Playing with Fire
Probe on state universities sought
By Gonzalo Duque
WE are not excited about all this brouhaha about P-Noy’s boys being outsmarted by PGMA’s ballyhooed allies on the defeated (so far) Truth Commission of former Supreme Court Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr.
All that, as we are seeing in the convulsions pervading the national government, as published in the media, is a reflection of our divided country. Laban dito, santong paspasan doon, atakehan, ngasngasan, basingkawolan, antolaya, mga agagui?
We’re more interested on what path the Aquino government is going to do to get things moving for the country.
However we begrudge its alleged “political-ness,” if you can pardon the term, GMA’s allies are right in slamming the Truth Commission for singling out alleged irregularities in her government. Why not all, including those during Noynoy’s mother, FVR, Erap and Bung Ferdinand? But Marcos had his PCGG, which up to now has not produced conclusive findings. He must be laughing in his grave!
We’d advise P-Noy to get the best lawyers who can tangle with GMA’s Estelito Mendoza, otherwise, she’d die laughing all day long.
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We received lot reactions to our column last week criticizing the state colleges and universities when we said that they have been making a mockery of their mandate for competing with their private counterparts.
Irate individuals and groups sent us several dossiers denouncing abuses made by a state u in Lingayen where officials were feasting on the school’s purchasing functions. Ay grabe so naawat bna ayan makter ya lingkor, agagui. We simply said last week that these state colleges and universities were converting their privileges into self-imposed ones accorded their private counterparts, but here came a savage torrent of exposes that show grave and wanton abuse by a state university which should demand immediate and deep investigation because government funds are massively going private hands managing the school.
Our President, P-Noy, was perfectly right in stopping the establishment of state colleges and universities because they are unduly competing with their private counterparts and therefore defeating their very mandate of providing access to higher education. We argued that they were supposed to provide more scholarships and funding assistance to students in order to enable them to acquire higher education.
Letter writers sent us volumes of documents exposing age-old anomalies particularly in the misuse of public funds that could warrant imprisonment and public censure. Due to lack of time, we shall defer details on this account, but you can be sure the documents will reach the proper agencies. Those who are on the take should be worried, but the innocent can sleep well.
We shall soon make a position paper for the conversion of these so-called stage colleges and universities into public high schools to solve the chronic lack of classrooms. The correct policy is sana, one state college or university for one region. That, under the premises, would be the ideal set-up.
But the more we get into the subject, the more ugly facts are surfacing in these state schools’ elaborate, creative and enterprising operations. Abangan!
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