Education as priority

MARCH 29 marks the start of the official campaign period for candidates for House of Representatives members and officials at the provincial, city and municipal levels.

Hopefully, as the candidates do the rounds of the communities, we will hear from them platforms with education development among the top items in their priority list. And the bigger hope is that the winning candidates will follow through with their campaign promises relating to the schooling of our children because the reality is, elected officials continue to pay lip service to education as a main concern.

Many local government units in Pangasinan still do not provide enough for the public schools’ basic needs and requirements, i.e., comfortable classrooms and amenities such as chairs and tables, sanitation facilities, functional libraries, science and computer laboratories, home economics center, additional allowances for teachers, and funds to cover costs for such activities as graduation rites. With the annual graduation period setting in this month, many public schools still require parents to pay for toga rentals and contribute for other expenses, when these should and could be borne by the LGUs. The cities of Makati and Taguig are showing the way how the education of children should be prioritized. The key to both cities’ model education programs is the political will of their elected leaders to allocate a significant part of the annual budget, and consistently increase this every year, to the public schools. The mayors of Makati and Taguig are also at the forefront of institutionalizing programs that will benefit the students, including scholarships and incentive schemes for outstanding graduates.

Our local politicians know that a learned citizenry is the foundation for a progressive locality but sadly, education has long been disregarded as a priority.

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Lone legitimate

IN a recent survey by the Social Weather Stations (SWS), Team PNoy (TP) leads UNA (United Nationalist Alliance) 9-3 in the senatorial battle.

TP is an alliance of candidates from the Liberal Party, Nacionalista Party, Nationalist People’s Coalition, PDP-Laban and Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino, while UNA is an alliance of Partido ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) and Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP) candidates.

TP’s Risa Hontiveros, Jun Magsaysay and Jamby Madrigal are out of the so-called Magic 12 for the May 13 polls. Grabbing their spots are UNA’s Nancy Binay, JV Ejercito ang Migs Zubiri. Binay is in 7th place, Ejercito 9th, and Zubiri 11th. If the election is held today, Binay, Ejercito and Zubiri will win together with TP’s Loren Legarda, Chiz Escudero, Alan Peter Cayetano, Cynthia Villar, Grace Poe, Koko Pimentel, Sonny Trillanes, Bam Aquino and Sonny Angara. Of the 12, only Poe is the legitimate rookie politician. The rest are either scarred politicians or from dynastic political families.

So, what’s new, pussycat?

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