games and I.Q. challenges at www.eyeqacademy.com.

Celebrity mom Dawn Zulueta-Lagdameo says that she and son Jacobo particularly enjoy the game Wordbites in the Eye-Q Academy Activity Portal. She says it is a fun way for her son to learn about vowel sounds and spelling. Dawn adds that aside from finding creative ways to make learning fun and easy for Jacobo, she supports him at this crucial stage of visual and mental development with optimized nutrition.

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