No scholar left behind

THE expected passage of the Iskolar ng Bayan bill authored by Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano by Congress may have come at a good time but it is in fact long overdue.

Soon, the country will have 80,000 government scholars every year, courtesy of the Cayetano law. Effectively, it takes care of the annual commitments of senators and congressmen providing scholarships under their respective pork barrel funds, and more. If such a law had been adopted decades back, we would not be seeing thousands of scholars displaced today all because the pork barrel was deemed one of the roots of rampant corruption in the country and literally thrown out the window regardless of some positive benefits from it.

But even given what the Cayetano law promises, it behooves upon every local government unit to continue to craft its own scholarship programs in partnership with local schools and colleges. They must seek to work with business sectors and alumni associations for the regular updating of equipment particularly in communication and media technology to keep our students abreast of world trends in economic and social trends.

Without technology at our students’ fingertips in this day and age, even our scholars will have no chance at understanding and coping with the requirements of development on real time, particularly climate change, in their generation. They will be left behind.

Providing scholarship is one thing, making it work is another. That’s where communities, alumni associations and business sector come in.

 

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Pure Purisima

IF they could so easily sack chiefs of police in both Lingayen and Binmaley in Pangasinan, why not also the highest police official of the land?  Don’t we smell a double standard here?

National police chief Allan Purisima has been hit with plunder, unexplained wealth and direct bribery charges and, although he remains innocent until proven guilty, why can’t he have the decency to resign?  Look, did not the Prime Minister of South Korea, saying he was guilt-stricken himself, resign even if he had no hand whatsoever in the ferry sinking that killed scores of Koreans including high school students?

Unabated killings and kidnappings, mansions and swanky rest houses, not to mention business establishments and a Camp Crame White House – they all point to a smoking gun on Purisima.  But, alas and alack, instead of at least ordering his No. 1 policeman to “cool off in his San Leonardo mansion” in Nueva Ecija as was the suggestion, too, of Sen. Poe, President Aquino, the commander in chief, insists he has a “pure Purisima” under his command.

If that will wash, then we, the Boss, are doomed.

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